Abey’s 5 TDs help Navy dominate Virginia 49-7

ANNAPOLIS, MD. — Two quarterbacks put on a show for Navy in the Military Bowl.

Backup Zach Abey scored five touchdowns, starter

Malcolm Perry ran for 114 yards and two scores and the Midshipmen rolled to a surprisingly easy 49-7 victory over Virginia on Thursday.

After Virginia's Joe Reed took the opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown, the Midshipmen (7-6) got two TDs apiece from Perry and Abey in taking a 28-7 halftime lead.

Perry left in the third quarter with a foot injury, leaving Abey to score on runs of 5 and 20 yards to make it 42-7 in a game Navy entered as a 1½-point favorite.

The Midshipmen rolled up a Military Bowl-record 452 yards rushing, including 101 by Chris High and 88 by Abey, who began the season as the starter before losing the job.

"That's the best we've played all year," Navy coach

KenNiumatalolo said. "We put it together on both sides of the ball."

Going back and forth with Perry and Abey might be the way to go in 2018.

"They're both really good football players. I've got to find a way to use them both," Niumatalolo said. "Just what you saw today is probably what you're going to see next year."

After scoring on a 1-yard run with 11:11 remaining, Abey sat down after becoming the fifth player in FBS history to rush for five TDs in a bowl game.

Playing in their first bowl since 2011, the Cavaliers (6-7) could not contain Navy's triple option and had no success moving the ball. Virginia senior Kurt

Benkert came in with a school-record 3,062 yards passing this season, along with 25 touchdown passes. In this one, he went 15 for 34 for 133 yards and an interception, and the Cavaliers finished with a season-low 175 yards in offense.

Texas Bowl: Texas 33, Missouri 16

HOUSTON — Texas coach Tom Herman knows he has a long way to go to get the Longhorns where he wants them to be.

But finishing with the school's first winning record since 2013 following a 33-16 victory over Missouri in the Texas Bowl on Wednesday night certainly has them on the right track.

"It's really important for these guys to call themselves a winner," Herman said, "and to be able to walk around their hometowns over the next few weeks of Christmas break knowing they had a winning season. It wasn't going to be life or death. We would have been just fine next year, but this was a big step forward."

Freshman running back Daniel Young had 64 yards receiving with a touchdown and added 48 yards on the ground to pace Texas (7-6).

The Longhorns, in a bowl for the first time since 2014, bounced back from a loss to Texas Tech in their regular-season finale to finish with their first winning record since going 8-5 in coach Mack Brown's final season in 2013.

Shane Buechele and Sam Ehlinger split time at quarterback for Texas, and both players threw a touchdown pass. The defense helped out, too, with Anthony Wheeler scoring a TD on a fumble return in the first half and Davante Davis grabbing an interception with about three minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Armanti Foreman dashed 18 yards for a touchdown on the ensuing drive to extend the lead to 33-16 and put the game out of reach.

Michael Dickson, who won the Ray Guy Award as the nation's best punter, was selected the game's Most Valuable Player, making him the first non-offensive player to be Texas Bowl MVP and the second punter ever to win MVP of a bowl game, joining Florida State's Graham Gano, the MVP of the 2008 Champs Sports Bowl.

Dickson, who will forego his senior season to declare for the NFL draft, punted 11 times for 452 yards, with four landing inside the 5.