Navy quarterback accounts for all four touchdowns, while the Midshipmen shut down Army’s nation-leading running attack in 31-13 victory.
Army’s football team came into Saturday’s 125th meeting with Navy ranked 22nd in the College Football Playoff rankings. The 11-1 Black Knights had a rushing offense ranked first in the country and a defense ranked seventh in points allowed and 10th overall.
But as often is the case, statistics are thrown out that window when these two teams meet. And that was definitely the case Saturday at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., in the first Army-Navy Game presented by USAA that featured The American Legion as an associate sponsor.
Navy junior quarterback Blake Horvath accounted for all four of his team’s touchdowns while surpassing 200 yards rushing, while the Midshipmen (9-3) stymied Army’s ground attack. The combination of those two – and a key fake punt in the fourth quarter – keyed Navy’s 31-13 win to secure the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy. The win ended a two-game slide in the series for the Midshipmen.
“I couldn’t be more proud or happy for our players, our seniors,” Navy coach Jeff Newberry said. “We talked about leaving a legacy this year, and they’ve certainly done that. You want to be the class that got things turned around here at the academy, and they’ve certainly done that.
“We talk about playing fast and free without fear of failure. Importance of execution over emotion. I thought we did that more the most part today, and I thought we did it in a convincing way over a really good football team.”
Getting on the field for the first time ever against Army, Horvath ran for 204 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries and completed 4-9 passes for 107 yards and two more scores.
“Blake Horvath is a special young man and one of the toughest kids that I know,” Newberry said. “He’s battled through some really difficult injuries this year, and we weren’t sure if he was going to be able to play in this game. I thought he played extremely well today. He makes it go. He makes the engine go for sure.”
Army came into the game averaging 314.4 yards on the ground but never got on track against the Navy defense, managing just 113 yards on 2.9 yards per carry.
Quarterback Bryson Daily – who’d rushed for 1,480 yards and 29 yards and passes for another 877 yards and eight more scores – was held to 52 yards on 19 carries and 65 yards on 7-16 passing. Navy picked him off three times.
“It’s hard to lose that game,” Army coach Jeff Monken said. “That one hurts a lot, especially when the trophy’s on the line and we’ve got a chance to keep that trophy at West Point. We didn’t do it.
“It’s been a good season. When you lose this game there’s nothing great, tremendous, outstanding or stupendous about it. It frankly makes the season a bit of a disappointment. That’s just the truth of this game.”
Navy set the one on its first possession, moving 65 yards on 12 plays – keyed by a 31-yard screen pass from Horvath to Alex Tecza that would set up Horvath’s 1-yard touchdown.
The lead would grow to 14-0 early in the second quarter after Dashaun Peele picked off Daily at the Army 44-yard line. Three plays later, Horvath hit Brandon Chatman on an 18-yard wheel route for the score.
Army would close to 14-7 at halftime on a Daily 23-yard scoring pass to Hayden Reed and draw closer in the third following Trey Gronotte’s 39-yard field goal.
But on the ensuing possession, Horvath would hit Eli Heidenreich on a short pass on the left sideline that Heidenreich turned into a 52-yard catch-and-run score for a 21-10 lead.
Another Army field goal closed the gap to 21-13 16 seconds into the fourth quarter, and the Black Knights looked like they had Navy on the verge of punting at midfield.
But instead, the ball was snapped directly to 278-pound nose guard Landon Robinson, who rumbled 29 yards to the Army 27. He fumbled as he went to the ground, but teammate Colin Ramos recovered to maintain possession.
Horvath ran for 19 yards on the next play, setting up what would his second 1-yard score of the game with just 8:52 left in the game. The Midshipmen would tack on a field goal to close out the scoring.
“It was hard to watch on the sideline the past two years,” Horvath said. “You want to be able to control it and leave my mark on the game. I’m so proud of everybody. We played hard today, and we wanted it more.”
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