YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea – Compared to last year’s 62-0 blowout win, Saturday’s 18th edition of the Korea Army-Navy flag football game proved to be something of a nail-biter.

But while the soldiers prevailed 20-14 at Seoul American High School, the game was not just about football and the traditional rivalries between the two branches of the Armed Forces.

While rivals on the field, camaraderie, community and team-building are the true goals, officials presiding over the game said.

“Here on Yongsan, it’s a good opportunity to replicate the game,” Naval Forces Korea commanding officer Rear Adm. Lisa Franchetti said of the 115-year-old service academy rivalry between Army and Navy.

“It’s a great morale booster. It’s a good opportunity to have a little bit of a rivalry, but in the end, we’re all on the same team. Both sides get to put together a team and we get to celebrate this great day together.”

Such Pacific flag-football rivalry games have been in existence since the first one on Okinawa played in 1990. They’re closely timed with the Army-Navy service-academy games, this year scheduled for Dec. 13 at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium. Kickoff is 5 a.m. Dec. 14 on AFN Sports.

Navy leads that series 58-49-7 and has won the last 12 straight games. In Korea, with Saturday’s victory, Army holds a 15-3 lead in the Peninsula Trophy series and is 40-15 overall in games played on Guam, Okinawa, the Tokyo area and Misawa Air Base since 1990.

Excitement and energy marked Saturday’s game, as a crowd of some 140, mostly Navy fans, filled the concrete bleachers on a sunny but chilly day, with temperatures hovering around 32.

Army’s Derrick Boyd struck first in the game’s opening 10 seconds, scoring the first of three unanswered touchdowns, giving the soldiers a 20-0 lead early in the second half.

Unlike last year, Navy didn’t go down without a fight, scoring twice in the last five minutes, the second one with 50 seconds left.

But it was as close as the sailors got.

“Going into the game, I thought it was going to be a good game,” Army coach Victor Turnipseed said. “I thought Army was going to win by a whole lot more, but our offense kind of sputtered. Our defense won the game.”

The Army team, comprised of intramural players based in the Seoul area, had its one full practice last Wednesday, Turnipseed said. “For having only one practice with 24 players coming in from two different posts, I think we did pretty well.”

Joe Pak-Blyzniuk and Courtney Taylor of Seoul American High School’s journalism group contributed to this report.

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