Coast Guard’s postseason hopes come to an end ... quickly

Unbeaten Western NE scores early and often

New London — Western New England played a close game last week, a win to keep the Golden Bears unbeaten at 4-0, and came to the Coast Guard Academy on Saturday with a New England Football Conference title and the accompanying NCAA tournament berth on the line.

And this time, there was nothing close about it.

Ranked 19th in the country in Division III, Western New England won the game between two of the top teams in the NEFC 51-0. The Golden Bears led 21-0 when Coast Guard had only run three offensive plays and went on to outgain their opponents 586-125.

Coast Guard (5-4, 4-2), which put itself in this position by a series of close wins highlighted by defense and special teams, could have won the NEFC with victories in its final two games of this season against WENE and next week against Endicott.

The Bears beat defending league champion MIT and another conference stalwart in Salve Regina to set up the first-place matchup.

“It’s important every single game,” Western New England coach Keith Emery said of his team’s rousing start. “Our slogan is ‘always on.’ From start to end, we want to play our best. We’re very intent on this. Every game is as serious as every other game.”

“The thing that stood out to me was the how they moved the ball. We can’t get a first down and we can’t stop them,” Coast Guard coach Bille George said. “Those two things, against a team that looked like a top-20 team ... against a team like that you’ve got to get things done and we didn’t.”

Western New England started with a nine-play, 75-yard drive that took just 3 minutes, 9 seconds, zipping down the field in big chunks, including a 17-yard carry from Nick Connell (17 carries, 109 yards, 2 TDs) on the drive’s first play. Kevin Degnan capped it with a 5-yard touchdown run.

Coast Guard’s first drive lost six

yards when quarterback Adam Davis was sacked for a loss of seven on third down and Western New England launched a 13-play drive that made it 14-0 on a 1-yard touchdown run by Connell.

Coast Guard fumbled the kickoff at its own 22-yard line, Dante Aiken capped the short drive with a 6-yard touchdown run and it was suddenly 21-0 with 3 minutes, 48 seconds still remaining in the first quarter.

It was 42-0 at halftime, at which time Coast Guard had two turnovers, including an interception by Davis that was returned 41 yards to the Bears 4.

Different story in 2013

Emery said he thought the Golden Bears could have some success running the ball against Coast Guard and also that he was wary of the Bears’ passing game.

Last time Western New England played at Coast Guard, in 2013, Coast Guard won 41-38 on a field goal by Tyler Henning with 54 seconds remaining after Bears’ quarterback Derek Victory set the program’s single-game record with 36 completions.

“So far, so good,” Emery said of the Golden Bears’ season, “I think because we spread it out; it’s not all on one kid.”

Even when Coast Guard had a few things go well, they didn’t go well. Joe Rizzardi had a second-half interception return called back due to an inadvertant whistle and Henning had a 40-yard field goal attempt hit the left upright and bounce out.

Davis, in his second career start for the injured Victory, was 8-for18 for only 28 yards after piling up more than 300 yards in last week’s win over Nichols. The Bears netted 53 yards rushing.

Rizzardi led the defense with 13 tackles.

Said George of Western New England: “This is a good team that you would see in the playoffs down the road and I don’t just mean the first round.” v.fulkerson@theday.com Twitter: @vickieattheday