Army coasts past Charlotte for first home win

Jeff Monken expects his team to meet specific standards, all necessary to win football games at the highest level of college football.

On Saturday, the 12-year West Point coach said that his team did not meet some of those standards, specifically on offense during most of the second half and, defensively, during the last drive of the game that resulted in a Charlotte touchdown with just eight seconds left.

How much did the Black Knights lose by? They didn’t. In fact, Army handily defeated the visiting 49ers, 24-7, before a sold-out crowd of 31,117 at a misty Michie Stadium to even its overall record at 3-3 and 2-2 in the American Conference. Charlotte fell to 1-5 overall and 0-3 in the American.

Monken’s comments may have as much to do with how the team played in the second half against Charlotte as it does with how well the Black Knights will perform in the second half of the season. Next Saturday, Army travels to New Orleans to meet Tulane, which is 5-1 (2-0 in the American) this season with only a loss to No. 13 ranked Mississippi, followed by a Commander-in-Chief Trophy game at Air Force (1-5 overall but scoring 79 points in its last two games) in three weeks.

Plus, it is not easy to forget that Army’s two-game winning streak comes against two teams that are winless in conference play and have won just a combined three of the 11 games they have played this season.

“I thought in the second half our offense played very poor,” said Monken. “I voiced my displeasure with them (after the game). I know who we have to be and what we have to do if we’re going to win and have a chance to beat another opponent on our schedule, any of them. Hopefully, we’ll get some things corrected through coaching and through practicing the fundamentals and our assignments. We’ll see if we can play better next week and have a chance to be competitive against a great, well-coached Tulane team, one of the best teams in our league.

“It’s a combination of all of it and I’m critical of every bit of it,” Monken added, when asked about consistency and fundamentals. “I’m critical of myself because I’m responsible for all of it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we won. It sure beats the alternative. I’ve been doing this a long time. I tell you, sometimes it’s even hard to enjoy the victories because the standard is so high. My expectations are so high.”

Still, against Charlotte, Army was dominant, outgaining the 49ers 354 to 178 in total offense and 304 to 68 in rushing yards. Army jumped out to a 17-0 halftime lead and took a 24-0 lead midway through the third quarter before stalling out for the rest of the game.

“I think we just got content and comfortable,” said junior quarterback Cale Hellums, who was starting his third game for the Black Knights. “We were up 24-0, which is a positive, but you’d like to score or end every drive with points. Once we got to 24, we didn’t do that.”

Defensively, the Black Knights were nearly perfect for most of the game. With less than two minutes left in the contest, Charlotte had accumulated just 119 offensive yards, only about 60 passing yards and were completely unable to mount any kind of sustained drive to get on the scoreboard.

That is until the waning moments of the game. After a blocked Army field goal attempt gave the 49ers the ball on their own 41-yard line with 1:54 left in the game, Charlotte raced downfield on eight plays that ended when backup quarterback Grayson Loftis found receiver KD Hunter-Gibson for a 16-yard touchdown reception. The score ended Army’s chance for it first shutout since beating Navy 15-0 at Michie during the shortened covid season in 2020.

Plenty of Army players performed well on Saturday. On offense, Hellums, playing only two and a half quarters, gained 143 yards on 21 carries and scored two touchdowns to spur the Black Knight offense for the second week in a row. Despite a fumble early in the game, fullback Hayden Reed ran for 53 yards on 11 carries, while backup fullbacks Carson Smith had 37 yards on six carries and Briggs Bartosh had 25 yards on six carries.

Noah Short was held to 24 rushing yards on eight attempts, but the senior slotback caught a 44-yard reception to set up the Black Knights last touchdown in the third quarter.

Defensively, the Black Knights simply did everything right to make Charlotte’s day miserable. The 49ers two quarterbacks, starter Zach Wilcke and Loftis, were held to just 110 passing yards on a combined 16-for-26 passing. Each was sacked once. Five Charlotte runners were held to just 86 rushing yards on 29 carries, a meager 2.3 yards per attempt.

“We knew they have some pretty good running backs and their offensive line was pretty good,” said Kalib Fortner, a senior linebacker and co-captain who had four solo tackles and assisted on three others. “We had to make sure we could stop the run, hold them to one-dimensional throwing the ball. That’s not something they do really well. We played good complementary football on defense. Everybody was making their plays.”