BALTIMORE — Navy football snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. There is no other way to describe what the Midshipmen did to somehow pull out a narrow win in the 126th edition of the Army-Navy Game.
Underdog Army dominated play on both sides of the ball for the better part of three quarters and held a nine-point lead. However, Navy stiffened defensively and scored the final 10 points to pull out an improbable win.
Quarterback Blake Horvath rushed for 107 yards and a touchdown and threw the game-winning touchdown pass as Navy beat Army, 17-16, on Saturday before a sellout crowd of 70,936 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
Senior snipe Eli Heidenreich had six receptions for 72 yards, with his last providing the winning touchdown with less than seven minutes left. Heidenreich ran a perfect slant route and Horvath hit him in stride for an 8-yard completion that tied the score. Kicker Nathan Kirkwood nailed the extra point attempt to put the Midshipmen ahead to stay.
“I’m super proud of our football team. It wasn’t the prettiest game today. We made a lot of mistakes — a couple turnovers, some missed opportunities, but really proud of our guys for finding a way,” Navy coach Brian Newberry said. “We were down at halftime, but our guys didn’t flinch. They kept battling and found a way to get it done in the end. It could have gone either way today.”
With the victory, Navy claimed the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy for the second straight season and extended its lead in the all-time series to 64-55-7. Navy (10-2) also reached 10 wins in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history.
“I’m happy as hell that we’re keeping the trophy in Annapolis. That’s where it belongs,” said Newberry, noting that Navy had not won the CIC two years in a row since 2012 and 2013. “Back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time in school history … we’ve been playing football around here for a long time so it’s a big deal.”
Horvath’s late heroics brought a happy ending to a game in which he did not play very well. He was responsible for two turnovers — a fumble and interception — and almost committed four as two of his fumbles were recovered by Navy.
“Blake didn’t play his best game. He had a couple turnovers and some missed throws, but it doesn’t faze him one bit. His ability to move on to the next play is uncanny,” Newberry said.
Quarterback Cale Hellums rushed for 100 yards and a touchdown to lead Army (6-6), which has now lost three of the last five meetings with Navy. However, Hellums threw a costly interception that led to the go-ahead touchdown.
Inside linebacker Coleman Cauley recorded 10 tackles to spearhead a Navy defense that buckled down in the second half, limiting Army to a field goal. The Black Knights had two punts and an interception on their final three possessions.
Sophomore safety Max Williams made his first career start and contributed seven tackles for Navy, which limited Army to 47 total yards in the second half. Sophomore end Julien Moutome had five tackles and a strip sack.
Newberry credited Army offensive coordinator for putting together a solid game plan and keeping Navy off-balance with a lot of shifting and motion. He praised defensive coordinator P.J. Volker for making halftime adjustments that worked out well.
“Coach Volker and the defensive staff did a nice job of getting our guys settled down. We made a couple changes then came out in the second half and played really, really well — gave ourselves a chance to win the game. I thought defensively in the second half we were lights out,” Newberry said.
Army could not have scripted a better first half as it hogged the ball and limited Navy to just three possessions. Factor in a three-and-out and turnover by the Midshipmen and things went exactly to plan.
Navy delivered an ideal drive to start the game, moving 75 yards in 13 plays and taking 7:45 off the clock. Horvath took a keeper up the middle 5 yards for a touchdown as the Mids took an early 7-0 lead.
Navy converted on third down three times with Horvath completing an 11-yard pass to Heidenreich and rushing for 9 yards. His touchdown trot also came on third down.
Army answered in impressive fashion, putting together its own 13-play, 75-yard touchdown march. Hellums broke loose for a 26-yard run to get the ball into enemy territory and the Black Knights kept getting tough yards on the ground until reaching the end zone.
Army converted a fourth-and-2 situation deep in Navy territory then a facemask penalty on outside linebacker Jasxon Campbell brought the ball to the 10-yard line. Hellums picked up that in two plays, diving over from 2 yards out as the Black Knights tied the score at 7 with five seconds elapsed in the second quarter.
Horvath was thrown for a 2-yard loss on first down and Navy went three-and-out on its second possession. Jacob Carlson delivered a poor punt that only traveled 32 yards, giving Army a victory in the field position battle.
Hellums then directed a 14-play, 63-yard drive that took nearly nine minutes off the clock. Facing third-and-long, Hellums completed a short pass over the middle to slotback Noah Short, who eluded a tackle attempt and picked up considerable yards after the catch for a 21-yard gain into Navy territory.
The Black Knights converted on fourth down two more times on its second possession, which came up short and resulted in a 20-yard field goal by Jones, making it 10-7 with 3:45 left in the first half.
Navy was on the verge of a second straight three-and-out when Horvath completed a 21-yard pass to Heidenreich on a crossing route. The Mids had first down at the 27-yard line of the Black Knights when things fell apart.
