A year after watching from the sidelines as Navy lost in agonizing fashion to Army, Blake Horvath propelled the Midshipmen to a 31-13 victory over the No. 22 Black Knights, on Saturday in Landover, Md.
Horvath had two touchdowns passing and two rushing. The junior quarterback carried 25 times for 204 yards as Navy (9-3) snapped a two-game losing streak in the 125th edition of the storied rivalry.
The Midshipmen also secured the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, the annual prize awarded to the school with the best record in inter-service academy play.
With President-elect Donald Trump in attendance, Navy led all the way and improved to 63-55-7 in the series.
“We still got a football team in Annapolis,” Navy’s second-year coach Brian Newberry said immediately afterward.
Army (11-2) was coming off a 35-14 romp last week over Tulane in the American Athletic Conference championship game, while Navy had the week off.
The Black Knights entered as the top rushing team in Division I, averaging 314.4 yards per game. But the Midshipmen limited them to 113 yards on 39 carries.
Landon Robinson led the Navy defense with 13 tackles and a forced fumble. The 6-foot, 285-pound Robinson also ran 29 yards on a fake punt, setting up a clinching fourth-quarter touchdown.
Army quarterback Bryson Daily, who entered with 1,480 rushing yards and 29 rushing touchdowns, carried 19 times for a season-low 52 yards. He also threw three interceptions after entering the game with just one.
Horvath, meanwhile, was the game’s dominant player. He earned the starting job for the Midshipmen in the middle of last year before suffering an injury that sidelined him as Army stopped Navy at the 1-yard line on its final possession of a 17-11 loss.
On Navy’s first possession on Saturday, Horvath directed a 65-yard touchdown drive which he capped with a 1-yard scoring dive to put Navy up 7-0.
Early in the second quarter, Navy’s Dashaun Peele had an interception which set up a 21-yard touchdown play as Horvath threw to wide-open Brandon Chatman after a run fake to give the Midshipmen a 14-0 lead.
Army answered with a similar play to cut the deficit in half as Daily faked a quarterback draw, stepped back and threw a 23-yard jump pass to Hayden Reed for a touchdown.
After Army’s Trey Gronotte kicked a 39-yard field goal to cut Navy’s lead to 14-10 in the third quarter, the Midshipmen answered quickly.
Eli Heidenreich caught a pass in the flat, slipped away from a defender and streaked up the sideline, diving into the end zone on a 52-yard play that put the Midshipmen up 21-10.
In the final nine minutes, Navy extinguished Army’s hopes as Luke Pirris and Kenneth McShan had interceptions.
–Field Level Media
