College Football: Navy 26, Army 14

Published 12:00 am Monday, December 4, 2006

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — Navy can hook an anchor to that Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.

With a pair of rushing touchdowns, and a defense that produced two scores, the Midshipmen sent their seniors out with another win over Army and a career sweep of the service academies.

Jason Tomlinson and Reggie Campbell each ran for scores to lead Navy to a 26-14 win over Army on Saturday in the 107th meeting of one the most storied rivalries in college sports.

Keenan Little returned an interception 40 yards for a TD late in the fourth for bowl-bound Navy (9-3). The Midshipmen equaled their longest winning streak in the series, matching a pair of five-game winning streaks, most recently from 1959-1963. Navy has outscored the Black Knights by a 202-68 margin the last five years and boosted its overall series lead to 51-49-7.

“We’re fortunate we don’t have anybody on our team that’s lost to another academy,” Navy coach Paul Johnson said. “That’s a real goal to aspire to. It will sink in.”

Navy captured the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, awarded annually to the winner of the football competition between the three major service academies, for the fourth straight year.

The win also made Navy’s senior class the first in team history to finish 8-0 — yup, hoist that broom to the mast — against Army and Air Force.

“It’s hard to explain unless you’re doing it,” Navy senior co-captain Rob Caldwell said. “I’m excited for all the seniors to go out and say we could do this.”

Trying to force at least a share of the CIC trophy for the first time since 1996, the Black Knights (3-9) instead ended the season on a six-game losing streak under coach Bobby Ross. Jeremy Trimble ran for a touchdown and tight end Tim Dunn caught a TD pass with two seconds left.