Bears Hold off Maine Maritime 21-14

CASTINE, MAINE – Senior Mark Behne had two of the Bears three fourth quarter interceptions including the final one in the end zone with 40 seconds left as Coast Guard overcame a 14-0 deficit and held off Maine Maritime 21-14 in a New England Football Conference (NEFC) game.

Senior quarterback Derek Victory's 7-yard touchdown pass to classmate Jordan Groff with 11:55 left broke a 14-14 tie. Victory became the Bears all-time passing yards leader in the win as he finished the game with 4,686 yards breaking the mark of 4,569 set by Jon Resch (2009-12).

Coast Guard remains unbeaten with a 2-0 mark in conference play and improve to 3-2 overall while the Mariners drop to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the NEFC.

Victory, who is already the Academy career leader in pass attempts (887) and pass completions (493),
was 11 of 23 for 165 yards with two touchdowns.

Maine Maritime had three possessions in the fourth quarter, all of which ended in interceptions with sophomore Will Daniels getting the first of his career with 14:03 left in the game which set up the go ahead score before Behne added a pair of interceptions.

The Mariners triple-option offense ran for 403 yards on 82 carries and had 428 yards of total offense while dominating time of possession (41:50 to 18:10). Coast Guard had 245 total yards, 80 of those on the ground.

Coast Guard punted to start the second half and Maine Maritime slowly drove the field, but Behne had a tackle for loss inside the 5-yard line on third down before senior Joe Rizzardi blocked a 22-yard field goal attempt with 5:31 left in the third quarter and the game remained tied 14-14.

The Bears would drive 70 yards from their own 10-yard line into the red zone before fumbling the ball away at the 20-yard line.

Daniels had his first career interception and returned it 30 yards to set the Bears up at the Mariners 35-yard line with 14:03 left in the game.

Coast Guard would take the lead on a 9-yard touchdown pass from Victory to Groff with 11:55 left for a 21-14 lead.

Maine Maritime turned it over once again as Behne intercepted a pass on 4^th-and-7 from the Coast Guard 34 with 7:44 left.

The Mariners forced a three-and-out, but Henning boomed a 64-yard punt which sophomore Ryan Robertson downed at the 1-yard line with 6:36 left.

Maine Maritime would drive to all the way to the 5-yard line, but a holding call pushed it back to the 15 and on 4^th-and- goal when Behne intercepted the ball in the end zone to preserve the win.

"We got ourselves in a little bit a hole, down 14-0, but we got the quick score and got the big break on the kickoff which got us back in the game," said Coast Guard head coach Bill George. "We played the option much better in the second half and our defense came up with some big plays to stop drives which was tremendous for us. It's a great Coast Guard win against a good team."

Groff led the Bears with four receptions for 27 yards while senior Carter Provost had three catches for 51 yards. Senior Mike Clancy had 40 yards rushing to lead the Bears.

Following an exchange of punts to open the game, the Mariners drove 81 yards to the Coast Guard 2-yard line, but senior quarterback Michael Fahey was stopped on 4^th-and-1 by senior linebacker Ed Lazowski with 2:44 left in the opening quarter.

Fahey's 1-yard run with 12:46 left in the first half opened the scoring and freshman Chad Martin's kick gave the Mariners a 7-0 lead. Maine Maritime used the short field driving just 36 yards for the touchdown.

The Bears would fumble on the second play of the next possession and senior Michael Burgess would recover at the Bear 32-yard line.

Fahey would score on a 9-yard run and Martin's extra point gave Maine Maritime at 14-0 lead with 10:45 left in the first half.

The Bears answered with a 10 play, 67-yard drive with Clancy scoring a 3-yard touchdown with 7:06 left in the half and senior Tyler Henning added the PAT to cut the deficit to 14-7. The big play on the drive was a 31-yard pass to sophomore tight end Cody Bain, which gave Victory the passing yards record. Sophomore Camden Cecchini converted a 4^th-and-1 from the 10 with a five yard gain to keep the drive alive.

Like last week, it was the Coast Guard special teams making a big play as the ensuing kickoff got knocked down by the wind and was untouched before Rizzardi fell on it at the Mariner 27-yard line. The Bears after a holding penalty during the drive tied the game when Victory threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to junior Kyle Jackson with 6:24 left in the second quarter. Henning added his school-record 88^th PAT to tie the game 14-14. Henning broke the record of 87 extra points held by David Lieberman (2004-07).

Maine Maritime looked to take the lead to the locker room, but junior Joe DiBiase fumbled at the Coast Guard 9-yard line and freshman Jake Behne recovered with 46 seconds left to keep the game tied at the break.

The Mariners had 211 yards in the first half, 197 rushing while the Bears finished with 137 total yards in the first half, 90 of those in the air. Victory was 4 of 10 for 90 yards in the first half.

Fahey led the Mariners with 31 carries for 159 yards while Joe DiBiase had 19 carries for 121 yards.

Senior linebacker Kyle Wood had a career-high 18 tackles while Lazowski had 15 tackles and Mark Behne finished with 14 total tackles for the Bears.

Coast Guard will have the week off before hosting MIT on October 17^th at 1:30 on Homecoming Weekend.