Key Stats:
• Army won the turnover battle 1-0 and blocked a Navy punt for a touchdown.
• Navy rushed for 4.5 yards/carry to Army’s 2.6 yards/carry.
• The two teams combined to go 3/16 passing for 53 yards. Navy’s first and only completion of the day went for a touchdown to tie the game in the first overtime period.
• Army's punter Billy Boehlke won the punting battle, punting 9 times for a 42.4 average; a 55-yard long; and had two punts inside the 20-yard line.
• Quinn Maretzki was 2-2 on PAT’s and 2-2 on field goals including the 39-yard walk off in the second overtime period.
• Several Black Knights contributed to the stellar defensive effort. Linebacker Leo Lowin led the team in tackles with 16; Safety Marquel Broughton and DT Chris Frey added 10 each; OLB Jimmy Ciarlo added 9 and MLB Camden O’Gara had 8 total tackles on the day.
• Austin HIll and Kalvyn Crummie forced the fumble in overtime at the goal line and Darius Richardson pounced on it.
• Noah Short blocked the punt that Jabril Williams landed on in the end zone.
Army-Navy Game Photo Gallery:
Game Summary:
• There wasn’t a lot of offense in this one, so not a ton of action to summarize. Both teams punted 9 times each.•
• Surprisingly to many Army fans, Coach Jeff Monken decided to start Cade Ballard at QB and Tyhier Tyler as the lone setback in a spread formation for most of the first half and much of the game. Coach Monken mentioned in the post-game press conference that after their rushing offense had netted less than 3 yards/carry the last 3 years against Navy, they needed to do something different. Of course, the result was no different today as Army went 2-12 passing for 28 yards and ran for 2.6 yards/carry again. It was a novel idea.
• After the two teams traded 4 punts in the first quarter, Navy got the ball in great field position at the Army 35-yard line. The Army defense stiffened one more time and held Navy to 9 yards in 3 plays and the Mids brought on Bijan Nichols to kick a 43-yard field goal for the first points of the game.
• After the teams traded 4 more punts, Army turned the ball over on downs at the Navy 35-yard line. Navy went nowhere in 3 plays and with time running out in the first half, it appeared as though the two teams would go to the locker room with Navy up 3-0. That’s when Noah Short blocked the Riethman punt and Jabril Williams pounced on it in the end zone. Williams fumbled in the end zone but made an athletic recovery and kept his foot from going out of the back of the end zone for a touchdown and Army took a 7-3 lead into halftime.
• Army got the ball first in the second half and after the Army offense’s most promising drive of the day stalled at the Navy 45-yard line, the two teams traded punts again. Cam Jones had a 19-yard return to set the Army offense up with great field position at the Navy 40-yard line.
• On the first play from scrimmage, Tyhier Tyler broke left on a midline option play that looked like a 40-yard touchdown run to put Army ahead 14-3. Unfortunately, it was called back for a block in the back on WR Isaiah Alston.
• Army’s drive eventually stalled out and Navy took over after a Boehlke punt at their own 23-yard line. On the very next play from scrimmage, FB Anton Hall had the longest play of the day. Navy ran a trap that went 77 yards for a touchdown to put Navy up 10-7. We were able to talk with Coach Monken about this play at length and he mentioned that Army was “supposed to spill the trap. Instead, they ‘boxed’ it and LB Camden O’Gara got caught behind the DL boxing the trap which left a gaping hole for Hall to run through.
• After trading more punts to end the 3rd and start the 4th quarter, Army got the ball at their own 46-yard line with 5:21 left in the game. A key pass interference call on Navy against Ay’Juan Marshall moved the ball to the Navy 28-yard line. Three Army runs set up 4th and 2 from the Navy 20 and Monken called on K Quinn Maretzki to come in and make a pressure kick to tie the game at 10-10 with 1:53 left in regulation.•
• Navy’s last drive stalled, and the game went into overtime for the first time in Army-Navy history.
• Navy won the toss and chose to play defense first as is customary. On Army’s first play from scrimmage, they ran power with FB Markel Johnson and Coach Monken mentioned that the offensive line blocked it “as well as they have all year.” Johnson went 25 yards to give Army a 17-10 lead.
• Navy came right back with their only pass completion of the day. Xavier Arline found Maquel Haywood wide-open in the end zone to knot the score at 17-17.
• Navy got the ball first in the second overtime period and Arline converted a 3rd and long for a first down at the 15. On the next play from scrimmage, Hall rushed to the 4-yard line. Army got two big stops on the next two plays and Navy was faced with 3rd and goal from the 2. It looked as though Fofana was going to cross the plane when DE Austin Hill stripped him, and NT Darius Richardson pounced on the fumble to give Army the ball.
• Army ran 2 plays with not much success to bring up 3rd and long. Cade Ballard ran left to set the ball up in the middle of the field at the 22-yard line for Quinn Maretzki. Maretzki made his second pressure-packed kick of the day to give the Black Knights a ‘walk-off” 39-yard field goal for the win!
Post-Game Thoughts:
“As Erk Russell used to say, ‘We had ‘em all the way." Coach Monken started off his post-game press conference with this tongue-in-cheek quote from one of his former mentors at Georgia Southern. We have no idea how Army won that game other than pure will, determination, and guts. Monken echoed our sentiments.
The Army offense, despite a new-look spread complete with zone reads and passes from Cade Ballard, was completely stifled all day. Army had 97 yards total offense in regulation and rushed for a dismal 2.6 yards/carry. Army was clearly not 100% on offense either as Ja’Kobi Buchanan didn’t play and Tyson Riley got one carry. Markel Johnson was the most productive player on offense and even Tyhier Tyler didn’t play the last 8 minutes or so of regulation and wasn’t on the field in overtime.
However, Army came up with the two things that usually win Army-Navy games, even when nothing else goes your way. The blocked punt right before halftime was absolutely crucial and the forced fumble on the goal line in the second overtime period was probably the play that decided the game.
In a disappointing season where Army was so close so many times (UTSA, Troy, Air Force, just to name a few), in the biggest game of the year, instead of the “breaks beating the boys,” as Knute Rockne used to say, Army caused a few breaks of their own.
The goat of the Troy game, K Quinn Maretzki became the hero of the Army-Navy game with two clutch field goals to send the game to overtime and win the game in the second overtime. Maretzki became “Big Man on Campus” as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff GEN Milley and Chief of Staff of the Army GEN McConville both wanted to meet him and take their picture with him.
After what Coach Monken described today as a tough season where the team isn’t going to a bowl game, a win like this in a “bar room brawl” against Army’s toughest competitor and biggest rival, Navy, was just what the doctor ordered to send the Army seniors out with a most improbable victory.
Coach Monken wrapped up by saying this was a great way to go into the postseason for his underclassmen and a great way to send off this senior class led by the likes of two-time team Captain Marquel Broughton and Co-Captain Connor Bishop. Despite the disappointment and close calls in a season that started 1-4, Army won 5 of their last 7 games in 2022 and had a chance to win all 7. The Black Knights certainly have a lot to build on for next year despite losing their best two defensive players and needing an overhaul on offense.
The 2022 version of the Black Knights won’t go down in history as the best team in the Monken era, but they may go down as the toughest and most resilient bunch, just like one of their Quarterbacks, Tyhier Tyler, who will graduate West Point and be commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army next week.
Post-Game Press Conference
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