Horvath leads Navy past Army, 31-13

Published 10:12 am Sunday, December 15, 2024

LANDOVER, Md. — Army had every answer against Tulane in the conference championship a week ago. But the Black Knights met their match against Blake Horvath and the Navy Midshipmen.

The junior quarterback was injured when Navy lost to Tulane 35-0 on Nov. 16, dealing with rib discomfort compounded by back spasms. He did not play Nov. 29 against East Carolina.

Horvath ran wild Saturday at Northwest Stadium in a 31-13 victory.

“Blake Horvath is a special young man, one of the toughest kids I know,” Navy head coach Brian Newberry said. “We weren’t sure if he was going to be able to play in this game. Really, this was his first full week of practice and cutting it loose.”

The teams entered the 125th Army-Navy game with a combined 19 wins, the most in the series, and the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy on the line. Horvath and the Midshipmen would be too much.

“As excited and proud as we were eight days ago, we’re as disappointed as we’ve ever been. It’s hard to lose that game,” Army head coach Jeff Monken said. “That one hurts a lot, especially when the trophy is on the line and we’ve got a chance to keep that trophy at West Point, and we didn’t do it.”

Navy (9-3) ended a two game skid against Army (11-2) and won the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy for the first time since 2019.

“I’m ecstatic … couldn’t be more proud or happy for our players, our seniors,” Newberry said following his first win against Army. “They talked about leaving a legacy this year, and they certainly have done that.”

Navy marched 65 yards down the field on the opening drive for a touchdown. Horvath led the way with 43 total yards and leaped in for a 1-yard rushing touchdown. The Black Knights, who scored a touchdown on the opening drive 10 out of 12 games this season, were forced to punt.

“There wasn’t any hesitancy in our game plan. That’s been our goal all season to start games fast,” Horvath said. “It was just really great to start this one fast.

Horvath outplayed Army quarterback Bryson Daily, accounting 311 total yards, including 204 rushing yards and four total touchdowns.

With Navy ahead 7-0, Army’s offense tried to get things rolling in their own territory. Daily converted a fourth down from the Black Knights’ 21 yard line, but the drive ended with an interception by Navy senior cornerback Dashaun Peele.

Three plays later, Horvath totaled 44 yards and a passing touchdown, and the Midshipmen led 14-0 early in the second quarter.

Daily responded on the following drive with his only touchdown to cut the deficit to 14-7. On fourth and 3, Daily rolled to his right for an 18-yard pass to senior wide receiver Casey Reynolds. He finished the drive in an empty backfield formation, faked the run and passed to junior running back Hayden Reed for a 23-yard touchdown.

“Those were just excuses that we could have used, but we didn’t and that’s not the reason for the loss today,” he said about Army’s schedule at the end of the season. “We just didn’t execute. We got outplayed by the team we played.”

Though trailing only 14-7 at halftime, Army struggled to get anything going in the second half. The opening drive, extended because of a pass interference call, covered six minutes but ended in a field goal.

Navy quickly responded with a 42-yard kickoff return from sophomore running back Isaiah Bryant, and, three plays later, Horvath found junior slotback Eli Heidenreich for a 52-yard touchdown.

Heidenreich received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for spiking the ball.

“It was kind of an out-of-the-body experience for me, something that I won’t be doing again,” he said after the game.

The Black Knights added a field goal to cut the score to 21-13. But that would be the end of the scoring for Army.

With more than 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Navy faked a punt on fourth down and 5 with defensive tackle Landon Robinson running for 29 yards. Horvath ran for 24 more yards and punched in his second rushing touchdown of the night.

Daily, who finished sixth in the Heisman voting this year, threw 16 passes for 65 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions.

“We weren’t effective enough throwing the ball,” he said. “I made too many mistakes, too many bad decisions. Especially late in the game, I felt myself pressing.”

Following Army’s timeout with 1:59 left in the game, Navy ran the victory formation four straight times to celebrate the win.

Horvath said he told a lot of his friends there is “a lot of pain” singing first. The losing team sings its alma mater first while the winning team stands behind them as a sign of respect. The winning team then runs to their band to sing their song and celebrate.

“We didn’t want to do it again,” he added. “I don’t think anyone in the brigade wanted to sing first, I don’t think any of the fans wanted to sing first this year so we just wanted to do it for them.”

Each service academy has one more game. Navy will travel to Fort Worth to play Oklahoma in the Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 27, and Army travels to Shreveport to play Louisiana Tech in the Independence Bowl on Dec. 28.