Note to Virginia Tech, Loyola and Clemson: Fear the turtle.

A week after going toe-to-toe with No. 6 Navy, the No. 15 Maryland Terrapins gave the Penn State men's rugby team its best game this season, before eventually falling to the No. 4 Ruggers, 58-33.

With Penn State returning five key starters from injuries in Nic Grala, Justin Lotter, Steve Wallick, All-American Matt Miller and captain Auggie Manelick, the Ruggers were supposed to roll. Maryland decided to try and crash their party.

The Ruggers scored the first try of the match to go up 5-0, but the Terrapins proceeded to control the next 20 minutes.

Without much of its usual crowd due to Maryland's football homecoming game, the Terrapins couldn't hold onto the momentum and failed to put the game away, trailing at half, 31-21.

Behind the strength of seven consecutive tries, the Ruggers were able to recapture the early lead they held, and protected it for the remainder of the match.

"We had a letdown once we got up comfortably," Penn State rugby coach Don Ferrell said.

With the Penn State defense not playing as aggressively as the coaches had hoped, Maryland made one last run at the match, but in the end came up short.

As with its past few games, the Penn State offense once again clicked and was able to make up for its momentary lapses on defense.

Two of the returnees, Walilick and Lotter, paced the offense, contributing two tries to the effort. Also turning in notable performances were Miller and Grala. As with every game this season, Luke Roberts continued to shine from Penn State's back line.

Ferrell said the Ruggers would again focus on defense this week in practice as the two remaining opponents on the calendar are No. 16 Ohio State and No. 6 Navy.

"Not to say anything about [Maryland], but our errors gave them a couple tries," Ferrell said. "I would have liked not to give up so many points, but considering we gave them at least 14 of those, I'm pretty pleased."