PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Blake Horvath scored on a 50-yard touchdown run with 39 seconds left and then hit Alex Tecza with a two-point conversion pass to give Navy (6-0, 4-0) a stunning 32-31 victory over Temple (3-3, 1-1) on Saturday evening in front of 26,149 fans at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
With the win, Navy is bowl eligible for the second consecutive year and for the 26th time overall.
"Hats off to Coach Keeler and Temple, that is a darn good team," said Navy head coach Brian Newberry. "We have a special group, the way they stayed the course and kept believing in each other. The character and the connection we have on this team are why we keep winning these close games. We find a way to win."
Horvath finished the day with 155 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 19 carries, while throwing for 141 yards and a touchdown.
Temple elected to receive to start the game and the Owls were able to move right down the field, but on first-and-10 from the Navy 22 Ira Oniha was sent on a blitz and knocked the ball out of Temple quarterback Evan Simon's hands forcing an incompletion and on third-and-nine from the Navy 21, Ohiha blitzed up the middle and knocked Simon's pass down again. Temple kicker Carl Hardin came on and missed a 39-yard field goal wide right. That miss would prove to be a big one.
It would take the Navy offense just four plays to score a touchdown. After three run plays netted the Mids 29 yards, Horvath hit a wide-open Cody Howard with a 50-yard touchdown pass to give Navy the 7-0 lead.
Temple would answer with a 13-play, 75-yard touchdown drive with Simon scoring from two yards out to tie the game at seven.
After Navy was forced to punt, Temple would take its first lead of the game on a 23-yard field goal by Hardin with 14:13 left in the second quarter. Oniha had his third pass breakup of the game on third down to force the Owls to settle for a field goal.
After a Navy punt, Temple was back in the red zone, but on third-and-10 from the Navy 17, Adam Klenk sacked Simon and forced a fumble that Job Grant recovered. It was Temple's first lost turnover of the year.
After another Navy punt, Temple took over at its own 19 and marched right down the field, moving 81 yards on 10 plays with Owls tailback Jay Ducker scoring from the one to put Temple up 17-7, a lead they would take into the locker room at the half.
Temple completely dominated play in the first 30 minutes of the game, outgaining Navy 325-111, picking up 16 first downs to just three for Navy, running 50 plays to Navy's 17 and controlling the ball for 22:09 compared to 7:51 for Navy.
"We couldn't get anything going offensively in the first half after the first drive," said Newberry. "We aren't going to win a lot of games doing that. I thought we tackled poorly tonight. I thought their quarterback played well, but at the end of the day, I don't know if I've ever been prouder of a team. Those are the guys we want as leaders, as officers in the Navy and the Marine Corps, because they are the definition of warriors."
Navy would take the second half kickoff and march 74 yards on nine plays with Horvath scoring from two yards out to cut the Temple lead to three at 17-14 with 9:59 left in the third quarter. The big play of the drive was a 35-yard pass from Horvath to Eli Heidenreich on fourth-and-three from its own 48. Horvath would score four plays later.
Temple, however, would answer the Navy score with one of its own as Simon threw a perfect 26-yard touchdown pass in the right corner of the end zone to JoJo Bermudez to cap a six-play, 72-yard drive to put the Owls back up on top 24-14 with 6:37 left in the third quarter.
The Mids would come right back and score on a two-yard touchdown run by Alex Tecza that capped off a nine-play, 75-yard drive to make the score 24-21 Temple with 2:22 left in the third quarter after Nathan Kirkwood nailed the point after.
The Navy defense forced its first punt of the game on Temple's next series, with Simon throwing low on third down. The Owls' punt was fair caught by Brandon Chatman at the Navy 10.
The Mids would go down and tie the game at 24 after getting the third-down stop. The Mids had the ball third-and-three from the Temple 25 and tried a trick play, but fullback Jackson Gutierrez was sacked on an attempted fullback pass. Kirkwood would come on and kick a career-long 48-yard field goal with 6:34 left for the tie.
Temple, however, started to play ball control and it looked like Navy would never get the ball back. Ducker would run for four yards on third and three at the Navy 29 to give the Owls a first down at the Navy 25. With the Mids having just two timeouts left, Temple could have run the ball three times and made Navy take the rest of its timeouts before attempting a field goal with less than 30 seconds left.
Instead, Simon hit Kajiya Hollawayne with a 22-yard pass down to the Navy one-yard line, where he was knocked out of bounds with 1:16 left. On the next play, the Mids let Ducker score from the one to preserve time, their two timeouts and give themselves a chance to win the game.
On second-and-10, Horvath threw a deep pass down the right sideline that Heidenreich drew an interference call to put the ball at the Navy 40.
After two more incompletions, Horvath hit Tecza for a gain of nine to the Navy 49. On fourth-and-one, the Mids ran a power play with Horvath running the ball up the middle behind Tecza and guard Ben Purvis and he ran untouched for a 51-yard touchdown.
"It was a straight power run for us and our guys blocked it awesome," said Horvath. "Tecza had a great block, Purvis has a great block, the entire offensive line blocked it perfectly. It was executed perfectly."
The Mids at first were going to try an extra point to tie it, but Newberry called a timeout. Out of the timeout, the Mids lined up to run the swinging gate play, forcing Temple to use its last timeout. Horvath then hit Tecza in the corner of the end zone to give Navy its first lead of the game since 7-0.
"I have full trust in Alex," said Horvath. "I didn't call the play, but I had a little bit of input on what I wanted to do and what I felt comfortable with and I felt comfortable with a play where I could either run it or hit Alex on a flat route.
"I told Drew (Cronic) before that last drive that we were going to go down and score a touchdown and then go for two, I made my mind up then, but we scored a little earlier than I thought we would so I paused for a quick second and thought about kicking the PAT, but I changed my mind pretty quickly and thought we needed to go for the win," said Newberry. "I didn't want to go to overtime. We knew they were going to call a timeout because the formation was wacky and then we wanted the ball in #11's hands with the game on the line, because he's special. I wouldn't trade him for anybody in the country.
The Navy defense still had to stop Temple and stop them they did. The Mids gave up a couple of short passes over the middle, but with no timeouts, the Owls could not stop the clock. Temple got the ball to the Navy 40 before Simon's desperation pass ended the game and the Navy sidelines erupted in jubilation.
"Our guys feel like they deserve to win because of the way they work and the way they embrace the process," said Newberry.
