Behind a pair of rushing scores by Kelvin Hopkins, Army beat Navy for the third straight time to win the Commander-In-Chief Trophy.
After losing 14 games in the rivalry from 2002-2015, the Army Black Knights now own a three-game winning streak over the rival Navy Midshipmen.
Saturday’s season finale saw Jeff Monken’s Army squad jump on Navy early with a Kelvin Hopkins Jr. 10-yard run on the game’s opening possession and win 17-10.
That was all the scoring for the rest of the first half that was dominated by stifling defense by Army and Navy, and a combination of some bad offensive execution by the Midshipmen.
Navy quarterback Zach Abey had a difficult game after throwing a pair of interceptions on the afternoon that saw him go 0-5 passing and was benched in favor of Garret Lewis who tried to rally Navy late. Abey came in late in the fourth quarter and promptly was sacked Army’s Kenneth Brinson who forced and recovered the fumble at the Navy 22.
On the ensuing possession, Army scored four plays later on a quarterback keeper by Hopkins that made it a 17-7 game and put the game out of reach for Navy. Credit Lewis for leading Navy down the field for a field goal to give the Midshipmen a glimmer of hope in the game’s closing seconds from Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.
It was too little too late, however for Navy, as Army recovered the onside kick and was able to take a knee in victory formation and clinch their third straight over the rival they respect the other 364 days of the year, but today, they wanted nothing more than to beat Navy.
Hopkins finished the game with 64 yards rushing and the two touchdowns and was 4-of-9 passing for 61 yards.
After a long string of being on the wrong side of this rivalry, Monken’s team has taken a stranglehold on it with three straight wins. This is the first time since 1992-1996 that Army won at least three games in a row in the series.
Army finishes in the top 25 for the first time since 1996 and for only the second time since the Red Blaik era (1941-1958). This marks the first time they’ve won 10 games in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history. Army will play Houston in the Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 22 for a chance to get their 11th win of the year.
They have the Commander-In-Chief Trophy for the second straight year and the first time in history.
This ends the season for Navy who fell to a disappointing 3-9.