But there the score stays. The Middies shank a field goal, but a Cadet bumps into the kicker, the penalty giving Navy a game-saving first down. The Annapolitans whoop as Broadwater kneels down, running out the clock. Victory itself is oddly hushed. The students stay in the stands for a ritual singing of school songs, the losers first.
Someone has a tasteful vibrato.
Only after that does the exultation burst out. Down in the pressroom, star defensive back Chris Lepore says the same. Lepore, who grabbed 10 of the 22 fumbles and interceptions Navy got all year, is strangely and giddily self-effacing. Because we won.