HOUSTON \u2014 Houston\u2019s defense slowed Navy in the second half, and the offense carried the momentum from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
D\u2019Eriq King threw for 277 yards and a touchdown and ran for two more scores to lead Houston to a 24-14 win over Navy on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
King completed 21 of 27 passes and found Steven Dunbar for a 61-yard touchdown pass to give the Cougars (7-4, 5-3 American) a 21-14 lead with 14 minutes left in the game. King hit Dunbar in stride along the right sideline, and Dunbar broke one tackle at the Navy 40 and went untouched from there for the score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Houston\u2019s defense shut Navy out in the second half and held the Midshipmen to 79 yards and six first downs. The 14 points was a season low for Navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Malcolm Perry rushed for 82 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries, and Anthony Gargiulo added 71 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries to lead Navy (6-5, 4-4), which lost its fifth in the last six games. The Midshipmen outrushed Houston 217-103, but had 167 yards rushing at the half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cObviously, a disappointing loss,\u201d Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. \u201cWe left some points out there in the first half that came back to bite us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perry tied it 7-7 with a 12-yard touchdown run with 13:42 left in the second, and Gargiulo gave the Midshipmen a 14-7 lead with six minutes remaining in the first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHouston played well defensively,\u201d Niumatalolo said. \u201cWe just can\u2019t sustain ourselves. It\u2019s kind of the story of our season. We can\u2019t put stuff together consistently. Obviously, Houston knew that. They kept their safeties back to see if we could grind it out and we couldn\u2019t. We couldn\u2019t execute the whole way downfield.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Linell Bonner finished with eight catches for 98 yards for Houston, which won its third out of the last four games. Houston outgained Navy 380-291.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Midshipmen were able to run the triple option with success in the first half, finishing two drives with touchdowns, but Navy couldn\u2019t keep it going, rushing for 50 yards in the second half. Zach Abey started and ran the option well, rushing for 33 yards, but trailing in the fourth quarter, Navy used Perry and Garret Lewis under center. Navy won the turnover battle, recovering two fumbles, but were unable to convert either turnover into points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Midshipmen will have two weeks off before facing Army in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Mids have lost five out of their last six heading into the Army-Navy game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":74324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":76,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["military-sports","off-duty"],"primary_category":"military-sports"},"4":{"categories":["military-sports","off-duty"],"primary_category":"military-sports"},"6":{"categories":["military-sports","off-duty"],"primary_category":"military-sports"},"7":{"categories":["military-sports","off-duty"],"primary_category":"military-sports"}}},"categories":[76,13],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2767],"class_list":["post-38541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-sports","category-off-duty"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"GX6UZDY7JBAFRMHQKEUOJ7T6JI","arc_canonical_url":"\/off-duty\/military-sports\/2017\/11\/24\/navy-offense-sputters-in-disappointing-loss-at-houston\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n