Air Force Falls In CIC Thriller At Navy, 34-25

Post Game Interviews

Despire a furious late-game rally, Air Force was unable to hold the lead, falling at Navy 34-25 in the first game of the annual Commander-In-Chief series, Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md. The game was played in front of a crowd of 37,957, the fourth-largest crowd ever at the stadium.

Down 21-9, Air Force (3-2) stormed back with 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to take a 25-21 lead with 3:15 to play. Navy (3-1) came right back and took the lead with 22 seconds left on a three-yard run by quarterback Malcolm Perry. The Midshipmen tacked on a game-ending touchdown on an Air Force fumble off a failed last-second lateral play.

With the ground game struggling, the Falcons went to the air putting up 246 yards passing, the most in a game since 2017. Quarterback Donald Hammond III completed 10 of 25 passes for 205 yards--all career-high's.

Senior Ben Waters led the receiving corps with four catches for 128 yards, including catches of 47 and 41 yards.

Hammond was Air Force's leading rusher with 77 yards on 12 carries, including one rushing touchdown. Fullback Taven Birdow added 40 yards on 15 carries, including a TD.

Navy was led by quarterback Malcon Perry, who threw for 144 yards and rushed for 111, adding two rushing touchdowns.

The game was slow-going offensively to start, as Air Force scored the lone points of the first-quarter with a 42-yard field goal by Jake Koehnke with 3:09 to play in the quarter. Koehnke would make all four of his field goal attempts in the game to tie the school record for the most field goals made in a game.

Navy the scored back-to-back rushing touchdowns by fullback Nelson Smith to go up 14-3 in the second quarter. The Falcons got another field goal by Koehnke in the second to trail Navy 14-6 at the half.

Koehnke would make his third field goal, a career-long 49-yarder to open the third quarter to pull the Falcons to within five at 14-9, before the Midshipmen extended its lead to 21-9 in the third quarter on a Perry touchdown run at the 6:36 mark.

Air Force mounted its rally after. Koehnke hit his fourth field goal of the game to start the fourth quarter to make it 21-12 in Navy's favor. Hammond then punched one in from one yard out with 7:38 to play to make it a 21-19 game. Birdow then scored a rushing touchdown with 3:15 to play to put the Falcons up 25-21 after the failed two-point attempt.

Air Force was unable to maintain the lead, as Navy drove 75 yards in 11 plays to re-take the lead on the Perry score with 22 seconds to go.

Defensively, junior Demonte Meeks led the Falcons with a carer-high 11 tackles. Lakota Wills had nine tackles and Grant Donaldson, Jordan Jackson and Kyle Johnson had eight each.

Air Force returns to action next Saturday, Oct. 12, hosting Fresno State. Kickoff is 5 pm MT at Falcon Stadium.

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