Seniors Lead Army To Victory

With under 3 minutes left in the game, the Army sideline could be heard yelling "Get all the seniors in."

At that point, Army's lead was safe and it was time to send off the seniors in style. Led by Larry Dixon's 158 yards on the ground, the Black Knights were able to upset(?) the Fordham Rams to earn their 4th victory of the year.

Army amassed 382 yards passing and got big contributions from the senior Dixon as well as fellow graduating players in Terry Baggett, Raymond Maples, and Angel Santiago. A.J. Schurr handled the offense for a while before suffering an apparent shoulder injury. His status for next week is still unknown.

The biggest story to take away from this game is how Army bounced back. Down 10-0 in the first quarter, it appeared that Fordham was going to run away with the game. But Dixon, the team captain who passed the 3,000 yard mark for his career today, refused to let his team down.

Baggett scored early in the second quarter to bring Army within 3 of the Rams. As time expired in the half, Fordham lined up in their own endzone to punt the ball. Army was content with being down going into the half, but stud playmaker Josh Jenkins had his own play. Rushing off the side, he was able to get a hand on the punt and it was recovered by Lamar Johnson-Harris in the endzone for an Army touchdown.

And then the Larry Dixon Show began.

Army received the opening kickoff and immediately Dixon began gashing the Ram defense. His first of threetouchdowns came on the first drive of the half, where he got the ball on six out of the eight plays on the drive.

Santiago and sophomore Aaron Kemper, the apparent heir to the starting running back position next season, did most of the grunt work on Army's 20 play scoring drive that saw Dixon's second score of the day. It looked as if Army was going to run away with the game. Along with extending drives and getting the entire offense involved, the Army defense seemed to be dominating the Fordham passing attack, even recording a sack on a rare blitz.

But Fordham started to wake up. Immediately following Dixon's second score, Mike Nebrich found Brian Wetzel wide open for a 65 yard passing touchdown. Army quickly responded with another Dixon score, but Nebrich went right back to work and connected with Tebucky Jones Jr., to bring the score up to 35-24 Army.

Army's next drive resulted in Maples scoring from inside the five, and time was against the Rams as Nebrich's final score to Adam Malkiewicz, off a tipped pass, came with only 13 seconds left. Head Coach Jeff Monken, trying to get Santiago a passing touchdown, drew up a deep pass play to Kelvin White, who stumbled short of the end zone, ending the game.

Army has seem to have found their stride just in time, as they play Navy next week with College Gameday covering the game in Baltimore. While Army still looks susceptible to the pass, their primary concern will stopping Keenan Reynolds on the ground, rather than through the air.

Player of the Game: Larry Dixon

Dixon ran hard all day and also passed 1,000 yards on the season, and his 3 touchdowns today gives him 9 on the season. Fordham was unable to tackle him and while he did leave briefly with a knee problem, it appeared to either be minor or precautionary as he was back on the field the next series. He has one last game next week against Navy, and look for Monken to get him out in space more to punish the Midshipmen secondary.