A day that began with a celebration about a new stadium at North Texas ended with devastation on Saturday at Fouts Field, the school’s old venue that saw its deathwatch begin earlier in the day.

UNT was seemingly on its way to a win over Army to cap a big day in school history only to see a blocked field goal late in the fourth quarter set up the Black Knights’ game-clinching touchdown drive in a 17-13 win in front of a crowd of 23,647.

Army quarterback Trent Steelman dove into the end zone from 2 yards out for the game-winning score with just 1:43 left in the fourth quarter.

“I am just devastated for this team,” UNT head coach Todd Dodge said. “Sure, it hurts for me and for this group of coaches, but I am even more disappointed for this team. They deserved to win the game.”

UNT and Dodge were left to ponder what could have been in a season filled with disappointment. The Mean Green (2-9) has blown double-digit leads in four losses this season and felt like it gave away another game against Army (5-6) when Dodge made a tough decision late in the fourth quarter and saw it backfire.

UNT drove to the Army 16-yard line, where it faced a fourth-and-5 situation with 3:06 left after calling a timeout. The Mean Green lined up as if it would go for the first down, but called a second timeout and sent out Jeremy Knott to attempt a 33-yard field goal.

Army defensive end Marcus Hilton burst through the middle of the Mean Green’s line and blocked the kick before linebacker Steven Erzinger picked up the ball and returned it 23 yards to the Army 38-yard line.

 “I thought we were going to go for it,” UNT running back Lance Dunbar said. “We called a timeout and I still thought we were going to go for it. Then we decided to kick the field goal.”

Knott had already missed an extra point earlier in the game.

“I was going to go for it on fourth down at the end of the game, but decided to go ahead and go for the field goal, hoping that we would make it and then be able to kick it off and pin them deep,” Dodge said. “The worst thing that could happen did happen.”

The Black Knights, who only had 225 yards of total offense after the blocked field goal, took over and needed just three plays to drive 62 yards for the game-winning score.

Steelman rolled out as if he was going to try to hit one of his receivers on first down, but pulled the ball down and scampered 55 yards to the UNT 7-yard line. Steelman led Army with 132 rushing yards to go along with 87 passing yards.

“That is the way that offense is run,” UNT defensive end Eddrick Gilmore said. “They will go negative-two, plus-one, plus-50. They don’t change their game plan. They happened to make a big play when it mattered.”

UNT had plenty of opportunities to make a big play offensively, but squandered nearly all of them. The Mean Green turned the ball over five times, including four crucial turnovers in Army territory.

Quarterback Riley Dodge threw for 225 yards and a touchdown to lead UNT, but tossed three interceptions. Dunbar finished with 132 rushing yards, the eighth time he has cleared the 100-yard mark this season.

“We played well enough to win in many areas, but killed ourselves with mistakes,” Todd Dodge said. “Turnovers and pre-snap penalties kept us from finishing some good drives.”

Several of those drives came in the first half. UNT led 7-3 heading into the third quarter, but could have had an even bigger lead if it hadn’t squandered several scoring chances.

The Mean Green scored the only touchdown of the first half on a 4-yard pass from Riley Dodge to Jamaal Jackson on its second possession, but UNT couldn’t add to its lead the rest of the half.

UNT came up empty on four drives into Army territory. The Mean Green was forced to punt once, Riley Dodge threw an interception, wide receiver Darius Carey lost a fumble and Dodge was sacked on the final play of the first half after UNT had pushed the ball to the Black Knights’ 34-yard line.

The most costly of UNT’s missed opportunities came when Army linebacker Andrew Rodriguez intercepted Dodge after the Mean Green had reached the Army 24.

The interception set up Army’s lone scoring drive of the half that culminated in Alex Carlton’s 38-yard field goal.

UNT had a 241-53 edge in total yards and a 16-3 edge in first downs at halftime.

“I thought we had a great game plan for them and executed very well,” Todd Dodge said. “Our defense played great until giving up that final drive.”

Army scored its first touchdown in the third quarter when Patrick Mealy scored on a 9-yard run to give the Black Knights a 10-7 edge.

UNT responded with one of its few big plays of the game, a 68-yard touchdown run from Dunbar with just 7:11 left. With the way Army was struggling offensively, the touchdown appeared to put UNT on course for the win.

One key mistake on special teams spoiled that opportunity, not to mention a day that began with the fanfare that went along with the school breaking ground on a new $78 million stadium.

 “It hurts,” Dunbar said. “There have been a couple of games like this, and it hurts.”

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com.