PHILADELPHIA _ Navy's seniors refused to be denied in their quest to win one game against Army before their football careers ended, and they rode quarterback Malcolm Perry to do it.
Perry, a senior, rushed for 304 yards _ the most ever in an Army-Navy game _ and two touchdowns, and the Midshipmen stopped the Black Knights offense after an early scoring drive in breaking a three-game losing streak to their service academy rivals with a 31-7 victory before a crowd of 68,075 on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Mids (10-2), who have a Liberty Bowl matchup remaining against Kansas State, won for the first time since 2015 and extended their lead in the 120-game series to 61-52-7. Army finished its season with a 5-8 record.
Perry, who carried 29 times, answered an early Army touchdown with a 55-yard run early in the second quarter, and ended the scoring on a 15-yard run with 1 minute, 42 seconds to play. He also was involved in a Philly Special-type play where he pitched the ball to wide receiver Chance Warren, who found fullback Jamale Carothers in the end zone with a 1-yard touchdown pass with 6 seconds left in the first half.
The Mids added on in the second half on Carothers' 5-yard TD run up the middle and Bijan Nichols' 37-yard field goal in addition to Perry's second touchdown.
On defense, the Midshipmen were strong. After the Black Knights mounted a 78-yard, 18-play first-quarter drive that ended with a 5-yard touchdown run by quarterback Christian Anderson, they managed just 70 yards in 35 plays.
Anderson, a junior, became the first quarterback to make his first career start in the Army-Navy game since 1979. Kelvin Hopkins Jr., last year's most valuable player in the game, replaced Anderson in the fourth quarter.
Navy gained 396 yards of total offense, all but one of it on the ground.
The Black Knights, whose first three plays resulted in minus-5 yards in losses, followed with the drive to their only touchdown. Anderson carried 10 times on the 18-play drive, including a 21-yard run on their second snap and a 5-yard sweep around the right end for the score. The drive took 10 minutes, 41 seconds.
While Army took its time to score, the Midshipmen tied the game in a hurry. With a second-and-4 from his own 45, Perry took the snap, went off right guard, faked defenders out with a jump cut to the right, and was gone for a 55-yard TD to tie the game a little over a minute into the second quarter.
Other than their scoring drive, the Black Knights gained only 14 yards on 11 plays the remainder of the half. Their punting helped their defense, forcing Navy to begin back-to-back drives inside its own 10.
The Mids started their second drive at the 9 and went 91 yards in 12 plays to take the lead just before halftime. Perry set up the score with a 44-yard run to the Army 17 with 44 seconds to play, and an 11-yard scramble moved the ball to the 1 with 13 seconds left.
On first-and-goal, Navy used some trickery. Perry ran to the left, pitched to wide receiver Warren going to the right, and Warren found Carothers in the end zone for the touchdown with 6 seconds to play to make it 14-7 at the break.
A 14-yard run by Carothers and Perry's 18-yard run set up the Carothers touchdown run that made it 21-7, and Perry's 22-yard scamper led to the Nichols field goal.
