AIR FORCE ACADEMY — After playing as if they were a band of roughnecks in the first half, the Air Force Falcons discarded the extra stuff and turned to solid football in the second half, earning a hard-fought 30-21 victory over Navy on Saturday at Falcon Stadium.
The victory puts the Falcons in the driver’s seat for winning the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.
The solid second half was augmented by two touchdown passes by senior quarterback Kale Pearson and a bristling defense that forced four of Navy’s five punts in the final 30 minutes.
Pearson connected on a 32-yard strike to tight end Garret Griffin, completing a 15-play, 75-yard drive that opened the second half and pushed Air Force to a 21-14 lead. The second came on a gutsy, fourth-and-2 call from the Navy 13-yard line. With the Falcons expected to run, Pearson delivered a strike to receiver Garrett Brown, who was wide open in the end zone. It was Brown’s second touchdown of the game and iced the victory with 35 seconds left.
“I thought it would be a touchdown if we could get the pass off,” Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said. “That’s because of how many guys the Navy defense was bringing. But we had to get the pass off.”
“It was a great call,” Pearson said.
The Falcons (4-1) never trailed, but it took some special heroics late to secure the victory that ended Navy’s two-game winning streak over Air Force and put the Falcons in position to win the trophy for the first time since 2011. Air Force can claim the trophy by winning Nov. 13 at Army.
The Midshipmen didn’t surrender their grip on the trophy easily. After a 22-yard field goal by Will Conant put the Falcons ahead 24-14 with 4:27 left in the game, Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds rallied his team with a 40-yard touchdown pass to DeBrandon Sanders and suddenly Air Force’s lead was down to three with 2:14 remaining.
Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo called for an onside kick, but Air Force’s Jalen Robinette went up like he was going for a rebound, fielded the high bounce and returned it 13 yards to the Navy 32-yard line. The clinching touchdown followed.
“It was a perfect bounce,” said Robinette. “I jumped up and got it, saw the hole and tried to get some yards.”
Robinette also was the catalyst on a trick play in the first half that resulted in a 54-yard touchdown pass to Brown. Robinette took a lateral from Pearson before finding Brown down the sideline.
The Falcons settled down in the second half after a rash of penalties in the first half. They were tagged with three unnecessary roughness calls, one calling back a touchdown on an interception and ejection of cornerback Justin DeCoud for striking with his elbow.
“To play this game you have to be passionate,” Calhoun said. “But I think in the first half, we let the fire play us.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296, imoss@denverpost.com or twitter.com/irvmoss
