Hellums, Army rally past Air Force

Two years ago, Cale Hellums, a freshman backup quarterback, was told by Army coach Jeff Monken that he would one day get his chance to win a Commander-in-Chief trophy game.

Hellums lived the moment before a sellout crowd of 39,441 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colo. and a national television audience Saturday. With time winding down in a nailbiter between the Black Knights and Air Force, the Army junior quarterback found Brady Anderson for a 42-yard reception to the Air Force 12-yard line. That throw and catch set up a Dawson Jones 27-yard game-winning field goal with time expiring to give Army a 20-17 victory.

Moments later, surrounded by the intense emotions and festivities that is service academy football, Hellums and Monken were embracing on the field.

“My freshman year, coach Monken told me on the field of the Army-Navy game that year that I was going to win this team some C-I-C games and beat Air Force,” said Hellums, who had 98 rushing yards and a touchdown on 26 carries and was 5-for-9 passing for 102 yards including a 40-yard scoring pass to Noah Short in the first quarter. “(After the game), I said, ‘You told me that was going to happen and it did.’ I just got emotional. It was an awesome feeling.”

“(The completion to Anderson) was one of the biggest throws I made in my life and to do it on that stage against Air Force, the first step to winning the C-I-C at Air Force when you know you have to get points, it was awesome. Then I had to put it behind me and focus on the next play.”

The win, the Black Knights’ third straight over Air Force and seventh in nine games, moves Army to 4-4 on the season and creates a Dec. 13 showdown with Navy in Baltimore to decide the Commander in Chief Trophy winner for the year. Also, the win keeps open a viable path to at least six wins this season and an opportunity to play in a post-season bowl game. Air Force is now 2-6.

While the entire game was emotionally draining for fans of both teams, the last four minutes of the contest had all the drama of a Hollywood movie script, First, an Air Force fumble, caused by Cole Searight and recovered by Deshontez Gray, stopped a potential game-tying drive with 3:11 left in the game on the Army 17-yard line.

Moments later, Monken, hellbent on controlling the ball and his team’s destiny in the closing minutes, decided to go for broke on 4th-and-1 on Army’s own  26-yard line with Air Force out of timeouts. The gamble failed when Hellums was tripped up short of the line to gain and the Falcons took over with 2:16 left in the contest.

Four plays later, helped by a pass interference call in the end zone, Falcons quarterback Liam Szarka pushed in from the two-yard line for a touchdown and the extra point tied the score at 17-17 with 1:26 left in regulation.

But, Army was not done yet. After another fourth-down play, this time successful, Hellums found Anderson open down the middle of the field. Two plays later, Dawson, who had been inconsistent this year, especially in big plays, hit the high-pressure, 27-yard kick to give the Black Knights the victory.

As much as the Black Knights offense might grab the headlines, it was actually the Army defense which won the game. Stingy as ever against the Falcons (Air Force had not scored a touchdown against Army in the previous two games), the defense forced three turnovers, two interceptions and the fumble, two of which ended deep Air Force drives, and did not allow a touchdown until the last play of the third quarter.

“Turnovers are so big,” said Monken, who now has a 7-5 record against Air Force and offered kudos to defensive coordinator Nate Woody for his play calling and motivational skills. “The most lopsided stat is going to be the turnover battle. If you win the turnover battle by at least one turnover your chance to win the game is between 75 and 80 percent. One turnover is big, getting two (or three) are obviously huge plays.”

Also, the defense put the brakes on the high-powered Air Force offense that was scoring 34 points per game and Szarka in particular. They held the sophomore quarterback to just 91 rushing yards on 29 carries and 161 yards on 13 completions. Szarka did score both Falcons touchdowns.

“We have this plan that we try to follow and it goes along with our team commandments, team values and rules,” said junior defensive lineman Kody Harris-Miller, who returned to the lineup for the first time since being hurt in Army’s first game against Tarleton State and had two solo tackles. “We bend but don’t break. We are going out there and give everything we got for the brother to the left and right of us. The offense puts their trust in us and we put our trust in the offense.

“It is just a matter of being in the right spot. Coach Woody crafts it up and puts us in the right spots and we are just lucky to be able to make the plays we did and come out victorious.”