NEW LONDON, Conn.
In a must-win situation heading into their bye week, Coast Guard delivered with a commanding 48-19 win over SUNY Maritime. The Academy was celebrating Homecoming all weekend, and the football team joined in on the celebration after being led out by 2001 grad and recent CGA Hall of Fame honoree
Mike Benson. The Maritime loss drops them to 2-3 on the season. They will next host Merchant Marine next Saturday October 10th at 1:00 pm.
The game that ended with a comfortable victory for the CGA began in disaster. After the Bear defense forced a three-and-out, the Privateers were still able to put the first points on the board with a pick six of the Bears offense with the silver lining being a stopped two point conversion attempt on a fake extra point. The struggles continued on offense for the Bears with a three-and-out but on Maritime muffed the
Lucas Hubert (Canton, Ga.) punt and
Freddy Barber (Goochland, Va.) was there to recover and set the offense up in prime position. The turnover gave the Coast Guard offense all the momentum they needed with a
Sean Burns (Absecon, N.J.) 27 yard touchdown pass to
Matthew LaBouliere (Pipersville, Pa.) to take a 7-6 lead. Rounding out the first quarter, the teams exchanged scores to keep CGA up by one on the
Harrison Hensley (Riverview, Fla.) touchdown.
Consecutive pass breakups by defensive backs
Ty Tamborino (Pittsburgh, Fla.) and
Jackson Freds (San Diego, Cal.) forced a Maritime punt to begin the second and set the stage for a dominant quarter.
Freddy Barber caught a 17 yard Burns touchdown pass to but the Bears up eight after a five minute drive down the field. On the following possession, the Privateers were marching down the field but appeared to be stopped behind the line to gain on a fourth and one run. Instead of the stop,
Aiden Avenia (New Hartford, Conn.) did one better with a forced fumble that left the ball bouncing with no one between it and the endzone but
Blake Delevan (Carlsisle, Pa.) who scooped and scored to give his team a 28-13 advantage. That was the first of two fumble recoveries for Deleven, who did it again on the next Privateer possession, which led to a
Caleb McClure (Canton, Ga.) field goal just before half.
Out of the half, the Bears were on cruise control. The lone points of the quarter were again from the sure-thing leg of
Caleb McClure on a field goal. On defense, Coast Guard was dominant.
Lucas White (Juneau, Alaska) was a tackle machine while
Lucas Roser (Ashburn, Va.) and
Truman Mankowski (Madison, Wisc.) put consistent effort on the Maritime quarterback.
A Privateer interception to begin the fourth quarter led to seven points for them but a Mankowski blocked PAT on special teams and double-throw play from Burns to Hensley to
Toby Wroe (Clearwater, Fla.) on offense, sent away any thoughts of a comeback.
After a Maritime turnover on downs and a third McClure field goal of the day, the Bears clinched a must-needed 48-19 victory.
The rushing tandem of
Harrison Hensley and
James Wheeler IV (Oneida, N.Y.) combined for nearly 150 yards on the ground. In the air,
Sean Burns threw for 195 yards and three TDs with Labouliere and Barber combining for 157 yards and three scores.
On defense, senior linebacker
Lucas White was all over the place with 10 tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble. Behind White were
Noah Rohrer (Mount Joy, Pa.) and
Jackson Freds with nine and seven tackles respectively. Freds was a force in the air as well with five pass breakups.
Aiden Avenia had a career day with six tackles(two for loss), a forced fumble, and a QB hurry.
The win sends the Bears into their bye week at 3-2 (1-1 NEWMAC). They will come out of the break to face MIT on October 17th at 12:00 pm. MIT is 2-2 after falling to Merchant Marine earlier today.
