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Following their jubilant win over Kentucky, the next game on the Farmers's schedule were the Aggies of Maryland -- Maryland Agricultural College, the predecessor of today's University of Maryland at College Park. Despite now being the primary athletic force in the state, the early yeats of the Old Liners were not kind; the Aggies* had not seen a winning season since their 1906 slate of games yielded a 5-3 record, and would not see one again until a resurgant 1912 season netted a 6-1-1 total.

Their 1909 season was no different: despite starting off the season with 34 men under the tutelage of former Cornell head coach Edward Larkins and returning head coach William Lang, "considerable enthusiasm," and 34 men trying out, many of them were new to the sport, and the team as a whole had little experience (The (Baltimore) Sun, September 21st, 1909, p. 10; The Triangle, Vol. 1 No. 1 (January 1st, 1910), p. 1). A lack of experience is how the students explained away their early-season losses to Washington, DC's Technical High School (0-11) and Richmond (0-12); it was, however, acknowledged that Johns Hopkins (0-9) and George Washington (0-26) were more respectable. The sole win of the Aggies' season through November was a 5-0 win over Rock Hill College of Ellicott City.

Maryland sources were not overly confident in a win, with their manager, M. E. Sydings, being quoted as saying "we are confident that we can put up a stubborn fight." The Farmers, on the other hand, were confident, being roughly equivalent (180 lbs) to the old-fashioned heft of the Aggy team. Additionally, the injury bug which afflicted the Farmers before their Kentucky game had mostly subsided, with the only player remaining out being Von Glahn, whose knee continued to be troublesome; he was ably replaced by Harry Mott (News and Observer, October 30th, 1909, p. 3) The Farmers even had the fortune of returning Mott, who had been sick for some time before the game (The (Raleigh) Evening Times, October 30th, 1909, p. 2).

* For this game description, "Aggies" always refers to MAC.

The game opened with A&M kicking off to Maryland. After a forward pass, the Aggies punted. After some time, the Farmers had the ball at Maryland's 35-yard line, where "Dutchy" Seifert made 20 yards on a forward pass from Stevens. With 10 yards to go, the Farmers failed to get a first down, giving the Aggies the ball on downs. Maryland instantly punted. Eventually, A&M brought the ball back to the Maryland 28, however a penalty on an end run by Stevens pushed the ball to the 35-yard line. From there, the Red and White executed a triple pass from Hartsell to Stevens to Bray, who caught the ball and ran 15 yards to cross the end line for a touchdown. Stevens missed the kick, putting the Farmers up 5-0 after 9 minutes of play.

The Aggies kicked off to A&M, who returned the ball to the 40-yard line. After a pair of 20 yard gains by Hartsell and Seifert, a forward pass advanced by the ball 15 yards to the Maryland 15 yard line. A second forward pass to Seifert netted the Red and White another 8 yards, and on the next play Keasler punched the ball through. Stevens successfully kicked the goal this time, putting the Mechanics up 11-0 after 14 minutes of play.

The order of drives printed in News and Observer differs slightly from that of The Evening Times and Charlotte Daily Observer, however given the concordance of the latter two sources, the following order of drives will be given. The Farmers kicked off to Maryland to start the next drive. Maryland punted the ball back; Hartsell picked up punt around the 40-to-50-yard line and ran it all the way back "through a broken field" for a touchdown. Stevens kicked the goal again, making the score 17-0; no indication of time was given, but it is unlikely to have been more than a couple of minutes.

At this time, Lassiter replaced Long at fullback. Maryland kicked off to A&M; Stevens then advanced the ball to A&M's 28-yard line. On the next play, the Farmers punted to Maryland, but the Farmers soon got the ball back, as Maryland punted back themselves. Eventually, "Cap" Lassiter started off A&M's scoring drive with a 30-yard run. A 12-yard pass to Seifert brought the ball to roughly the Maryland 25, however there the Aggies stiffed up and held the Farmers from advancing twice. Hartsell made a goal from field (field goal) to put the Farmers up 20-0. This took place 5 minutes after the last score.

In the closing minutes of the (probably) 25-minute first half, Maryland kicked off to Hartsell, who advanced it to his own 30-yard line. The Farmers advanced the ball well into Maryland's territory before attempting an onside kick, which was recovered by Maryland. After a volley of punts, Maryland's center, Ward, went to snap the ball for another punt; unfortunately, the snap sailed over Shipley's head and across the MAC goal line; a Maryland man fell on it, earning the Farmers a safety but preventing a touchdown, making the score 22-0. News and Observer described this play as taking place in the second half, however the other two accounts agree that this took place just before the end of the first half.

