Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy sprint football team kept its 2014 record unblemished with a dominant 41-6 victory over Post University on Friday night. Following a touchdown by the Eagles (1-2) on the opening kickoff, the Mids (4-0) used a potent rushing attack and suffocating defense to shutout their opponent 41-0 over the final 59 minutes of play.

Eric Wellmon (Jr., Wallkill, N.Y.) was the story for Navy offensively as he rushed for career-highs with 226 yards and four touchdowns on 28 carries. Wellmon's outstanding performance in the backfield was augmented by James Lieto's (So., Carlisle, Pa.) career-high 97 rushing yards and 28 yards from Dane Kozlosky (So., Mantua, N.J.). As a team, Navy rushed for a season-high 325 yards. At quarterback, Joe Hampton (Sr., Charleston, S.C.) guided the Mids to 62 yards through the air on 6 of 16 passing.

"Post is a very physical and athletic team, but we saw some things that we felt we could take advantage of and we did it," said Navy head coach Maj. Kavan Lake, USMC. "We asked our running backs to carry the load and they did with great results. Wellmon was excellent; Lieto had a rocky start, but then he came on strong over time and Dane did a fantastic job of filling in when he subbed for Wellmon. Our receivers did their jobs when they were supposed to. It was going to be a physical game and going to be a little wet, but that's where we play well."

Defensively, Chris Mershon (Sr., Lee's Summit, Mo.) led a Navy squad that stopped Post behind the line of scrimmage on nine of its 55 plays. Mershon had a team-high two sacks to go along with his five tackles. Collin Ascherl (Jr., Granville, Iowa) caused chaos for the Eagles as well, as he forced two fumbles and made three tackles. Linebacker Keegan Kush (So., La Vista, Neb.) led the Mids with eight tackles.

"Defensively, I could not ask for anything more from those guys," said Lake. "They were just fanatics tonight and they laid big hits, caused three-and-outs and got takeaways. We were stripping at the ball every opportunity that we had."

The visiting Eagles opened the game with a bang as Jay'Len Mahan took Brett Deters' (Jr., Ankeny, Iowa) opening kickoff back 92 yards for a touchdown.

The Mids shook off the initial shock of the early touchdown with a score of their own two drives later. After riding the duo of Wellmon and Kozlosky for 51 combined rushing yards, Navy went to air from 13 yards out as Hampton hit Warren Rooney (Sr., Houston, Texas) for his second touchdown of the season at the 5:39 mark.

Up 7-6, Navy extended its lead to 14-6 just 10 plays later. On Post's first play following Rooney's touchdown, Ascherl forced a fumble from Joseph Lynch. Alex Oldham (Fr., Dayton, Ohio) recovered the ball for the Mids at the Eagles' 25 yard line. In short order, Wellmon found pay dirt with a four-yard touchdown rush at 1:32.

Following a 46-yard punt return by Corey Garcia (Jr., San Diego, Calif.) on the second play of the second quarter, Wellmon took the ball in from the three yard line on a rush on Navy's first play from scrimmage.

The game would go into the halftime intermission with the Mids leading by a 21-6 margin. Statistically, Navy led Post in total yards, 199 to 46. The Mids also held advantages in time of possession, 19:41 to 10:19 and in third down conversations, 5-11 to 0-5.

The hosts wasted little time increasing their lead in the second half as they went up 28-6 by the 13:55 mark of the third quarter. Nick Deterding (So., Lindsborg, Kan.) and Wellmon carried Navy's effort over that span as Deterding took the opening kickoff 33 yards before Wellmon carried the ball twice for gains of eight and 53 yards, respectively. His second rush went the distance for his third touchdown of the contest.

The Mids' defense shined in the third quarter as they forced the Eagles into two three-and-outs and a fumble in a stretch from 13:55 to 8:03. Navy didn't stop there as it held Post out of the end zone after the Eagles recovered a block punt at the Mids' 41 yard line. With the short field, Post marched down to Navy's three yard line, but two holding penalties, a combined sack from Kush and Mershon, and a pass break up in the end zone by Dan Gilmore (Jr., Mansfield, Mass.) kept the visitors scoreless.

Up 28-6 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Mids sealed the victory with 13 more unanswered points. On his final series of action, Wellmon capped with his day with a nine-yard touchdown run at 10:44. The highlight of that drive was a 58-yard burst through Post's defense by Lieto to set up Navy in its opponent's red zone.

The Mids' final points came at 4:49 on a bad snap for a punt and subsequent fumble recovery in the end zone by Dylan Walsh (So., La Jolla, Calif.).

In the 41-6 victory, Navy outgained Post 387 to 40, with a 341-yard difference on the ground, 325 to minus-16. The Mids won the time of possession battle by over seven minutes at 33:32 to 26:28 and held the Eagles without a third-down conversion. Post went 0 for 13, while Navy was 6 of 17 in third-down conversions in the contest.

"I couldn't be happier with that performance in holding another team to negative rushing yards," said Lake. "The defense likes to say that they are stingy. They are disciplined and physically tough. They do what we ask them to do, play sound football and sound defense."

In total, 57 Mids saw action in Friday night's game. Lake recognized this fact and appreciated the work that his team put out versus Post. "It was a full team effort with contributions coming from throughout the roster. I was really happy to see that tonight."

Navy will next be in action on Saturday, Oct. 18 versus Cornell. The matchup between the Mids and Big Red is slated to kick off at 10:30 a.m.