Army holds on to edge Eastern Michigan

Ahmad Bradshaw rushed for 171 yards and one touchdown, Darnell Woolfolk broke a fourth-quarter tie with a 13-yard run, and James Gibson made a dramatic goal line tackle on a two-point conversion attempt in the final minute as Army held off Eastern Michigan 28-27 on Saturday.

A week after winning for the first time on the road, Army (5-2) kept its perfect record at home intact after four games.

“Every win is important. Every time you have a chance to get a victory it means something,”

Army coach Jeff Monken said. “To be able to overcome adversity, that to me is really important. We were able to find a way to make a play.”

Eastern Michigan (2-4) has lost four straight, and all have been one-possession games.

“There’s nobody excited about anything in our locker room right now,” Eagles coach Chris Creighton said. “We’ve played six games, and five of them have essentially come down to the last play. We’ve won one, but we’ve been on the short end of the stick on the other ones. Our guys believe that we’re going to win, so these sting pretty good.”

Bradshaw guided the Black Knights on a decisive 16-play, 83-yard drive that took 8:59 off the clock in the fourth quarter, all on

the ground. Bradshaw’s 13yard run set up Woolfolk’s touchdown run with 5:06 left.

The Eagles tried to knot the score and nearly did. Backpedaling against the Army rush, Brogan Roback somehow completed a 17yard pass to Jaron Johnson along the right side on a fourth-and-3 play to keep EMU’s final drive alive.

A pass interference call against Gibson gave the Eagles a first down at the Army 23 with 2:05 left and Roback hit Sergio Bailey for an 8-yard TD on a fade to the left corner in the final minute.

Then came the fateful decision.

“We needed to score, and we decided that if it was tied at the end we would go for two,” Creighton said.

After two timeouts, Roback’s two-point conversion pass into the end zone was batted away by Army’s Mike Reynolds and the Black Knights jumped on

one another in celebration. But Creighton had called his final timeout before the snap, giving the Eagles another chance.

“We were out there celebrating and all of a sudden the bubble is burst,” Monken said. “Our guys just regrouped.”

Gibson foiled the twopoint conversion on Roback’s pitch left to Ian Eriksen. Gibson dove low as Eriksen approached the goal line and sent him somersaulting up and forward, but his shoulders landed inches short.

“I didn’t know what happened,” Gibson said. “I just looked up.”

Army’s triple option kept the ball for more than 37 minutes and racked up 413 yards rushing, depriving Roback of more chances. He finished 19 of 27 for 229 yards and four touchdowns. Bailey had eight catches for 99 yards and Eriksen finished with 107 yards rushing.

After the Eagles had a touchdown pass nullified by a holding penalty in the third quarter, Bradshaw, who posted his ninth 100yard game and fourth this season, broke a 69-yard run and Connor Slomka completed the drive with a 2-yard scoring run to put Army up 21-14.

The Eagles knotted the score on Roback’s 8-yard touchdown pass to Mathew Sexton early in the fourth.

Neither team was able to stop the other in the first 24 minutes of play until Army put the brakes on the methodical play of Roback, who was 11 of 13 for 141 yards and two touchdowns to that point. The Black Knights foiled three straight pass plays, holding the first two completions for no gain and forcing an incompletion with a blitz on third down.

That forced the Eagles to punt for the first time, but the Eagles returned the favor, allowing Army one first

down before forcing the Black Knights to punt.

Eastern Michigan took a 7-0 lead on Roback’s 15-yard pass to Bailey and Army responded with a 14-play, 93yard drive capped by Bradshaw’s 10-yard run.

Roback hit Antoine Porter for a 45-yard touchdown over the middle, Porter

dragging Army safety Max Regan the last couple of yards into the end zone for a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter.

The Black Knights tied it on Kell Walker’s 17-yard run midway through the second quarter as the teams entered the locker room at halftime tied at 14-all.