ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Blake Horvath threw three touchdown passes to Eli Heidenreich, who set a pair of Navy records, and the Midshipmen outlasted Air Force 34-31 on Saturday.
The victory gives Navy (5-0) a leg up on holding on to the Commander-in-Chief's trophy, awarded to the winner of the round-robin between the Navy, Air Force and Army service academies.
Horvath was 20-of-26 passing for a career-high 339 yards and added another 130 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. Heidenreich, who came in with five catches this season, set a Navy record with 243 receiving yards on eight receptions including 19-, 80- and 60-yard touchdowns, giving him a program record 14 in his career.
On a day filled with big-play offense, it was Nathan Kirkwood's field goal with 6:47 remaining that gave Navy the lead. That was followed by a deflected pitch recovered by the Midshipmen at midfield, allowing them to run out the clock.
Liam Szarka was 11-of-19 passing for 212 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a career-high 152 yards and two scores on 25 carries for the Falcons (1-4). Bruin Fleischmann had six catches for a career-high 166 yards and a score.
Two Heidenreich TD catches gave Navy a 17-10 halftime lead. Navy came back three times to tie, including 31-all on Jonah Dawson's first career catch, a 53-yard touchdown.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.