Conroy Delivers Army Past Navy
For three straight seasons, John Conroy watched from the stands as Army beat Navy.
The senior fullback was on the field Saturday, scoring twice to lead the Cadets to a 14-13 victory over the Midshipmen. His 1-yard TD plunge with 1:03 left capped an 18-play, 99-yard drive and gave Army its fourth straight victory over Navy, which has been outscored by a total of only six points during the streak.
Conroy, who didn’t dress for the Navy game the last three years even though he was a member of the Army team, rushed 22 times for 74 yards. Prior to this season, he had only one career carry, for 1 yard.
“It was one of the toughest games I’ve ever played in my life,” said Conroy, who also scored on a 1-yard run in the first quarter. “We just knew we were going to come back. You must have that attitude.”
Conroy’s score came two plays after Ronnie McAda hit senior John Graves with a 28-yard pass on fourth-and-24 from the 29.
“They told me at halftime they would probably run that play,” Graves said. “I was isolated on a corner route and I kind of dipped in and gave the linebacker a fake. It was a beautiful pass.”
The Cadets (5-5-1) began their final drive at their own 1 after a controversial call by Navy coach Charlie Weatherbie. Leading 13-7 with 8:23 remaining, he elected to go for a touchdown on fourth-and-goal at the 1 rather than allow his freshman kicker to attempt an 18-yard field goal.
Chris McCoy’s end-zone pass was off the mark, and the Cadets took over and drove for the winning touchdown. The loss ended Navy’s bid for its first winning season since 1982. The Midshipmen finished 5-6.
“It was a very, very poor tactical error on my part,” said Weatherbie, who was coaching in his first Army-Navy game. “Hindsight is 20-20, though. If I had to do it over, I’d kick it.”
A desperation pass by Navy’s Ben Fay, who completed 14 of 31 passes for 152 yards, was intercepted by Donald Augustus as time expired before a crowd of 68,853 at Veterans Stadium.
“You just can’t play good in a game like this,” said Army coach Bob Sutton. “You must play great. And today, we did.”
Navy scored on its second play from scrimmage on a 22-yard pass from Fay to LeBron Butts in the back of the end zone.
The Cadets tied the score 7-7 on a 1-yard run by Conroy on third-and-goal with 5:08 remaining in the first quarter. The 10-play, 52-yard drive was kept alive when McAda broke a tackle on third-and-8 at the Navy 21 and threw a 15-yard pass to Abel Young. The ball bounced off Young and into the hands of Graves.
Both teams missed excellent opportunities to score in the second period.
After the Cadets drove 60 yards in 11 plays, Navy’s Sean Andrews made a leaping interception of McAda’s pass to Ron Leshinski in the corner of the end zone. It was Andrews’ eighth interception this season, and his third in the end zone.
Navy’s Matt Scornavacchi dropped a 37-yard pass from Fay in the end zone as time expired in the half.
Vanderhorst’s first career field goal, a 39-yarder that made it 10-7 for Navy, capped a 16-play, 52-yard march to start the second half. Scornavacchi caught three passes on the drive for 33 yards.
Vanderhorst made it 13-7 in the fourth quarter with a 22-yard field goal. McCoy rushed for 59 of the 79 yards in the drive.
“This is the worst day of my life,” Fay said. “We had a great chance to get the monkey off our backs and we choked.”