Army Tops Chestnut Hill in Season Opener

Friday, September 14

Philadelphia, PA

7 PM

Army West Point

1-0

Chestnut Hill

0-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Army West Point

Chestnut Hill Coll.

Keegan West dropping back to pass vs. Chestnut Hill

Army Tops Chestnut Hill in Season Opener

September 14, 2018 | Sprint Football

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – The Army West Point sprint football team began its title defense with an impressive 45-7 victory over Chestnut Hill on Friday evening.

Army opened its seventh straight season opener to improve to 1-0 on the season.

The Black Knights were led offensively by senior quarterback Keegan West who threw for a game-high 245 passing yards and added four touchdown passes. West's favorite target throughout the game was his classmate Clayton Carter, who compiled three catches for 66 yards and two scores.

Defensively, Army caused five turnovers on three interceptions and two fumbles and had nine tackles for a loss of 33 yards. Guiding that effort was James Scroggins with two fumble recoveries and an interception, Connor Long with a sack and a forced fumble and Ryan Leach with five tackles and an interception.

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Quarter

After holding the Griffins to a three-and-out on the game's opening drive, the Black Knights took an early 3-0 lead thanks to a 28-yard field goal from rookie Seppi Ortman.
On the ensuing CHC possession, a delay of game penalty preceded an interception by Scroggins, who set up the Army offense at the six-yard line.
A trio of rushing plays was capped by a one-yard score by sophomore Matthew Sauter to push the lead to 10-0.
West wrapped up the scoring in the first period of the game with a 35-yard connection to Carter with 4:12 remaining.

Second Quarter

The Black Knights started where they left off in the second quarter as Devon Moore returned his first career interception 28 yards for a touchdown.
Three-minutes-and-47-seconds later, West hooked up with Carter for the second time, this time from 24 yards out, to give Army a 31-0 advantage.
Long forced a fumble which was recovered by Scroggins four plays later to return the pig skin to the Cadets at the 48-yard line.
Army didn't waste any time moving the ball down the field, needing just 2:25 to make it a 38-point game after West found Colt Horton for a 16-yard touchdown.
Chestnut Hill broke the shutout with 52 seconds remaining in the half when Matthew Marino delivered a 20-yard pass to Akeem Browne.

Third Quarter

The two sides traded interceptions to start the second half with Leach coming down with the first interception of his career. The Army defense forced a fumble on the next Chestnut Hill possession as well for its fourth turnover of the game.
The visitors got back on track and scored the only points of the second half with an nine-yard pass from West to Justin Charette, wrapping up a nine-play, 79-yard drive.

Fourth Quarter

With the game in hand for the Black Knights, both teams entered their backup quarterbacks and became more aggressive on fourth downs. The two sides combined to go 3-for-8 on fourth down conversions in the game.

ARMY HIGHLIGHTS AND GAME NOTES

Army improved to 3-0 all-time against Chestnut Hill.
The Black Knights' nine-game winning streak is the longest since 2012-14 when the team won 20 consecutive games.
West completed four touchdown passes in a game for the fourth time in his career and first since Oct. 21, 2016, against Franklin Pierce.
The West Point, N.Y., native eclipsed 2,500 career passing yards in the game with his seventh-career 200-yard game.
Moore and Leach each recorded their first career interceptions.
Carter posted his second-career multi-touchdown game, having also caught two touchdown passes against Chestnut Hill on Sept. 16, 2016.

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