The last time Lance Ball played at Rutgers Stadium, he was wearing a Teaneck High School jersey and it was his sophomore year during the state championship game.

Seven years later, Ball returns to the birthplace of college football looking for a happier ending than a loss in a New Jersey state championship game. This afternoon at 3:30, Ball will lead his Terrapins (2-2) into one of the team’s biggest games of the season when it faces No. 10 Rutgers (3-0) in a nationally televised game on ABC.

“I’m excited to go back to Jersey to play. It’ll be a great feeling,” Ball, a senior at Maryland, said. “It will kind of be a home crowd for the visiting team.”

Ball said he will have about 20 friends and family members in attendance to watch him climb toward the 2,000-yard mark for his career. Coming into Saturday’s game — the first between the schools since 1942 — Ball needs just 110 yards to become the ninth 2,000-yard rusher in school history.

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“Lance has been a tremendous player for us. He’s had a great career at Maryland. He’s a leader,” Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen said. “I’m very proud of Lance Ball, I’m very happy he’s in our football program.”

This season, Ball has rushed for 173 yards and two touchdowns while sharing carries with Keon Lattimore. He is used mostly in short-yardage and goal-line situations, but will occasionally take over when Lattimore needs a rest.

Last week, Ball had 14 carries for 56 yards and scored the Terrapins’ first touchdown on a 12-yard dash up the middle. However, the team was stifled in the fourth quarter and Maryland suffered a 31-24 loss in overtime after leading 24-3 with a little more than a minute left in the third quarter.

“Guys were down for a couple days: I’m not going to lie, I was,” Ball said. “It’s been on my mind. You gotta push through it. You can’t go back and change the past. You just gotta look past it and get ready for this week.”

Now, the Terrapins have to face a much better defense than it did at Wake Forest. The Scarlet Knights boast the third-ranked total defense in the country, albeit against the lighter part of their schedule. Led by senior defensive tackle Eric Foster, they have not given up more than 50 yards rushing to an individual back this season and have outscored their opponents, 138-27.

“Foster is big and quick, he’s an excellent player,” Friedgen said. “I don’t see a whole lot of weaknesses, they’re probably the best defense that we’ve played.”

The Terrapins need strong performances from Ball and Lattimore to compete with Rutgers Saturday. The duo is second in the Atlantic Coast Conference, averaging 102.3 yards per game.

“We’re there for each other: If one gets tired we tap the other one out,” Ball said. “We just gotta go out there and pick ourselves up — continue to get better. We gotta go out there like we won the game [against Wake Forest], we can’t let it bring us down.”