Offense Leads Navy Past Tulsa, Midshipmen Claim First In AAC West

In a battle for first in the AAC West, Tulsa struggled with Navy’s triple option offense and fell 42-40.

The loss put TU at 7-3 on the season.

The Midshipmen set the game tone early, wasting no time to score first on a three-play, 43-yard drive.

But the Golden Hurricane answered back, scoring on their first play when Dane Evans connected with Keevan Lucas for a 74-yard score to make it 7-all.

A 29-yard field goal from Redford Jones gave TU its first lead of the game.

Wrapping the first quarter Navy led 14-10, and both teams combined for 336 total yards. Tulsa tallied 179 and Navy nabbed 157.

Navy advanced its advantage 21-10 early in the second quarter with a one-yard rush, capping a 69-yard, ten-play drive.

At this point, Tulsa's defense needed to do a better job containing the Midshipmen's triple option offense.

With 10:09 before the half, Evans found Josh Atkinson for a 56-yard touchdown pass to cut the Golden Hurricane deficit to just four.

But Navy bumped its lead 28-17 on an 11-yard scoring pass with 3:01 left in the quarter.

Entering the half, TU trailed 28-20.

Late in the third quarter, Evans recovered from an intercepted pass with a scoring pass to Keenan Johnson to make it a one-point matchup.

After an end zone appearance from Tulsa, the Midshipmen answered back to lead 35-27 early in the fourth.

But TU battled back with an impressive catch from Justin Hobbs to set the Golden Hurricane up at the one-yard line, leading to a rushing score by Evans. Tulsa went for two but was stopped just short of the line.

With TU down 35-33 with 10:28 to play, Navy took a 42-33 lead. TU's defense looked slow and unable to stop the Midshipmen offense.

Chris Minter recorded his first career touchdown catch on a 22-yard pass from Evans to cap a 72-yard, eight-play drive, helping Tulsa cut its deficit 42-40.

The pass to Minter helped Dane Evans tally 369 passing yards on the day to become Tulsa's career passing leader.

With just two minutes left in the game, Navy had the ball and it didn't look good for Tulsa since they'd only forced the Midshipmen to punt once and only stopped them on 4th down once the entire game.

Navy held its 42-40 lead to beat Tulsa and become first in the AAC West.