Army Black Knights Stymied by Western Kentucky

BOWLING GREEN, KY. – The Army West Point football team was defeated 17-8 on the road to Western Kentucky Saturday night.

The Black Knights came back with a late touchdown and two-point conversion in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Hilltoppers.

Army was strong defensively with two Cadets registering double-digit tackles. Cole Christiansen paced the defense with 13, while Elijah Riley posted 11. After missing a slew of games, Jaylon McClinton returned to action and notched seven tackles.

On the offensive side of the ball, Army was held to 208 total yards and 137 yards on the ground. Kelvin Hopkins totaled 71 yards in the air on the night and added 31 on the ground.

Artice Hobbs IV led the team with 31 reception yards, while Sandon McCoy had a team high 41 rushing yards. Malik Hancock recorded the Black Knights’ third receiving touchdown of the season.

Western Kentucky found the end zone to open up the scoring after a 70-yard drive which elapsed 5:24 on 11 plays.

Quarterback Ty Storey punched the ball from the two-yard line to put the Hilltoppers up 7-0 in the first quarter.

Western Kentucky controlled the ball for almost the final five minutes of the first half, but couldn’t capitalize on the long drive.

The Hilltoppers settled for a field goal attempt and Cole Munson pushed it to the left and the score remained 7-0 going into the break.

The Black Knights stopped Western Kentucky throughout 16 plays and the pressure enabled their opponent to settle for a field goal attempt which sailed wide left.

To start off the second half, the Hilltoppers chewed up over seven minutes of action on a 15-play drive that went 74 yards, but Army held in the red zone, forcing a field goal from Munson from 22 yards out to give the home team a 10-0 advantage.

Army put together its first sustained drive heading into the fourth quarter thanks to a 31-yard completion from Hopkins to Hobbs, setting up a field goal try.

The Black Knights, however, missed the field goal with 13:27 on the clock to keep the score at 10-0 in favor of the Hilltoppers.

Western Kentucky ate up 9:25 of the clock on the fourth quarter and Storey finished off the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.

The drive took 17 plays and the Hilltoppers went ahead with a comfortable 17-0 lead with four minutes to go in the game.

Army drove down the field in response to the Western Kentucky score and got on the board thanks to an 8-yard receiving touchdown by Hancock.

Hopkins lead Army on the scoring drive that covered 75 yards on 11 plays in 2:21.

Hancock was also responsible for the two-point conversion cutting Western Kentucky’s lead to 17-8 after gliding into the end zone untouched.