Navy Beats Army 31-13

December 14, 2024 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

For the 17th time in the last meetings, the underdog won the Army-Navy game.

This time, Navy was a 31-13 victor over the 6.5-point favorite Black Knights and the Midshipmen claimed the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy for the first time since 2019, seizing it from the clutches of the Black Knights.

With the win in this 125th edition of the rivalry, Navy extended its lead in the series to 63-55-7.

QB Blake Horvath led the way on offense as he had a direct hand in all 4 Midshipmen touchdowns. Horvath had TD tosses of 18 yards in the second quarter and 52 yards in the third, along with rushing scores from 1 yard out in the first quarter and another in the final stanza.

Horvath finished with 204 yards rushing on 25 carries and 107 yards passing on a 4-of-9 performance.

The Naval Academy defense also played a crucial role as it harassed Army QB Bryson Daily into a career high 3 interceptions. He was held to just 117 yards of total offense with 65 passing (7-of-16) and 52 rushing on 19 carries. The Black Knights only managed 178 yards of offense as a team while Navy had 378.

The Commander-in-Chef's Trophy is awarded to the annual winner of the round-robin competition between Army, Navy and Air Force. This year, both Army and Navy defeated Air Force. The Falcons have won the trophy 21 times and retained it once, compared to 17 wins with 3 retentions for Navy, and 10 wins with 1 retention for Army. A "retention" occurs when all three teams go 1-1 vs each other in a year following the previous outright win (2-0 record).

The game was played in Landover, Maryland and will now move to East Rutherford in 2026 before returning to Philadelphia in 2027. Locations have not been set beyond 2027.

This year, both teams are members of the American Athletic Conference. It marked the first year in the conference for Army, which won the league championship by going 8-0 in their regular season before whipping Tulane 35-14 at home in the title game. Coming into this game, the Black Knights were 11-1 over-all while the Midshipmen were 8-3 over-all and 6-2 in the league

Army was 15-1 in its last 16 games dating back to last season.

Army and Navy entered the contest with a combined best-ever record of 19-4.

Army will play Louisiana Tech in the Independence Bow. Navy will take on Oklahoma in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Army was supposed to be facing Sun Belt Champion Marshall in its bowl game, but the Herd announced today that it had to back out due to a depleted roster. A huge number of players either entered the portal or declared for the NFL Draft when their head coach left to take the same position at Southern Miss.