Navy Suffers Another Heart-Breaking Loss; This Time To Houston, 24-14
HOUSTO
N, Tx. – In Houston Friday afternoon, it was a tale of two different halves for the Navy Midshipmen.
Unfortunately for Navy (6-5 overall; 4-4 American Athletic Conference), they would dominate the first half, while the Houston Cougars (7-4 overall; 5-3 American Athletic Conference) would score 17 unanswered points in the second half and defeat the Midshipmen, 24-14.
From the opening kick-off, Navy had it’s scoring opportunities. They would drive down to the Houston 23-yard line and settled on the leg of PK Brent Moehring to get them on the scoreboard first. But, Moehring missed his 40-yard field goal attempt and it remained scoreless.
The teams would trade punts before Houston would strike on their second drive. Starting on their own 32, the Cougars would only need six plays to go 68 yards for pay dirt, capped off by RB D’Eriq King’s 9-yard touchdown run, giving Houston a 7-0 lead with 2:21 left in the first.
Navy would answer on the very next possession. A touchback started the Mids on their own 25. Four rushes later for a total of 24 yards and they would end the first quarter with a 1st and 10 at their own 49. As the second quarter started, it would be another four plays, ending with RB Malcolm Perry running for a 12-yard touchdown run and the score was tied 7-7 with 13:42 left in the half.
On the ensuing kick-off, Houston’s John Leday would fumble Moehring’s kick and Navy would recover at Houston’s 21-yard line and an excellent opportunity to take the lead. They would drive all the way down to the Houston 2, but on a 4th and 1, QB Zach Abey’s rushing attempt was stopped for no gain and the Midshipmen turned the ball back over to the Cougars.
Houston was unable to mount any kind of drive and punted back to Navy and this time, the Midshipmen would make the most of their opportunity and turn it into a quick scoring strike. Just three plays was needed (a 40-yard pass from Abey to TE Tyler Carmona, a Perry two-yard run and RB Anthony Gargiulo would rush the final 13 yards) and Navy found itself leading for the first time, 14-7. That lead would hold for the rest of the half.
About two-thirds through the third quarter, Houston would even the score on a very long, 14-play drive that would see the Cougars go 90 yards and eat up more than five and a half minutes of game time, ending with King’s second rushing touchdown of the game, this one a 2-yard run, and it was 14-14 with 3:27 left in the third.
Navy could only muster 19 yards on seven plays and had to punt back to Houston just 22 seconds into the fourth quarter. Houston returned an early Navy favor and would answer with a quick strike of their own.
Just three plays into their drive when Cougars QB Steven Dunbar would hit a wide-open King and he would scamper 61 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. With exactly 14 minutes left in the game, Houston re-took the lead, 21-14.
The Midshipmen had no offensive answers at all in the second half and on their next drive, again, they could only advance the ball 19 yards and were forced to punt once again back to the Cougars.
Houston’s next possession stalled at the Navy 18 and PK Caden Novikoff hit from 35 yard out, extending the Cougars lead to 24-14.
Navy’s last two drives were very futile indeed. Twelve yards and another punt on one and on their last offensive possession of the game, they were intercepted by Houston and the Cougars managed to run out the clock to secure the victory.
Only one game remains on the schedule for Navy and by far, it’s their most important one of the season, their annual meeting with the Army Black Knights on December 9th in Philadelphia. What makes this game even more important is that the winner will be awarded the 2017 Commander-In-Chief Trophy. Navy defeated Air Force earlier this year, 45-41 and Army also took down the Falcons, 21-0, giving both teams a 1-0 record heading into this match-up. Also, for the first time in many years, Army actually comes into the game with a better overall record than Navy (8-3 vs 6-5).
Kick-off for the game is scheduled for 3:00 PM EST and the game will be nationally televised on CBS.
