Moffatt does it all for Coast Guard

With an uncle and grandfather who were former Navy and Marine officers, respectively, it was probably preordained that Justin Moffatt would wind up playing for a military academy.

“I was kind of looking at it but they didn’t push me into it,” said the Coast Guard Academy sophomore receiver about his uncle Van and grandfather Errol. “I looked into the U.S. Naval Academy but then I was dropped off the list. I started getting a lot of feelers from Lehigh but then that fell through.

“I didn’t know much about the Coast Guard Academy when they started to recruit me. They arranged for me to take a year at the Naval Academy Prep School and now I’m here.”

Last week, the 20-year-old civil engineering major from Odessa, Fla., was a triple threat in rallying the Bears to a 38-35 victory over Norwich in the “Mug Game”, a series which dates to 1931.

The 6-foot-1 Moffatt posted career-highs with 10 receptions and 178 yards, including two clutch fourth-down conversions on Coast Guard’s winning fourth-quarter drive. Moffatt also rushed three times for 36 yards, and tossed a 76yard completion to help the Bears to a second-quarter lead.

Moffatt, who has produced three 100-yard receiving games so far this season, is a big reason why Coast Guard has started 3-1 for a second straight year. Yesterday, Moffatt became the eighth Bears player in history to earn a weekly Gold Helmet Award.

“Last week was just about the craziest game I ever played in,” said Moffatt. “We got the ball and I just had a feeling that we were going to win. There was about 21⁄2 minutes left and we had a 75-yard drive, but I had this feeling we would win.

“This team is different. We have a winning mentality. It’s sort of refuse to lose. Realistically, if we play the way that we’re capable, we’re not going to lose.”

The defensive Golden Helmet winner this week was Bryant junior defensive end Tomas Wright. The native of St. Augustine, Fla., registered seven tackles, 2.5 sacks, forced two fumbles, recovering one of them, to spark a 49-46 win over Robert Morris.

Skyhawks shuffle

Stonehill coach Eli Gardner had to do some lineup shuffling last week after starting quarterback James Lam of Quincy hurt his hand. Into the breech went junior Kyle Smith, who completed 12-of-30 passes for 184 yards and two scores in his first start in a 42-21 loss at Southern Connecticut that dropped the Skyhawks to 1-3.

Smith’s roommate, Andrew Jamiel of Yarmouth, was the prime target, with Jamiel making eight catches for 94 yards and two scores, tying him with Nate Robitaille (class of 2015) for the program’s all-time reception mark at 196 catches.

“Smith and Jamiel have some naturally great chemistry,” said Gardner. “Kyle really took command of the huddle and his teammates showed what a competitor he is. We have to get back to the basics of who we are. We have to establish running the ball and open things up with our playaction.”

Curry roughed up

Curry (2-2) ran into a buzsaw at Union, falling 49-6 to the Dutchmen. The Colonels did get a solid effort from sophomore linebacker Marcus Greenidge, with a team-best nine tackles (six solo).

“We got run over at Union. They had nine returning starters back on defense and they played like it,” said Curry assistant Dick Yule. “We played hard and I still think we have a pretty good team, but we just couldn’t keep up.”

Curry hosts rival Endicott (2-2) in a Homecoming tilt this Saturday afternoon.