Horvath took a shot at the end zone on first down and is luckily that pass wasn’t picked off as it hit the back of an Army defensive back covering snipe Brandon Chatman. Offensive coordinator Drew Cronic called another pass play on second down. Horvath wound up to throw, then thought better of it and halted his motion, losing control of the ball.
Defensive end Jack Bousum recovered the fumble just shy of midfield. Replay review upheld the ruling on the field and Army took over with 20 seconds still on the clock.
“That was unfortunate. I was trying to go to a different read and the ball slipped out,” Horvath said.
Hellums immediately completed a 14-yard pass to Brady Anderson along the sideline and he quickly stepped out of bounds. That play proved critical to Army getting an opportunity to kick a 45-yard field goal, which Jones drilled right down the middle to make it 13-7 at halftime.
Horvath’s fumble possibly produced a six-point swing as Navy had been in field goal position.
“It went about as well as it could have for them in the first half. It wasn’t a great start for us, for sure,” Newberry said.
Things got worse for Navy on its first possession of the second half. A 53-yard punt by James Wagenseller pinned the Midshipmen down at their own 11-yard line. Two running plays went nowhere and Horvath tried to convert the third-and-long through the air.
Horvath threw behind Heidenreich, who reached back to try to make a spectacular catch and instead tipped the ball right into the hands of cornerback Justin Weaver. It appeared Weaver returned the pickoff for a touchdown, but replay review ruled that his knee was down at the time he caught the ball.
Army was unable to pick up a first down, but still got a 48-yard field goal from Jones to increase its lead to 16-7 at the 9:39 mark of the third period. Jones just barely dropped the ball over the upright for his third field goal of the game.
“That was not a well thrown ball,” Horvath said of the interception. “Fortunately, the defense made a big stop and picked me up.”
Navy responded as Horvath broke loose for a 37-yard run up the middle on third-and-four. Horvath broke several tackles in weaving his way downfield to the Army 21-yard line. The Midshipmen picked up another first down before the drive stalled and they had to settle for a 21-yard field goal that cut the deficit to 16-10.
Bousum made another big play early in the fourth quarter, exploding off the ball and shooting the gap to get into the backfield in seemingly a split second. He then shoved fullback Alex Tecza into Horvath to cause a sack. That 10-yard loss pretty much put an end to that possession and Navy had to punt.
However, Navy quickly got the ball back as cornerback Phillip Hamilton picked off a poorly thrown pass by Hellums at midfield.
Navy took advantage of the turnover thanks largely to a nifty 24-yard run by Tecza, who burst through a big hole on the right side then cut back to make a defensive back miss before being dragged down from behind at the 5-yard line.
Disaster almost struck on second down from the 1-yard line as Horvath had the ball stripped while trying to fight his way into the end zone. Heidenreich alertly hustled into the backfield to recover the ball, but the 7-yard loss was costly.
“That ball was sitting on the turf forever. Their guy picked it up and we made a great effort play knocking the ball out of his hands then jumping on the football,” Newberry said.
Army outside linebacker Eric Ford was scooping the ball up, but Tecza dove to knock it out of his hands, which enabled Heidenreich to recover the fumble.
An incomplete pass on third down forced Newberry to make his biggest decision of the game. He elected to go for it on fourth-and-8, a gutsy call to say the least.
“I kind of felt like we had to at that point. The nature of what they do offensively, we might not get the ball back,” Newberry said. “If you don’t get it there, at least they’re backed up a bit and we have three timeouts. I felt like we had to go right there.”
Offensive coordinator Drew Cronic drew up the ideal play with Horvath hitting Heidenreich in the end zone on an inside seam route to tie the score. Kirkwood kicked the extra point and Navy regained the lead, 17-16, with 6:32 remaining in the game.
Army proceeded to go three-and-out on the subsequent possession — going backward because of a holding penalty on running back Samari Howard, who dragged down outside linebacker Luke Pirris in the backfield.
Navy took possession at the 38-yard line with 4:50 to go and proceeded to pick up a pair of first downs while forcing Army to use its final two timeouts. Disaster almost struck again on third-and-3 as Horvath lost the ball on a keeper.
However, Horvath caught the fumbled ball out of midair and reached it behind his head trying to stretch for the first down. Officials initially ruled that Horvath fumbled again while going to the ground and that Army recovered.
However, replay review showed that Horvath slammed the ball down to the ground and therefore the ruling of a fumble was overturned. Afterward, Horvath acknowledged he was fortunate to be able to grab the ball out of the air after it had been dislodged by Army inside linebacker Kalib Fortner.
“It was a second of like ‘Oh crap!’ [Fortner] put his head right on the ball. It just bounced right back up and I was able to grab it. That’s how football goes. Some days it bounces back to you and some days it doesn’t,” he said.
That set up fourth-and-1 from the Army 40, and Newberry once again decided to go for it. Navy used beefy nose guard Landon Robinson as a lead blocker as Tecza gained 2 yards to pick up the first down and effectively end the game.
