BIDDEFORD, Maine–

After the Bears beat the University of New England at home in overtime to begin last season, the Nor'Easters returned the favor and defeated Coast Guard 56-49 to start this season. UNE will host another NEWMAC opponent next Saturday with WPI coming to town at 1:00 PM. 

After Coast Guard won the toss and differed, UNE converted two 3rd downs and ran the ball into the endzone on the opening drive of the season. CGA answered in a big way with their first score of the season. Harrison Hensley(Riverview, FL) dragged defenders with him and refused to go down on three rushes for 47 yards in the drive. The drive concluded with a couple of firsts for the Bears, sophomore QB Sean Burns(Absecon, NJ) scored his first career touchdown on a diving rush into the endzone and freshman kicker Caleb McClure(Canton, GA) converted his first career point on the extra point.

On the Nor'Easters next possession the defense took the momentum from the score and ran with it. On 2nd and 2, William Wolf(Front Royal, VA) made a clutch 2 yard tackle for loss and on 3rd and 4 after a completion, Blake Deleven(Carlisle, PA) stuffed the UNE receiver right in his track to force the punt. Wolf and Deleven would combine for 17 tackles in the first half alone.

The Bears wasted no time taking their first lead of the year on the next possession. On the first play of the drive, Burns found Broock Desta(San Diego, CA) for a 65 yard completion, a history-making reception for Desta. The senior wideout already held the All-Time TDs and yards record for Coast Guard going into today and with his 2nd reception today and 192nd of his career, Desta broke the reception record as well. Desta passed 2015 graduate Collis Brown who set the record at 191. On just the second play of the drive, Harrison Hensley found the endzone for the first time in his 2025 campaign when blocks from Colin Jensen(Cibolo, TX) and Gage Gehrke(La Jolla, CA) on the right side of the line gave Hensley a wide open path to the endzone.

The Nor'Easters next drive took the game to the close of the first quarter and they would find the endzone on the first play of the 2nd to tie the score at 14-14. The Bears would give it back to UNE with an interception on the second play of their next drive but the CGA defense stood strong and forced a punt after a Tyler Lamar(Harlingten, TX) tackle for loss and stellar coverage to force two incompletions.

On the punt, freshman Freddy Barber(Matoaca, VA) got his first career touch with an impressive 26 yard return. 

Later in the 2nd quarter, tight end Toby Wroe(Oldsmar, FL) got the team inside the 1 yard line on a 34 yard reception before Sean Burns put on the finishing touches on the drive with his 2nd rushing TD of the day.

Just before the two minute warning, Coast Guard took their first two possession lead on a 28 yard touchdown rush by junior sensation Harrison Hensley. The rush put Harry over 100 yards in the half. The Nor'easters chipped away with an impressive TD rush of their own by preseason All-American Damien Jones(Fitchburg, MA) but they gave the ball back to the Bears with 1:16 to go in the half. Sean Burns found Desta once and Matt LaBouliere(Pipersville, PA) twice to put the Bears just outside the 10 yard line just 20 seconds into the drive. They were unable to find the endzone but in the final seconds of the half, freshman kicker Caleb McClure got his first career field goal to give the Bears a 10 point halftime lead and the ball to start the 3rd.

On their opening drive of the 2nd half, CGA marched down all the way to the UNE one yard line but were stopped on a 4th & 1 QB sneak attempt on the goal line. The Nor'Easters took the ball and marched all the way down for a 99.5 yard TD drive to cut the Bear lead to just three and take hold of the momentum in the game.

With the Nor'Easters seemingly holding all the momentum, Harrison Hensley quieted the crowd for a moment with a 57 yard rush to the house to put the Bears up 10 yet again before New England answered that with a quick TD and force of a CGA punt late in the 3rd. The 38-35 score would hold into the 4th. On the first play of the 4th, UNE saw deja vu from last year vs the Bears with a key 4th quarter missed FG. The Bears would make their field goal on the possession to go up six with 11:22 left.

With 9 minutes remaining UNE took their first lead since early in the first after a TD and an extra point that was tipped at the line but barely snuck over to the cross bar. With the first 51 minutes of gameplay played under windy but pleasant conditions, mother nature took hold of the game after the Nor'Easter score.

After a lengthy delay due to lightning, now playing in a ferocious rainstorm, Coast Guard got the ball and went right back to their bell cow Harrison Hensley who retook the lead with a 26 yard TD rush. Hensley would then show off his talents as a thrower with a completion to Toby Wroe for a two point conversion and seven point lead.

UNE would drive for the next four minutes and score to tie the game at 49-49 but would have to give the ball back to the Bears with 2+ minutes on the clock. CGA started marching down the field but with a wet ball and in a torrential downpour, they gave the rock away with a fumble deep in UNE territory. The Nor'Easters however could not move on the Coast Guard defense, who stood strong with their biggest stop of the day to force the three and out. After the punt, the Bears let the clock run to zero to send the game to OT for the second straight year in this matchup.

In overtime, UNE scored on a third down passing TD and Coast Guard was unable to get any traction on offense with a four and out to flip the script from last year and send the Nor'Easters home victorious. 

On offense, Hensley had an outrageous 371 all purpose yards and four TDs to lead all players. His 324 rushing yards sets a new single game rushing record for Coast Guard rushers. He broke the record previously set by Spencer McMillion who had 285 in 2022. Desta was the lone player over 100 reception yards from sophomore Sean Burns, who threw for 332 and ran for 43 yards in an impressive debut.

Blake Deleven led the defense in tackles(14), with Ramon Cruz(Valparaiso, FL), Tyler Lamar, Lucas White(Juneau, AK), and William Wolf each with nine. 

The Bears will look to bounce back at home next Saturday with a 1:00 PM game vs Curry College. The September 13th weekend is Family Weekend on the campus of the Coast Guard Academy!