ANNAPOLIS, Md.—Junior quarterback Blake Horvath rushed for 122 yards and 3 touchdowns on 15 carries, while throwing for 112 yards and a touchdown on five of nine passing to lead Navy (2-0, 1-0 in the AAC)  to a 38-11 victory over Temple (0-2, 0-1) in front of 28,889 fans at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.  With the win, Navy improved to 2-0 for the first time since 2019.

"We always talk about deserving success and I thought our guys prepared for that during the course of the week," said Navy head coach Brian Newberry. I"t was great to see that hard work pay off today. It's great to get a win and always great to get our first conference win."

The Navy defense set the tone early as Temple struggled to get back to the line of scrimmage in the first quarter.  The Owls ran 10 first quarter plays and gained a total of five yards, while the Navy defense scored the first points of the game when junior  Justin Reed knocked Temple quarterback Forrest Brock out of the back of the end zone for a safety after Brock fumbled a shotgun snap.

"Defensively, we flew around," said Newberry. "I thought Coach Volker and the defensive staff put together a really nice game plan. We bent, we gave some things underneath, but we didn't give up big explosive plays. The plan was to make them earn it, and I thought we did that today. The run game for them was nonexistent, and that made them one dimensional, so I was really pleased with that."

The Navy offense then got things going on the ensuing free kick, moving 58 yards on 11 plays with Horvath scoring from two yards out to make the score 9-0 with 15 seconds left in the first quarter.

After junior striker Jaxson Campbell picked off his first career pass on Temple's next possession, the millennial Wing-T showed its big play capability as Horvath kept the ball on an option and went 62 yards for a touchdown.

"It was the same play I had last week (when I dropped the interception)," said Campbell. "I told Coach Volker that was my one drop for the year. Catching the ball should be the easiest thing I do as a former wide receiver."

The offense did it again on its next possession as junior fullback Alex Tecza broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage and went 65 yards for a touchdown. The Tecza touchdown marked the third time this year that the Navy offense scored on the first play of the drive.

"I'm just really proud of our guys and I think we did some really good things today," said Newberry. "Field position was critical, especially the first half, and we dominated that aspect. We were much improved over last week's performance."

Temple finally was able to get on the board at the end of the first half on a 36-yard field goal by Maddux Trujillo, but Navy started the second half with a nine-play, 81-yard drive capped off by a 31-yard touchdown pass from Horvath to a wide open Eli Heidenreich to make the score 29-3 and then Horvath hit Brandon Chatman with a two-point conversion to make it 31-3 and effectively ended any hope that Temple had.

The Horvath led offense piled up 409 yards of total offense, including 297 yards on the ground. Besides Horvath's big day, Heidenreich had 4 catches for 98 yards and a touchdown, while Tecza ran for 92 yards and a touchdown on nine carries.

"Two games, two 400-yard performances," said Horvath. "I think that's a great job and it's more of a testament to our offensive line and the playmaking by our skill guys.  I think the biggest thing is the wrinkles we can add off the plays that we run already. We want to make as many plays look as similar as possible. We are just looking for ways we can affect the defense."

Senior linebacker Colin Ramos paced a Navy defense that held Temple to just 35 yards rushing on 20 carries with 15 tackles, while senior linebacker Kyle Jacob added seven and Ohiha had 6 with a tackle for a loss, a forced fumble and a pass breakup.

"We pride ourselves on stopping the run, so we knew if we could eliminate that and make them one dimensional in the passing game, that would be huge for us," said Ramos. "We put a good game plan in. We take the challenge of stopping the run personally."

"We will celebrate tonight with the 24-hour rule and then we will come back on Monday and go to work and get a little bit of a head start on Memphis," said Newberry. "I'm excited about the opportunity we have here in two weeks.  We take pride in playing at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. This is our house."

Navy will have a bye next week before preseason favorite Memphis comes to Annapolis on Sept. 21 for a 3:30 p.m. start.