Army comes out on top in history-filled game against Navy at the Linc

Connor Bishop smiled as he described the play that led to Army’s only offensive touchdown. He said it’s called a “power run” in the playbook. It’s basically give the ball to the running back and let him plow behind his line. Bishop, an Archbishop Wood alum, is the anchor of that line.

“Coach [Brent] Davis said that was the best run play he’d seen,” Bishop said, referring to Army’s offensive coordinator. “It was highlight-tape worthy.”

The Army-Navy game is moving from Philadelphia for a few years, but the service academies left the city with quite a memory and a little bit of history.

Army, looking moribund for most of the game, picked up a 20-17 win in double overtime when Quinn Maretzki kicked a 39-yard field goal for an appropriately wild ending.

It was the first overtime game in series history, and it was a thrilling end to the college career for Bishop, Army’s center and co-captain.

College football adopted overtime in 1996.

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Army scored on its first play in the extra session when Markel Johnson ran through a hole created in part by Bishop, who will now take his talents to the U.S. Army’s Infantry division. He will learn where he will be deployed in February.

It was the Cadets’ only offensive touchdown of the game, and gave Army a brief 17-10 lead.

“All 11 guys came together in that instant,” he said. “We were close throughout the game. We weren’t able pull all the pieces together until the end.”

Navy responded with its own fireworks when Xavier Arline hit Marquel Haywood with a 25-yard score on its first play of overtime. It was the first pass Navy completed all day.

Maretzki’s field goal was set up when Navy fumbled on its second possession of OT.

The first three-plus quarters featured more punts than passes.

“They rushed for 125 yards, and had 153 total yards. We rushed for 260,” Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “These games are always phone-booth games. The defense played like I thought they would play. … We knew they couldn’t ground out the ball against us. They haven’t in the last four years. Today wasn’t any different, but they made more plays.”

Navy had one big play on offense. Army had one on special teams. Other than that, things were tight.

Four minutes after an Army touchdown was wiped out by a block-in-the-back penalty, Navy fullback Anton Hall Jr. made significant history with a 77-yard touchdown run. It was the longest rush by a Midshipman in the Army-Navy series. Saturday was the 123rd meeting. Yo.

It was Hall’s fumble in overtime, however, that set up Army’s winning points.

“That was one play,” Niumatalolo said correctly. “There were lots of other plays throughout the course of the game. Don’t put this loss on Anton Hall.”

A crowd of 69,117 poured into Lincoln Financial Field for the 123rd meeting of these historic rivals. It was 90th time the city hosted and the 14th time at the Linc; Navy is now 11-3 here.

Philadelphia does not have the Army-Navy game again until 2027 as the academies take a crack at other locales along the I-95 corridor. Boston will host the 2023 game, followed by Landover, Md., Baltimore and East Rutherford, N.J. in 2026.

Navy finished its season 4-8. Army is 6-6, but not going to a bowl game because one of their victories came against Villanova, an FCS school.

Afterward, the Cadets cheered, the Mids cried and the first sloppy three quarters of the game mattered none.

“This means everything,” Bishop said. “It’s a little bit of a storybook ending for us, for the senior class particularly. We had a tough go at it this season. We lost to some good teams, and fell short a few times. But we continued to fight when a lot of teams might have folded up the tents. It’s really a credit to the senior class. To be able to win it in that fashion puts an exclamation point on the season.”

Army linebacker Leo Lowin, a junior from Austin, Texas, was the game’s MVP with 16 tackles (four solo). … Navy’s John Marshall, a hybrid linebacker, had eight tackles and a sack. … The over/under was 32.5 points. For the first time in 17 years, the game total finished “over” thanks explicitly to the overtime sessions. Saturday’s line was 32.5 points. …

Army rotated quarterbacks Tyhier Tyler and Cade Ballard, which undoubtedly contributed to a wild sequence where two of Bishop’s snaps caught Ballard by surprise. The first was wiped out by a penalty. The second resulted in a 30-yard loss that knocked the Cadets out of field goal range. … Army had a total of 33 yards in the first two quarters and still led at the half thanks to a blocked punt by freshman Noah Short and a hair-raising recovery by fellow plebe Jabril Williams. In his excited haste to recover the ball, Williams nearly rolled out of the end zone. The difference between an Army touchdown or what would have been a touchback was an inch or two.