Navy wins rare shootout with Air Force as Midshipmen claim first leg in 2025 Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy race

Navy and Air Force did not follow the typical script for games between service academies when they battled in a shootout on Saturday. The Midshipmen, behind a historic effort from receiver Eli Heidenreich, won a 34-31 thriller that featured far more offense than this series is accustomed to seeing. It was just the third time on record that both teams scored at least 30 points against each other.

Despite their run-heavy option systems, the Midshipmen and Falcons combined for a whopping 977 yards in a back-and-forth showdown defined by explosive play after explosive play. Heidenreich was the biggest factor in that regard. His 243 receiving yards were by far a Navy single-game record and broke a mark that stood since 1967 when Rob Taylor racked up 179 yards. In fact, the senior rewrote the history book with plenty of time to spare as he set the record with 10:59 to play. He also became the academy’s all-time receiving touchdown leader with 14 career scores.

Quarterback Blake Horvath joined rare company, too. In the best game of his career, the second-year starter completed 20 of his 26 pass attempts for 339 yards and three touchdowns, placing him fifth in Navy single-game history for passing yards.

“They’re playmakers,” Navy coach Brian Newberry said on the CBS broadcast of Horvath and Heidenreich. “You gotta get the ball to your playmakers, and they did a phenomenal job today.”

Ironically, it was the Midshipmen defense that sealed the deal in a game that hardly featured any stops. The group took advantage of a rare mistake from Air Force quarterback Liam Szarka, whose errant pitch attempt on a potential game-tying or go-ahead drive landed squarely in the hands of a Navy defender.

Szarka was otherwise stellar in a fantastic offensive showing of his own. The breakout star passed for 212 yards and two touchdowns, and he ran for another 152 yards and two scores to cement his status as a rising force in the Air Force system. He and tight end Bruin Fleischmann linked up six times for more than half of his passing yards and one of the two touchdowns.

Navy’s success offensively should perhaps not have come as a surprise given that Air Force fielded one of college football’s most porous defenses through the first five weeks of the season. That the Falcons were able to not only keep pace but to also take early control and fight back from multiple deficits was what made the first leg of the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy series such a thriller.

Read on below for highlights and analysis from Navy’s win over Air Force on Saturday.