philadelphia | Coop's Sports Adventures

We made it down to Philadelphia for “America’s Game,” one of the biggest rivalries in all of sports, Army vs Navy. We got down early to check out and be a part of College Gameday right outside of the stadium. It was freezing. We stood out at College Gameday for three hours and then went back to the car for about 20-30 minutes to warm up before we went into the stadium. The pageantry and all of the things that surround the game are what make Army vs Navy what it is. The march onto the field, the relay races and the flyovers are just some of the big things that just make this a great game to attend. That list doesn’t even include the President of the United States, Donald Trump, on hand for the coin toss.

There wasn’t any snow or crazy weather this year, but it was a still a pretty good game. However, it was mostly dominated by Army. Navy, having dominated the game for such a long time, has struggled over the past couple years with Army coming on strong. Obviously, these are two teams that like to run the football, but the defenses for both teams showed up to play. Army got it started early on a 10-yard Kelvin Hopkins Jr. TD run just a few minutes into the game. That’s all the scoring the first half would offer. Army tacked on a field goal in the 3rd, and the game entered the 4th Quarter 10-0 in favor of Army. Navy got on the board halfway through on a 1-yard Garret Lewis run to cut the lead to 10-7. Hopkins added another score, this time from a yard out, with just 1:28 remaining. Bennett Moehring hit a 46-yard field goal to make it a 17-10 game, but Navy was unable to recover the onside kick. Army sang second for the third straight season.

Army won the total yards battle 283-208; both teams were held well below their season averages. Hopkins finished 4/9 with 61 yards and added 64 yards and 2 scores on the ground for the Black Knights. Army had 222 yards on the ground, led by Hopkins. Jaylon McClinton led the Army defense with 9 tackles and added an interception. Garret Lewis came off the bench for Navy and was 5/11 for 81 yards and added 14 yards and a score on the ground. Zach Abey, who started the game, finished 0/5 passing with 2 interceptions. Malcolm Perry led the rushing attach with 52 yards on 6 carries. The passing attack only had 81 yards and the Midshipmen were only able to get 127 yards on the ground. Kordell Makekau caught 2 passes for 52 yards. Taylor Heflin led the defense with 14 tackles and 2.5 TFL.