Baltimore, MD (Sports Network) - Maryland held on 4th-and-goal from inside the two-yard line in the final minute to snuff out a 15-play drive and hold off Navy, 17-14, in the season-opening Crab Bowl for both teams.
Maryland (1-0) regained the lead at 17-14 on a 24-yard field goal by Travis Baltz with 7:50 left in the game. The Terrapins, coming off a 2-10 season, improved to 7-3 in season openers under head coach Ralph Friedgen.
Navy (0-1) then moved down the field methodically from its own 30-yard line before being blunted at the goal line. The Midshipmen controlled the ball for 39 1/2 minutes, running 82 plays and piling up 485 yards, including 412 on the ground.
Navy called time out prior to the decisive play and elected to go for the win. Quarterback Ricky Dobbs, on a keeper, was hit shy of the goal line and denied the potential game-winning score with 34 seconds to play, as Navy came up empty for a fifth time in seven tries in the red zone.
Dobbs completed 6-of-10 passes for 73 yards and carried 29 times for 63 yards while Vince Murray rumbled for 112 yards on 14 totes, Gee Gee Greene carried seven times for 74 yards and Andre Byrd added 54 yards on nine tries.
Trailing 14-0, Navy fashioned a nine-play, 64-yard march that was capped off by Byrd's 10-yard run around left end for a touchdown just 35 seconds into the second quarter.
Navy was driving for the tying score with under five minutes to go in the half before Dobbs was hit and fumbled inside the five-yard line, as Maryland recovered at its own six.
The Midshipmen made it inside the five-yard line again but ran out of time as the half expired as they were trying to line up for a field goal attempt. It was the third empty trip inside the red-zone for Navy in the first 30 minutes.
Dobbs fumbled again inside the one on the way to what looked like the tying touchdown for the visitors with about nine minutes left in the third quarter.
Navy finally got the game tied with 1:52 remaining in the third on a one-yard scoring run by Dobbs that capped off a seven-play, 76-yard drive.
Da'rel Scott took a pitch around left end and scampered five yards to the end zone to cap off an eight-play, 59-yard drive to put the Terps ahead 7-0 4 1/2 minutes into the game.
Davin Meggett ran for a three-yard score on Maryland's next possession to push the lead to 14-0 with just over four minutes left in the opening stanza. He finished as the Terps' leading rusher with 105 yards on eight carries.
Maryland quarterback Jamarr Robinson ran for 92 yards on 12 carries and went 2-for-5 for 11 yards throwing the football.
Navy leads the all-time series, 14-7, but this was just the second time the schools had met since 1965.