Navy vs Northwestern

It was another very hot and moderately humid day, clear skies, great enthusiastic crowd, balloon making clowns, lots of things for the kids to do, 4 jets in the flyover, a fine Navy day. It started on a positive note with Navy scoring the first touch down within a minute and half and we rallied really well for most of the game, staying just about even with Northwestern, point for point. Navy was on a great run near the end of the game, with only a minute or two left, and the score 38 (us) to 42 as I recall. Then the QB Craig Candeto made a great pass which to all of us the stands was completed before Eckels ran another ten yards or so, touched his knee to the ground (ending the play) and then lost the ball, only to be recovered by Northwestern. On the instant replay on the jumbotron, it also looked like his knee was down before the fumble. But,the call was that Northwestern recovered the fumble and got the ball. They took it in for a touchdown (our 2 points were on a safety). According to the local news here, the sportscaster agreed with the fans and showed the incident clearly on TV, the receiver's knee was down and the ruling appears to be in error. However, that's the way it is in college football, the refs don't look at instant replays and you have to take the calls the way they are made. The Navy team
did not argue, they showed true sportsmanship even though it was a critical turning point. Unfortunately, in that instant the tide turned and we lost momentum and the game. However, it was a valiant effort and the offense was looking better out there today, with many great passes and carries.