Lavatai leads Navy to upset over Army
Navy had its way with Army. It was good, aggressive, lucky and most of all angry with the idea the Black Knights had turned the tables in one of college football’s biggest rivalries.
Quarterback Tai Lavatai ran for two touchdowns and Navy’s defense limited Army to 57 second-half yards and a season-low 232 overall in a 17-13 victory Saturday in a game played at the Meadowlands to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The win more than made the season for Navy (4-8), which faced 11 bowlbound teams, tops in the nation. It also gave the Midshipmen only their second win in the last six games with their biggest rival, and they were not averse to boasting about it.
“We’ve faced a lot of adversity this year and guys keep consistently coming back and battling and not giving up,” senior linebacker Diego Fagot said. “Regardless of the score, we’re going to keep playing as hard as we can. We pride ourselves on that. I mean, I can’t say enough about how they think they’re the last of the hard. But it’s just not the case. They’re our little brothers.”
Navy dominated against bowlbound Army (8-4) after giving up an early touchdown. It outgained them 278 yards to 232, including 196-124 on the ground against the nation’s No. 2 rushing offense. The Mids held the ball for 34:25 and converted three big plays, including a fourth-down, fake punt in the fourth quarter that wasn’t supposed to be a fake punt.
“It is good to be lucky,” Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said of the 4-yard, first-down run by Fagot that set up Bijan Nichols’ 43-yard field goal and kept alive a nearly nine-minute drive.
The up-back on a punt, Fagot said he made a line call because Army overloaded one side. Freshman center Ethan Nguyen mistook it for a fake call and Fagot got the first down despite being hit in the facemask with the snap.
“I mean, as a linebacker, you kind of already have tunnel vision, so I wasn’t really expecting it,” Fagot said. “So when I caught it, I just, I just started running straight.”