Terps' turnovers help Hawkeyes stay undefeated

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Iowa's quest for an undefeated season took another step forward.

The Hawkeyes remain without a loss and improved to 8-0 with a 31-15 win over the visiting Maryland Terrapins on Saturday afternoon in Iowa City.

Iowa got three rushing touchdowns from three different ball-carriers and an 88-yard interception-return touchdown, capitalizing off four Maryland turnovers en route to yet another victory.

Marshall Koehn missed a field goal early, but the Hawkeyes turned a Brandon Ross fumble into their first points, with LeShun Daniels pounding into the end zone to make it a 7-0 game.

In the second quarter, Akrum Wadley followed up his four-touchdown performance from two weeks ago with a touchdown run to make it a two-touchdown lead.

[MORE BIG TEN: Purdue scores 55 points to send Huskers to their sixth loss]

And when Maryland had to punt from its own end zone late in the second quarter, Iowa blocked the kick and took over inside the red zone. Shortly thereafter, Derrick Mitchell rushed in for a touchdown to make it a 21-0 game.

Maryland quarterback Perry Hills threw an interception in the first half and two in the second half. The second of those came with the Terps threatening to make it a 10-point game in the fourth quarter, Hills throwing the ball right at Iowa defensive back Desmond King, who intercepted his nation-leading seventh pass of the season and sprinted back 88 yards for a back-breaking touchdown that made it 31-7.

Terps return man extraordinaire Will Likely took the ensuing kickoff back more than 100 yards for a touchdown, and Maryland cashed in on a two-point conversion to bring the deficit to 16. But the Iowa defense stood tall the remainder of the game and prevented any further damage.

[SHOP BIG TEN: Get your Hawkeyes gear right here]

Neither team reached 300 yards of offense, and Iowa totaled just 110 yards on the ground. But the quartet of Iowa turnovers made all the difference, as two of the Hawkeyes' touchdowns came off turnovers.

Hills rushed for 104 yards and threw a touchdown pass, but he also only accumulated 74 passing yards and threw three interceptions, bringing the season total for picks by Maryland quarterbacks to 23.

Iowa, currently ranked No. 10 in the country, improved to 8-0 with the win and remains on track to finish the regular season undefeated and punch a ticket to the Big Ten title game. Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue and Nebraska — four teams with a combined 13-19 record — remain on the Hawkeyes' schedule.

Maryland dropped to 2-6 overall and 0-4 in the conference with the loss, their second in two games since head coach Randy Edsall was fired.

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