Navy 32 Louisiana Tech 14

NAVY FOOTBALL 2009 No. 2 Observations from an Olde Poolie.

Sept. 12, 2009

. Navy 32 Louisiana Tech 14. On a warm overcast day at Navy-Marine Corp Stadium before over 29,000 fans Navy’s football team spotted Louisiana Tech 14 points in the first six minutes then righted ship and scored 32 unanswered points. Give much credit to the defense.

Louisiana Tech took the first kick-off and completed 6 - 7 passes for a 74 yard drive and a TD after 3:45. LT 7 Navy 0. The Midshipmen were three plays and punted. LT’s Livas caught the ball on the 15, escaped from three Navy tacklers, then raced 85 yards down the sideline for a quick TD. LT 14 Navy 0 after six minutes. After the kick-off Navy moved to the 30 yard line where Jr. Joe Buckley connected on his first career FG try - 43 yards - to put Navy on the board: LT 14 Navy 3.

Second Quarter. On Louisiana Tech’s next possession Navy’s Soph. DE Tuani intercepted and the Midshipmen had the ball at midfield. A 25 yard pass to Washington set up a sixteen run yard run by Cory Finnerty to bring the score LT 14 Navy 10. Navy’s defense again forced the Bulldogs to punt and Navy had the ball at midfield. Staying on the ground the Midshipmen moved to the three in eight plays then QB Ricky Dobbs plunged over for the TD. On the PAT try the ball was snapped to holder back-up QB Zingler who ran off left tackle for a two point conversion. Navy 18 LT 14 with 1:33 left in the half. Four plays later Navy got the ball back and moved to the LT 16. Before that soph. WR Furman was five yards past everyone and dropped a perfect pass. After a 5 yard penalty Buckle’s FG try was wide. End of half. Navy 18 Louisiana Tech 14.

Neither team scored in the third quarter. Navy did have a 55 yard pass for a TD called back for a holding infraction. Navy was only penalized twice in the game. Early in the fourth quarter the Midshipmen put together a 58 yard drive - all on the ground - with Soph. Marcus Curry taking a pitch-out and scampering 3 yards for a TD. Navy 25 LT 14. Later the Midshipmen put together a 68 yard drive including a 30 yard pass completion to increase the score to Navy 32 LT 14.

After the first quarter Navy’s defense forced the Bulldogs to punt on seven possessions. They only got past midfield once. The defense played extremely well. Made four sacks. The offense ground out 290 yards on the ground and were 5 - 8 - 0 for 103 yards passing. Navy controlled the ball 41 minutes to Louisiana Tech’s 19 minutes. The offense made a number of mistakes but they did not turn the ball over. There is much room for improvement. SB Marcus Curry showed some nifty running and had 124 yards on 15 carries.

Army jumped to a 10 - 0 lead over Duke but lost 35 - 19. Air Force lost at Minnesota 20 - 13.

Next week the Midshipmen journey to Pittsburgh for a 6 pm match with the Pittsburgh Panthers. Pitt beat Youngstown State 38 - 3 last week and Buffalo 54 - 27 yesterday. Buffalo had 500 yards of offense, 400 passing, to Pitt’s 390 but turned the ball over four times. This will be a tough game and the Midshipmen will have to play an almost perfect game to win.

GO NAVY BEAT the PANTHERS!