During halftime, Keasler was replaced by Glenn, Seifert was replaced by Robertson, and Floyd was replaced by Lucas. Maryland kicked off to A&M to open the second half off. In general, the Farmers made "many brilliant plays" but seemed unable to make the yardage when a first down was required from a combination of a heavy Maryland line and an array of penalties; this forced the Mechanics to repeatedly punt.

At one point in the series, a forward pass to Robertson failed, resulting in a touchback; curiously, the only report of the game which describes this event (The Evening Times) reports the ball being kicked off to A&M from midfield rather than the 25. Eventually by a series of line plunges the ball was advanced to Maryland's 15-yard line. On the next play, Stevens made fake end run around right end which allowed him to make a "well executed" forward pass over the line of scrimmage to Stafford, who secured the ball for the fourth touchdown of the day. This made the score 27-0 after 10 minutes of playing time after Stevens' goal kick missed.

Maryland kicked off to the Farmers again; during the break in time, Haynes replaced Stafford. A series of runs by Dunn, Lassiter and Stevens moved the ball to somewhere around Maryland's 45-to-32-yard line. From there, Stevens ran the ball the remainder of the distance and crossed MAC's goal line for a touchdown. Stevens then made the kick to make the score 33-0.

After a few more minutes of play, the game came to a close. Though inconsequential, reports disagree slightly about where the ball was, with News and Observer reported that the game ended with the ball on Maryland's 25-yard line, while Charlotte Daily Observer wrote that the game ended with the ball in A&M's possession around midfield (Charlotte Daily Observer, October 31st, 1909, p. 2; The (Raleigh) Evening Times, November 1st, 1909, p. 3; News and Observer, October 31st, 1909, p. 11).

The biggest difference between reports of the game was the length of the halves. News and Observer gave what I believe to be the most likely lengths of time, writing that the first half was 25 minutes and the second was 20. The report that was generally the most correct, Charlotte Daily Observer, reported that both halves were 20 minutes in length, however this does not give time for the final touchdown of the first half to have been scored, much less the safety. Finally, Evening Times reports that both halves were 30 minutes. While this is possible, it seems unlikely as that would mean the Farmers chose to make their longest game of the year to this point longer than needed at a time when they were already facing several injuries.

As noted in the introduction, Maryland played primarily the old style of football, resorting to punts "at all times" after A&M's line proved to be too stout to allow easy passage. A&M, on the other hand, emphasized the new "open style" of play and showed off a variety of trick plays, double passes, and "mystifying fakes" (The (Raleigh) Evening Times, November 1st, 1909, p. 3). Maryland never got closer than roughly A&M's 40-yard line; the Aggies blamed their poor performance on a variety of factors, including injuries to many of their players and the "effects of our long journey" (Reveille, 1910, p. 106). Despite the large score, it was reported that the game was "more interesting... than the score would indicate, owing to the open game played by the A. & M." (News and Observer, October 31st, 1909, p. 11).

Like in the Kentucky game, few Maryland players were mentioned as standouts. The only two lauded by News and Observer were Saunders and one of the Silvester brothers for their great ballplaying; The Evening News gave only one backhanded compliment, to Shipley, who was described as Maryland's star despite the paper also noting that A&M broke up as many passes as he completed. For the Farmers, the best work was done by Captain Bray (whose work at center "excelled that of any centre that has ever performed on the local gridiron," according to The Evening Times), Stevens (for his quarterbacking and running), Hartsell (whose running was praised), Seifert (for his work on the line and pass catching), Keasler (for his backfield work and line plunging), and Lassiter (for his work at fullback). Despite not being mentioned in many news sources, Stafford also garnered praise from The Evening Times.

MAC ended their season on a high note, winning at Gallaudet 14-12 on November 6th. The Aggies had games scheduled against rival St. John's, at Washington College of Chestertown, Maryland, and a Thanksgiving Day game at Eastern College of Virginia, however all of those games were canceled following a scarlet fever outbreak at the school which started on November 10th (The (Baltimore) Sun, November 11th, 1909, p. 11). The loss of the St. John's game was especially painful; as Reveille put it, "We had gained our winning form, and we already had one hand on St. John's scalp.... The fever deprived us of more victories, but our season was not indeed unsatisfactory" (Reveille, 1910, p. 106).