Tag: Army Black Knights

San Jose State holds on to beat Army, 34-29

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Photo credit: @SanJoseStateFB

By Ana Kieu

San Jose State had lost two in a row, but they redeemed themselves with a win over Army West Point at Michie Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Spartans got on the board first, thanks to Isaiah Hamilton. Hamilton scored a 19-yard touchdown off a pass from Josh Love to put San Jose State up 7-0 at 11:44 of the first quarter.

The Black Knights evened the score 7-7 when Kelvin Hopkins Jr. threw a pass to Camden Harrison for a 31-yard touchdown. The score was tied at 7 at the end of the first.

But the Spartans refused to back down. San Jose State opened the second quarter with a Matt Mercurio 30-yard field goal at 14:42. Then, the San Jose State scores kept on coming. Love threw a pass to Kairee Robinson for an 18-yard touchdown at 11:36. Mercurio added two field goals, a 23-yarder and a 38-yarder with 5:37 and 0:02 left in the second, respectively.

The Black Knights’ lone score in the second was a Cole Talley 41-yard field goal with 0:52 left. The Spartans led 23-10 at the halftime break.

The third quarter was a low-scoring affair, but the Spartans remained on top 23-17 after three. Sandon McCoy ran for a 4-yard touchdown to pull within six with 8:09 left in the third.

The back-and-forth fourth quarter had fans on the edges of their seats. Love threw a pass to Bailey Gaither for a 21-yard touchdown and Love connected with Tre Walker for the 2-point conversion to put the Spartans up 31-17 at 14:53. Christian Anderson ran for a 1-yard touchdown, but the Black Knights’ 2-point run conversion failed, so they just pulled within eight. Mercurio kicked a 28-yard field goal to make it 34-23 with 3:48 left. Anderson responded with a 33-yard touchdown, his second of the game, but once again, the Black Knights’ 2-point pass conversion failed, so the Spartans still led 34-29 with 31 seconds left.

This wasn’t the prettiest game for the Spartans, but they left West Point, N.Y. with a 34-29 win over the Black Knights. San Jose State improved to 4-4, while Army fell to 3-5. Mercurio was 4-for-4 for the day.

The Spartans return home to host the #22 Boise State Broncos on Saturday, November 2 at 7:30 pm PT. The game will be broadcasted on the CBS Sports Network.

San Jose State gets run over by Army 52-3

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Photo credit: @SJSUSpartanFB

By: Ana Kieu

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — If you’re a San Jose State football fan, chances are you’ve heard the term “revenue games.” SJSU, a FBS and Mountain West school, has relied on such games to fund its athletic departments. Saturday’s non-conference matchup was another example as the Spartans took on the Black Knights at Levi’s Stadium in a nationally televised game on ESPNU.

Sure, SJSU fans and media members were fired up for this game. After all, it was held in Levi’s Stadium–one of the best, high-end stadiums in the country–and the food has never skimped on flavor! But the Spartans were unable to achieve their goal of defeating the Black Knights.

The Spartans decided to start Montel Aaron as their starting quarterback.

The Spartans got on the board first as Bryce Crawford kicked in a 49-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead with 4:14 left in the opening quarter. SJSU led Army 3-0 at the end of the quarter.

The Black Knights immediately responded with a 41-yard passing touchdown from Jordan Asberry. Jordan Abercrombie kicked in the extra point for a 7-3 lead just seven seconds into the second quarter. The Black Knights struck with a late touchdown–a 1-yard rushing touchdown from Kelvin Hopkins, Jr.–and another extra point kick from Abercrombie with 12 seconds left in the quarter. Army carried a 14-3 lead to the locker room at halftime.

The Black Knights got off to a good start to open the second half. Hopkins, Jr. notched his second touchdown of the game–a 24-yard rushing touchdown–and Abercrombie kicked in the extra point for a 21-3 lead with 9:06 left in the third quarter.

Turnovers, however, affected the Spartans like in previous games. SJSU’s first turnover of the game led to an Army scoring drive. At the time, the Black Knights were unable to add a touchdown, but they settled for a 33-yard field goal from Abercrombie, who added to the scoreboard 24-3 with 7:39 left in the quarter.

But the Black Knights weren’t done yet. Darnell Woolfolk bowled into the end zone for a one-yard rushing touchdown and Abercrombie kicked in the extra point to expand Army’s lead 31-3 with 6:18 left in the quarter.

