3-peat: Tech outlasts Navy for third consecutive bowl win

FORT WORTH, Texas — What seemed like hundreds of hands all held up three fingers while sitting on the soiled turf of Amon G. Carter Stadium.

Somewhere in the middle, Louisiana Tech coach Skip Holtz raised his own three fingers. Why three? It signified a three-peat. Tech had just won its third consecutive bowl game, a first in school history, and it happened in dramatic fashion at the Armed Forces Bowl.

Tech pieced together a late drive to set up Jonathan Barnes' 32-yard field goal as time expired, and Louisiana Tech out-slugged No. 25 Navy to pull out a 48-45 victory on Friday in Fort Worth, Texas. It was Tech's first win over a ranked team since 2005.

"As soon as Logan (McPherson) put the ball down, I felt like the kick was money. I started bawling like a baby," Tech quarterback Ryan Higgins said. "Each person I hugged after that it was just getting worse and worse. I couldn't be happier to send my class and this team out on a higher note."

Those who liked offense were in for a treat Friday. The nation's No. 3-ranked passing offense threw the ball around the yard. The nation's No. 4-ranked rushing offense ran up and down the field.

The passing game won in the end.

Higgins, Trent Taylor and Carlos Henderson teamed up to carry yet another impressive offensive output to help Tech secure its third consecutive nine-win season.

Higgins threw for 409 yards and accounted for five total touchdowns, Taylor set an Armed Forces Bowl record with 233 yards and two scores, surpassing the previous mark of 153 set by Rice's Jordan Taylor in 2012 and Henderson tallied 10 catches for 129 yards and two scores.

Tech piled up 497 yards of total offense. Navy had 459 yards. It was the highest-scoring Armed Forces Bowl in history.

"Nobody flinched," Taylor said. "Coach tells us that all the time. Just don't flinch."

A 55-point first half turned quiet with seven points in the third quarter only to witness 31 points in the fourth quarter, including three scores in the final 4 minutes of the game.

Henderson caught a touchdown pass to put Tech up 45-38 with 4 minutes to play. Navy answered with a 30-yard run to tie the game.

Tech's offense was up for the challenge, marching 70 yards in 3 minutes and 40 seconds to win the game. Taylor, who earned MVP honors, secured a 23-yard catch to put the Bulldogs in field goal range.

Players and coaches ran on the field before Barnes' kick fell to the ground after hitting the back of the net.

Before the kick, Barnes, McPherson and holder Darrell Travis shared a moment.

"I told them before we went out there and we ran the clock down, we were sitting there and I told them would it be fitting for this to end any other way for us three to go out there and finish it like this?" Barnes said.

"If you want to be a kicker, you better live for that. If not, you're not going to be a kicker very long."

After the game-winning kick, players took turns hoisting the trophy. Tech previously won bowl games in 2014 (Heart of Dallas) and 2015 (New Orleans Bowl).

Tech's senior class tied a program record with their 31st win. Players like Higgins and Taylor went out on top, leaving the torch to the underclassmen

Henderson, one of those underclassmen, had 266 all-purpose yards, delivering big play after big play. Even Jarred Craft had several key runs, bouncing back from a second-half fumble in the red zone. Craft had 17 carries for 63 yards, good for 32 more yards than he had in his past two games.

Henderson started the game with an 82-yard kickoff return, bouncing off a Navy defender before turning on the jets to start the drive in the red zone. Tech ran it four straight times to score 90 seconds into the game. The 16 rushing yards were more than the previous two games combined (13).

Holtz wanted the ball to start the game.

"In this game, I felt like if they came out and had the ball for the first two or three possessions and had a drive like they did to start the third quarter that took 7 minutes that I was concerned with us offensively getting a little frustrated because we were used to moving the ball and scoring points and being very aggressive," Holtz said.

The game was tied four times. Even with a third-string quarterback, Navy still gave Tech fits on defense.

Playing without two defensive starters — one due to injury and the other to academics — Tech allowed 300 rushing yards, which is on par with what Navy averaged per game this year at 310 yards.

Still, Holtz said he thought the defense played well. Stops were few and far between, but they came at key moments.

"I told the team last night, the defense was going to be the difference in this game," Holtz said. "The stops our defense got today was the difference in this game. That's why it was a higher scoring game because we got some stops. We had a lot more possessions than I thought we would."

Tech had 11. Some teams playing Navy are lucky to get seven or eight.

An early turnover and a punt led to 10 early points, and Tech set the tone from there.

Tech scored on five of its first seven drives with four coming on touchdowns. Higgins accounted for all three scores with three passing touchdowns and a 1-yard quarterback keeper to push his passing total to 40 scores for 2016. He became the second player in school history to throw for 4,000 yards and 40 touchdowns in a season, joining Tech quarterbacks coach Tim Rattay, who accomplished the feat in 1998.

Higgins connected with Taylor twice on scores of 19 and 51 yards. The 51-yard connection came before halftime to give Tech a 31-24 lead. Navy let Taylor get free, and Higgins hit Taylor in stride for his 12th score of the season. Taylor racked up 148 yards in the first half to become the second player in school history to surpass 4,000 receiving yards.

Navy's slow, methodical offense turned into a quick-strike attack in the first half with scoring drives of 2 minutes and 46 seconds, 24 seconds and 1 minute and 47 seconds.

In the second half, Navy strung together a classic time-consuming drive, milking off more than 7 minutes off the clock on 90 yards to tie the score at 31-31.

Boston Scott delivered with a 12-yard touchdown to put Tech up 38-31 early in the fourth quarter.

"When we needed to answer, we did," Higgins said. "When there was a swing of momentum, we shut them down."