Army Reigns Supreme in Rain

In the 1990s world of college football, where conference title games and title sponsors build their own spotlights to bask in, Saturday’s 97th Army-Navy game was hardly a blip on the national scene.

Too bad.

In a freezing and relentless rain, Army beat Navy, 28-24, for the fifth consecutive year.

At stake was an Independence Bowl bid and the service academies’ Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy. For the first time since 1978, the Cadets and Midshipmen went into the game with a victory over Air Force, ensuring the winner would get the trophy.

President Clinton was on hand to award the trophy to the winner, and he and the sellout crowd of 69,238 were treated to a remarkable show.

To pull out the victory, Army had to come back from a 21-3 deficit, the largest comeback in the history of the series; had to stop Navy twice on four-down, goal-line stands; and needed a record-setting day from quarterback Ronnie McAda.

“I told our team afterward . . . they were going down in the annals of Army football as one of the greatest teams,” Army Coach Bob Sutton said. “They’ve won the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy and they have an opportunity to go win a bowl game. They could have a clean sweep of everything they wanted.”

Army’s goal-line stands late in the game may have been the key Saturday.

Trailing 28-24, Navy had a first down at the Army four-yard line with three minutes remaining in the game. Navy quarterback Chris McCoy dove to the two on first down, but an offside penalty moved the Midshipmen back to the seven.

Army’s Stephen King tackled Omar Nelson at the five and two McCoy passes into the end zone fell incomplete.

With 56 seconds left, on Army’s ensuing possession, the Cadets punted to give Navy the ball at its own 43. The Midshipmen sent in their passing quarterback, Ben Fay, and smartly marched to the Army 10 as Fay completed his first two passes.

But three end-zone passes fell incomplete and a fourth, a last-gasp pass to Cory Schemm, was intercepted by Garland Gay. Schemm had re-entered the game on the last series after separating his shoulder earlier.

This was another in a recent series of thrillers, as Army’s five consecutive victories over Navy have been decided by a total of 10 points.

“I would like to blow them out, I really would,” Army defensive end Scott Eichelberger said. “But you have to expect on a game like this, that it’s going to come down to the end. Even after we held them, we were ready in case they came back. And they did.”

Including last year, when a similar stand at the one-yard line opened the door for another Army comeback, the Cadet defense has held Navy on last-minute, goal-line stands on 13 consecutive plays.

Offensively, the key for Army was McAda, who rushed for a career-high 134 yards and a touchdown and passed for 116 yards--accounting for 250 yards of offense, a record for an Army player in this game. McAda finished his career with 533 yards of total offense against Navy, a new Army record.