Hopkins, Jr. scored what appeared to be his third rushing touchdown of the game–a four-yard rushing touchdown–but the play underwent a review. After further review, the ruling on the touchdown stood and Abercrombie kicked in the extra point to enlarge the lead 38-3 with 1:44 left in the quarter.

Following the Army touchdown, Aaron returned to the field and replaced Michael Carrillo. Aaron completed a pass to Thai Cottrell for seven yards to the SJSU 39 for a Spartan first down and then completed another pass to Tre Walker for nine yards to the SJSU 32. The Black Knights led 38-3 at the end of the quarter.

The Spartans committed another turnover that led to a Black Knights touchdown–a 52-yard fumble touchdown from James Nachtigal–and a PAT kick from Abercrombie, who made it 45-3 just 28 seconds into the fourth quarter.

The Spartans opened the scoring, but the Black Knights took the lead and never looked back. Army defeated SJSU 52-3 and it wasn’t even close.

“I thought the personal foul at the end of the game was embarrassing and awful and wrong,” head coach Brent Brennan said. “I’ve already addressed it with the team as there’s no place for that.”

“This was a total gut punch for our program, Brennan added. “I thought we were making great progress and I was actually encouraged about our practices and what it shows is that we’re not ready to make the next move.”

Aside from Brennan, the Spartan players had other thoughts on this game.

“We’re ready to move on,” defensive lineman Bryson Bridges said. “We played to the best of our abilities.”

When asked about pursuing the next level, cornerback Dakari Monroe responded, “Yes. Definitely. Since I came here, I’ve always wanted to play at the next level. I definitely want to pursue that.”

Last but not least, running back Tyler Nevens closed out the postgame press conference. Nevens reflected on his injury, asserting the media members, “I’m feeling good. I’m feeling more comfortable. My injury took me a lot of time to heal and get back to being the football player that I am. I showed them what I got.”

Notes
The Spartans’ possible starters were JaQuan Blackwell, Jackson Snyder, Troy Kowalski, Trevor Robbins, Jake Colman, Deano Motes, Josh Oliver, Josh Love, Tyler Nevens, Thai Cottrell and Tre Hartley on offense and Bryson Bridges, Boogie Roberts, Sailosi Latu, Jesse Osuna, Kyle Harmon, Ethan Aguayo, Jamal Scott, Dakar Monroe, John Touissaint, Tre Webb and Jonathan Lenard, Jr. on defense.

Up Next 
The Spartans will travel to Qualcomm Stadium to take on the San Diego State Aztecs next Saturday at 7:30 pm PT on CBSS.

Stanford vs Army Preview

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Stanford Cardinal football team will be playing the Army Black Knights at Michie Stadium located at the U.S. Military Academy located at West Point, New York. Kickoff will be at 9am Pacific.

The Cardinal is coming off a win over San Jose State last Saturday night at Stanford Stadium.

The Cardinal led on offense by Kevin Hogan, Ty Gaffner and Ty Montgomery will be facing an Army team that has started the season 1-1. The Black Knights beat Morgan State in their opener but lost to Ball State last week.

The Army Team is coached by Rich Ellerson who is now in his fifth year as head coach.  Ellerson loves to use the triple option and the Black Knights led the nation in rushing last year averaging nearly 370 yards per game. The Cardinal’s stout defense should be up to the task as they are led on defense by Shayne Skov, A.J. Tarply and Ed Reynolds. Under Ellerson’s tutelage, Army had it’s first winning season since 1996 in 2010. The Black Knights played In the Bell Helicopter Armed Services Bowl and won 16-14. The record that year was 7-6.  However, Army’s record the last two years is just 5-19.

Army does have a Bay Area product playing for them Chris Carnegie from East Oakland will be the starting cornerback.

Army has been playing intercollegiate football for many years. Their best years came when the were coached by the legendary Earl “Red” Blaik. Blaik coached the team from 1941 to 1958 and had a record of 121-33-10. His most famous players were Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis. The two players were known as “Mister Inside” and  “Mister Outside”. Pete Dawkins starred for the Black Knights in the 50’s and Dawkins went on to a successful military career. Back in those days, Army would play Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium to sell out crowds and the games would draw national attention.

In the early days of television, the Army-Navy game was always a must. However, the service academies are no longer in the top 25 rated teams anymore.  Many reasons for that but the main reason is that players that have pro potential do not want to commit 5 more years of military service after graduation as their skills would probably erode and they would not make it in the NFL.

Stanford should be favored but the game is on the road and the football can take funny bounces. Stanford’s coach David Shaw will have his players ready.