Navy sinks Air Force's return to dominance, 24-17

  • Published
  • By Wayne Amann
  • U. S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFPN) --  The Air Force football team learned a painful lesson Oct. 7 from service academy rival Navy: the Falcons' preseason team motto, "Return to Dominance," will be easier said than done.

In the process, the coveted Commander-In-Chief's Trophy, symbolic of interservice football supremacy, will belong to an academy other than Air Force for the fourth straight year.

Navy used the nation's top-ranked rushing attack, that averaged 357 yards per game, to ground the bluesuiters, 24-17, before a near capacity crowd of 45,246 mostly stunned fans, including Air Force head coach Fisher DeBerry, at Falcon Stadium.

"Give Navy a lot of credit," a subdued DeBerry told reporters. "They gave us a good lesson in how to control the football, run the triple-option and how to open the second half. They had a lot of plays that kept drives alive. They were good at first down which gave them more short-yardage situations than we had. We couldn't keep them from falling forward on offense or backward on defense. The stats tell the story. They wouldn't let us play with the ball much in the third quarter. They executed, we didn't and that was the game."

The final score was not indicative of how dominant the Midshipmen were in beating Air Force for the fourth straight time.

Taking a page from Air Force's signature triple-option oriented play book, Navy ran effectively all game long, netting 317 yards on the ground to the Falcons 193. Air Force out-gained the Mids through the air, 119 yards to just eight, but the Navy ground game more than made up the difference.

Led by junior fullback Adam Ballard with 27 carries for 134 yards and senior quarterback Brian Hampton, who carried 22 times for 105 more, the Midshipmen controlled the game clock. Navy's time of possession totaled 34:54 to 25:06 for Air Force, including a whopping 13:23 to1:37 in the third quarter. The sailors ball control converted 11 of 17 third down situations. The Mids had scoring drives of 7:20, 6:38 and 6:58 resulting in 17 unanswered points which broke open a 7-7 tie late in the second quarter.

Despite the statistical disparity, the game was still in doubt late in the fourth quarter when
Falcon quarterback Shaun Carney threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to junior tight end Travis Dekker with 3:06 left in the game. It was Dekker's first TD catch of his career.

On the ensuing kickoff Air Force recovered an onside kick at the Falcon 49-yard line, drove to the Navy 47, but the drive stalled there and the Mids ran out the clock.

"We struggled all game to get things going," Carney said. "We needed a sense of urgency and didn't have it. It seemed like they wanted it more. We came out flat. We can't expect to win. We have to compete every down."

Trailing 7-0 after the first quarter, Air Force pulled even when Chad Hall capped an 11-play, 80-yard drive with an 8-yard touchdown run. It was the junior halfback's fourth touchdown on the ground in as many games this season.

"It hurts our seniors that they won't be going to the White House this year," Hall said when asked about this senior class being the first in Air Force Academy history to graduate with out beating Navy. The CIC Trophy-winning team is presented the award by the President in Washington, D.C. "We can't think about it any more. It's over."

If Navy (5-1) beats Army (3-3), they retain the trophy. If Army defeats Air Force and Navy, the hardware goes to West Point, N. Y.

The Falcons have less time than usual to dwell on the Navy loss. Air Force returns to Mountain West Conference play Thursday, Oct. 12 when it hosts in-state rival Colorado State University. The Falcons (2-2, 2-0 MWC) are in a three-way tie for first in the conference with Brigham Young University and the University of Utah. CSU is 1-0 in league play.

"We're very disappointed in the game, but I'm certainly not discouraged," DeBerry said. "Our kids were devastated but I told them they fought hard, came back, made a run at them and came up short. That happens sometimes. You have to learn how to handle adversity. If we beat CSU, we'll be 3-0 in our conference, which would soothe a lot of our wounds right now."