Annapolis, Md.—Senior quarterback Blake Horvath rushed for 110 yards and two touchdowns, while senior fullback Alex Tecza ran for 105 yards on just 11 carries to lead Navy (4-0, 3-0 in the American) to a 21-13 victory over Rice (3-2, 1-1) in front of 28,873 fans at a rainy Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Navy is off to a 4-0 start in back-to-back years for the first time since 1978-79.
 
"First of all, thanks to the fans and the Brigade. It wasn't the best weather day, but they showed up and were loud," said Navy head coach Brian Newberry.  "Hats off to Rice and Scott Abell.  He is a really good coach.  He has had success wherever he has been and will have success at Rice, there is no question of that.  They are a well-coached ball club and kept fighting to their credit."
 
The Navy defense dominated play throughout, holding Rice to 120 yards of rushing on 39 carries.  The Owls entered the game averaging 246.3 yards per game, 15^th best in the FBS.
 
"I thought we did some really good thing defensively," said Newberry.  "I am really proud, especially the first half.  I thought we had them dialed in.  They moved the ball a bit in the second half, but when you hold an option team to 120 yards rushing, it is a really good day for you.  On the flip side, we had 450 yards of offense and just 21 points to show for it.  I thought we shot ourselves in the foot a bunch.  We had 10 penalties and seven were on offense.  We were able to overcome a couple of those, but that's not good enough; that's not who we are.  We have to get that fixed and figured out.  If we don't get in our own way, we are pretty good."
 
The Mids jumped out to a 7-0 lead on the first drive of the game, moving 75 yards on 14 plays with junior wide receiver Luke Hutchison scoring on a double reverse on fourth-and-goal from the two to give Navy an early 7-0 lead.  Horvath hit senior snipe Eli Heidenreich for 15 yards on third-and-13 from the Rice 34 to keep the Navy drive alive.
 
"That was awesome, said Hutchison.  "I am a converted quarterback, so we always have something up our sleeves.  That's something we practice every Friday.  Sometimes I throw it to Blake and sometimes I run it in.  I wanted to throw it to Blake.  I truly did.  But I thought you know what, coach is going to grill me if we don't score here, so I decided to run it in."
 
The Navy defense set the tone early, holding the Owls to two yards of total offense in the first quarter as they forced two three-and-outs.
 
The Mids made it 14-0 on the first play of the second quarter when Horvath waltzed in untouched from eight yards out to cap a three-play, 75-yard drive.  Tecza's 65-yard run on the first play set up the Horvath touchdown.
 
That was it as far as scoring in the first half, as the Mids continued to hurt themselves on offense with penalties, committing seven for 75 yards in the first two quarters.  Navy ran up 308 yards of total offense before intermission compared to just 51 yards for Rice, but led just 14-0.
 
"If you look at those drives, there were many when we were on our own side of the 50 when they stalled out," said Horvath.  "Some of them are mistakes by me on third down.  Some are penalties.  I think overall it was just one or two things at the end of drives.  We were outstanding on first down, but it was those second and third downs, penalties on those downs that set you back.  I think it was just one little thing on each drive, and we can't have that."
 
Rice cut the Navy lead to 14-3 on a 35-yard field goal by Enock Gota with 22 seconds left in the third quarter.  The drive started after Plae Wyatt intercepted Horvath at the Navy 28. The Owls would move the ball just 48 yards on 18 plays and took 8:15 off the clock to cut the Navy lead to 11. 
 
Navy seemingly put the game away on the first drive of the fourth quarter, going 75 yards on 10 plays with Horvath scoring from two yards out to make the score 21-3.
 
The Owls, to their credit, did not give up taking the ensuing kickoff and moving 61 yards on seven plays, scoring their first touchdown of the day on a three-yard touchdown pass from Chase Jenkins to Drayden Dickmann on fourth-and-goal to make the score 21-10.
 
After a Navy punt, the Owls would take over at their own 20 with 3:07 left.  The Navy defense did a terrific job of keeping everything in front of it as Rice methodically moved down the field, taking time off the clock.  Rice finally elected to kick a 44-yard field goal with 24 seconds left to make it a one-score game at 21-13.
 
Navy would recover the ensuing onside kick to finish off the win.
 
Sophomore linebacker MarcAnthony Parker was terrific, recording a career-high 13 tackles for the Mids.  Junior safety Seth English added a career-high six tackles, while senior outside linebacker Luke Pirris had five tackles and a sack.
 
"The defensive line did great, Luke (Pirris) did great, the safeties were triggering really well," said Parker. It made things for us linebackers really easy to make those tackles."
 
Navy finished with 455 yards of total offense, making it the fourth consecutive game that Navy finished with more than 450 yards for the first time since 2015.
 
Quentin Jackson led Rice with 60 yards on 15 carries, while Jenkins had just 33 yards on 12 attempts.  Jenkins completed 12 of his 12 passes for 114 yards.
 
The Mids will play host to Air Force (1-3) next Saturday at 12 noon in the first leg of the race for the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy.  Next Saturday's game will kick at 12 noon and will be televised by CBS.