PHILADELPHIA — Navy’s Anton Hall Jr. lost a fumble at the goal line in the second overtime, and Quinn Maretzki kicked a game-winning 39-yard field goal as Army beat the Midshipmen 20-17 on Saturday night in the first overtime game in the 123 games of the rivalry series.
There wasn’t much offense throughout the game until the waning moments of regulation, when Maretzki kicked a 37-yarder with 1:53 left to tie the game at 10-all.
A thrilling overtime followed.
The NCAA instituted overtime in 1996, but this was the first time overtime was needed to settle one of the sport’s greatest rivalry games.
Army’s Markel Johnson ran 25 yards for a touchdown on the first play of overtime for a 17-10 lead, but Navy matched the Black Knights when Xavier Arline tossed a 25-yard touchdown pass to Maquel Haywood that made it 17-all.
It was Navy’s first completion of the game. Arline also rushed for 102 yards.
Hall – who earlier raced 77 yards for a TD – coughed up the ball as he plunged toward the end zone and stood crestfallen after the game at Lincoln Financial Field as fireworks went off.
Navy still leads the series, 62-54-7. The Black Knights, though, have won five of the last seven meetings. Army finished 6-6 and Navy was 4-8.
The teams combined for only 53 yards passing. One of Cade Ballard’s rare passing attempts for Army was a success when a pass interference call brought the ball down to the 28 with 4 minutes left on a drive that set up Maretzki’s tying field goal.
Ballard was 2-of-10 passing for 26 yards.
Hall’s run up the middle in the third quarter was the biggest burst of offense for either team. At that point, that run alone had outgained Army’s 69 total yards.
His run was a double gut punch to the Black Knights after QB Tyhier Tyler had a 40-yard touchdown run wiped out because of a penalty on the previous possession.
Hall provided one of the few highlights in a game full of wobbly punts, errant throws and a dearth of first downs.
The first spark came in the final seconds of the first half when Army’s Noah Short blocked Riley Riethaman’s punt and Jabril Williams recovered it – after almost knocking the ball out of the end zone – for a touchdown and a 7-3 lead.
That bit of excitement in front of a packed house of 69,117 just about made up for 29 minutes of two offenses that could not move the ball down field. The first half ended with 0 passing yards.
That stat of futility wasn’t necessarily uncommon for either program. Navy won two games this season without completing a pass, and Army threw for 852 yards this year.
With points at a premium, Navy sent out Bijan Nichols for a long field goal in the second quarter, and his 44-yarder hugged the inside of the right goal post for a 3-0 lead.
STANFORD: Stanford hired Sacramento State coach Troy Taylor to replace David Shaw and lead a Pac-12 program that has fallen off dramatically, with three losing seasons in the last four years.
Taylor, 54, has spent the last four seasons as head coach at Sacramento State, leading the Hornets to the FCS playoffs three times. Sacramento State did not field a team during 2020 because of the pandemic.
FCS PLAYOFFS
(1) SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 42, (8) HOLY CROSS 21: Mark Gronowski passed to Jaxon Janke for the go-ahead touchdown, and South Dakota State (12-1) scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to break away from Holy Cross (12-1) in the Football Championship Subdivision quarterfinals at Brookings, South Dakota.
The top-seeded Jackrabbits, on a school-record 12-game win streak after losing to Iowa 7-3 in their opener, will play fourth-seeded Montana State in the semifinals. The Bobcats beat South Dakota State 31-17 in the semifinals in Bozeman, Montana, last year. This year’s semifinal will be in Brookings.
The eighth-seeded Crusaders gave the Jackrabbits a tough test through three quarters behind quarterback Matthew Sluka, who rushed for a career-high 212 yards on 26 carries. It was Sluka’s 36-yard run that set up Peter Oliver’s 1-yard TD plunge to tie the game at 21-all.
But the Jackrabbits dominated the fourth quarter.
Gronowski passed for 177 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 47 more yards and a TD. Davis had 154 yards on 20 carries with a score, his eighth straight game with a rushing TD and his seventh game this season with 100-plus yards.
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