SNOW PATROL
Army beats Navy 14-13 on field more white than green
PHILADELPHIA — Just when you thought Army-Navy couldn’t get any more intense, it snowed. Then 60 minutes of bruising football came down to squinting through that snow to see where a long field-goal attempt would land.
Wide left. Cue the celebration for Army. The Black Knights are back.
Bennett Moehring narrowly missed a 48-yard field goal on the final play of Saturday’s game as Army held off Navy 14-13 to win the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy for the first time since 1996.
Army (9-3) earned its second straight win over Navy (6-6) after 14 straight losses in the series.
“We’ve got seniors in there that went 4-8 as freshmen and 2-10 as sophomores,” Army coach Jeff Monken said. “Now they’ve won 17 games in the last two years. Really an incredible change.”
After trailing most of the game, Ahmad Bradshaw pushed over the goal line on a quarterback sneak with 5:10 remaining, and Blake Wilson kicked the extra point to put Army ahead.
But Navy’s spectacular Malcolm Perry wasn’t finished. The quarterback, who ran for 250 yards on 30 carries and had a 68-yard score in the second quarter, led Navy to the Army 31 with three seconds left.
Navy elected to try a field goal, and after most of the Midshipmen on the field used their feet to clear the steady snow during a timeout, Moehring’s kick was long enough but drifted barely left.
“Came up a couple of feet short,” Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “This is a great rivalry. It was another classic game.”
Army cut its deficit in the series to 60-51-7 in a matchup of bowl-bound teams. The Black Knights earned the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy thanks to Saturday’s win and an earlier victory over Air Force.
“That trophy hadn’t been in our possession for 21 years,” said Monken, who’s in his fourth season at West Point. “To be able to accomplish that with this team is a great source of pride.”
In a game that included only three passes — Army completed its lone toss — the Black Knights produced a 13-play, 65-yard drive to take a late lead. John Trainor tiptoed the sideline for 8 yards on the play prior to Bradshaw’s 12th touchdown of the season.
Bradshaw also scored the go-ahead touchdown in last year’s victory over Navy.
“I actually don’t think I would’ve gotten in if not for my fullback and my offensive line,” said Bradshaw, who rushed for 94 yards on 21 carries. “I kind of stopped, but I felt like (fullback) Andy (Davidson) picked me up and kind of walked me into the end zone.”
Navy took advantage of the ensuing kickoff going out of bounds and moved down the field. Perry dropped a shotgun snap on fourth down at the Army 37, then picked up the ball and ran for a first down. Navy was flagged for two false starts on the drive, though, making the final field-goal attempt more difficult.
Snow started falling in the late morning on the 29-degree day. Workers used blowers to uncover the lines and hashmarks during timeouts as a light snow fell throughout, and the weather made one of the biggest rivalries in sports an even more physical contest between two teams with triple-option offenses. Army’s all-white uniforms — a nod to the 10th Mountain Division of World War II — served almost as camouflage in the snow.