Middies Muscle Up On Cadets

This time there was no late field goal, 99-yard drive or missed chip shot to send Navy to another excruciating loss to Army.

It wasn’t even close, and that’s exactly what Navy wanted and expected against Army.

Chris McCoy ended five years of frustration for Navy and capped a record-setting career by rushing for 205 yards and three touchdowns and throwing a TD pass in a 39-7 win over the Cadets on Saturday.

McCoy scored on runs 1, 2 and 1 yards as Navy (7-4) scored on six of its first seven possessions in denying Army (4-7) what would have been a record-setting sixth straight victory in the series.

“I didn’t even want to imagine what it would been have like losing again this year,” said McCoy, whose 279 total yards more than tripled Army’s total offense. “But I was very confident going in that we would win.”

“At the end of practice this week we practiced the 2-minute drill and field goals just in case it was another close game,” Navy safety Gervy Alota said. “But coach (Charlie Weatherbie) kept saying it doesn’t have to come down to that. We felt we were good enough to dominate them and that’s exactly what we did.”

The numbers were staggering for a series in which Army won the last five games by a total of 10 points, four times rallying in the second half to win.

This time, the score was so one-sided that Army had no chance of repeating the heroics of late field goals by Patmon Malcom (‘92) and Kurt Heiss (‘94). There was no chance for a game-winning, 99-yard fourth-quarter drive (‘95) or having a Midshipman miss an 18-yard field goal in the closing seconds, as in the last game at Giants Stadium in 1993.

Led by McCoy, who closed his career with 15 school records, Navy outgained Army 454-87, held a 27-3 edge in first downs and had the ball for 42 minutes, 27 seconds. Army was 0 for 7 on third downs, completed 1 of 4 passes for 3 yards with one interception and gained 13 yards after scoring on its first series.

Tim Cannada rushed for a career-best 133 yards and a 3-yard touchdown in the most lopsided contest in the series since 1973, when Navy won 51-0.

The Midshipmen are not eligible for a bowl because two of their seven wins came against Division I-AA opponents.