He Can’t Hear, Barely Sees but Kicks Army Over Navy

PHILADELPHIA — The goal posts looked like fuzzy toothpicks to Kurt Heiss, and he couldn’t hear the 65,000 fans cheering and jeering at Veterans Stadium.

Deprived of sight and sound, Heiss was calm as he kicked the longest field goal of his career, a 52-yarder that gave Army a 22-20 victory over Navy on Saturday.

Heiss, a senior whose previous best was a 37-yard field goal, said astigmatism left him with 20-5,000 vision in his right eye and 20-800 in his left eye.

From about 40 yards out, Heiss said the goal posts “are really blurry. Where the ball comes down, whether it crosses the crossbar or not, I can’t really tell.”

Of the winning kick, he said: “I didn’t realize it was good until my team mobbed me.”

This was the third consecutive Army-Navy game decided by a field goal. Last season, Navy’s Ryan Bucchianeri missed an 18-yarder with six seconds left, giving Army a 16-14 victory. Bucchianeri missed a 37-yard field-goal try Saturday on Navy’s first possession.

In 1992, Army’s Patmon Malcom kicked a 49-yard field goal with 12 seconds to play to give the Cadets a 25-24 victory.

Saturday’s loss was the Midshipmen’s third in a row in the series, and fourth in five years. Jim Kubiak leaves Navy as the school’s career passing leader, but is 1-3 against Army.

Kubiak was 24 of 34 for 361 yards and two touchdowns, but threw three interceptions. In the third quarter, Navy led, 20-19, and was driving for another score when Army’s Darren Klein intercepted a Kubiak pass at the Army two.

Quarterback Ronnie McAda rushed for 126 yards as Army (4-7) won by running up the middle against the Navy (3-8) defense. The Cadets ran for 373 yards in 68 carries.