Army-Navy 2002: The beginning of "The Streak"
It's time to signal another end to the college football regular season and that could only mean one thing and that the annual Army vs Navy game. It's also the final game for the commanders-in-chief's trophy that's handed out yearly to the best service academy get wins the most games head to head.
These teams started playing way back in 1890 and now it's one of the biggest games in college football. Lately the Naval academy has dominated winning the last 14 matchups and come into this one ranked (#20), so the Black Knights would love to kill two birds with one stone ending the Midshipmen's streak and knock them out of the rankings.
This rivalry started way back in 1890 and is now one of the best rivalries in college football
Speaking of this streak, it started back in 2002 with a dominating victory by Navy, 58-12 to be exact, so lets look at the game that catapulted the 14-game streak shall we.
Navy QB Craig Candeto put on maybe the best performance of any player in this rivalry by accounting for 7 touchdowns en route to a Naval academy blowout. Candeto set a school record and tied a then record six rushing touchdowns in a single game. Candeto only had 18 carries for 103 yards but his 4 first half touchdowns put the game away at halftime.
Candeto's record performance is still the best single game performance in this rivalry. His 4 touchdowns at halftime was the start of a 58-12 blowout of Army
The win ended a miserable season for the 2-10 midshipmen and sent them into the record books as far as most points scored, biggest margin of victory (46, 2nd most, Navy 51 in 1973) and most rushing yards (421).
The Naval Academy ran for 421 yards and totaled 508 all together (both game records at the time). This game was between two teams that only won one game each but it's significant meaning went way beyond the gridiron as it was the second game after the 9/11 attacks, as for the first game the year before didn't have that feel to it, but it made the meaning of the game that much more special.
This will be game in this rivalry that will go down as a record setting performance by the Naval academy and the start of a record setting streak that may never be broken and could continue past this season.
