ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Of course Army-Navy was going to be a one-goal game.

Especially in the 100th meeting between the two rival service academies.

And most especially with the arc Army has followed since opening the season with a pair of tight victories away from West Point.

Matt Manown scored with 2:34 left in overtime as the Black Knights secured a 9-8 victory over the Midshipmen at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on Saturday in front of an announced crowd of 10,216 — the largest to see a Division I lacrosse game this season.

Nate Jones scored three goals and Brendan Nichtern added two goals and three assists for Army (9-3, 5-2 Patriot League), which improved to 4-0 in one-goal games this season. All four victories came on the road.

“That’s been happening to us a lot,” Manown said. “We’ve been in tight games and we just have to find a way. Today was one of those day where we had to find a way.”

Junior goalie Ryan Kern matched a career high with 18 saves for the Midshipmen (5-6, 3-4), who rallied from a three-goal deficit to force the game into extra time.

Despite the excellence of Kern and the Navy defense, this game probably meant the most to Army’s senior class. The Black Knights had dropped four regular season meetings in a row to Navy, ceding the Star Game that is part of the annual all-sports competition between the academies.

Army’s seniors hadn’t been shut out — the Black Knights had won a Patriot League tournament game in 2016 — but the program’s younger players had no experience getting the better of Navy until Saturday, when a rivalry that began in 1924 hit its centennial.

“It feels amazing, especially winning my last one,” defenseman and captain Johnny Surdick said. “As a senior, I haven’t won one before. It just feels super-overwhelming and I’m really excited for myself and all the other seniors.”

Navy led 3-2 early on, but wasn’t particularly sharp. It had a scoreless drought of nearly 24 minutes that encompassed the entire second quarter, and it committed 22 turnovers.

Yet even though Navy’s crowd was hushed, the Midshipmen were never quite out of it. The Mids trailed only 6-3 at the break, in large part because Kern made 11 of his saves in the first half.

“I thought we had some really good looks,” Army coach Joe Alberici said. “I said to my staff, ‘We had a pretty good chance to make this 9-3 as opposed to 6-3 going in.’”

The Black Knights could have used the cushion. They claimed a 7-4 lead on Jones’ man-down goal, but Navy got one back when Nick Cole got past defenseman Griffin Schultz, who fell down with an apparent cramp, for a clear look on A.J. Barretto (nine saves).

After consecutive goals by Daniel and Ryan Wade early in the fourth quarter, the Mids managed to tie it.

"I gave the analogy of a baseball pitcher that just didn't have his best stuff today," Navy coach Rick Sowell said. "The fastball was a little off. The curveball wasn't breaking as sharp as it normally does, but he found a way to hang in there and fight.”

Army quickly reclaimed the lead as Miles Silva finished a smooth sequence with 12:39 to go, but Navy evened it again on Christian Daniel’s extra-man goal with 1:26 remaining. Daniel had another look with 11 seconds left, but Barretto smothered the shot to send the game to overtime.

Once there, Army claimed the opening faceoff and faced a dwindling shot clock as Manown got to the inside of his defender and then fired just shy of the crease for the winner.

“The offense did a great job setting me up with a short stick and clearing some space,” Manown said. “We had a low clock, so I had to just go for it and kind of stuck it.”

Another  at Matt Manown’s game-winner in a classic @ArmyWP_MLax vs. @navymlax battle. pic.twitter.com/3Jynxq9OBx

— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) April 14, 2019

Added Alberici: “He’s falling down and he shot the ball high. It feels like about the only thing that was going in on Kern in the later part. You shoot it high and he saved it. You put it down low and he saved it.”

Manown’s goal set off an understandable celebration. After the postgame handshake, the teams lined up for one of the rivalry’s great traditions across all sports: the academies’ alma maters.

For the winning Black Knights, that meant singing second.

For Navy, it meant the beginning of a year to ponder lost opportunities — though the teams could see each other again in a few weeks during the Patriot League tournament.

“Like I’ve said before and I’m going to say it every year I play this game, this is the most mentally and physically exhausting game, and somehow it always ends up being 75 degrees,” Kern said. “I would love to get back out there and replay overtime or wish overtime wasn't a golden goal. Hopefully, we get to see them again in a couple weeks. But right now, we have to throw that out the window.”

There is nothing Army would like to discard from its first regular-season victory over Navy. Not the bumps and bruises. Not the need to go to overtime. Not the utter fatigue.

And certainly not the postgame celebration.

“It’s just pure jubilation,” Alberici said. “I tell them all the time the greatest locker room that you’ll ever experience is a win over Navy, your rival. It’s the way it goes. You can have a great year, but if you don’t win this one, then there’s something that is missing from the season.”

Unlike the last four years, the Black Knights don’t have an empty feeling at the end of their season within a season.