Coast Guard beats Catholic 20-9 for third straight win

Washington — Sophomore Chris Gardner ran for a career-high 109 yards as Coast Guard Academy won its third straight game with a 20-9 victory over Catholic University in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference football game on Saturday.

The Bears (4-1, 2-0) rushed for over 200 yards for just the fourth time in the last six years, and the victory marked the first time since 2007 that they've started the season 4-1. Coast Guard will go for its fourth straight win next Saturday when it visits Springfield in a battle of conference unbeaten at noon.

Gardner carried 17 times for 109 while junior quarterback Ryan Jones had 14 rushes for 68 yards and a touchdown. Jones also completed 13 of 23 passes for 144 yards and a touchdown. He was intercepted three times by Catholic (0-5, 0-2).

The Bears, however, overcame those three picks, plus a fourth turnover, with a stout rushing defense that allowed the Cardinals to finish with just 42 rushing yards.

Coast Guard scored on its first possession, driving 72 yards in eight plays on the game's opening drive and taking a 7-0 lead on a 22-yard touchdown run by Jones with 10:45 left in the first quarter (Cole Austin kicked the extra point).

Catholic, meanwhile, would capitalize on Jones' first interception later in the quarter when Matthew Grant picked off a Jones pass and returned it 21 yards to the CGA 40. A personal foul penalty on the Bears moved it to the 25 and Brady Berger threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Chance LeGrand with 3:58 left in the quarter to pull the Cardinals within 7-6 (they missed the extra point).

Coast Guard's next drive resulted in a 34-yard field goal by Austin that extended the lead to 10-6 with 12:49 remaining in the half. The Bears would extend their lead to 17-6 by halftime when a Patrick Crowley interception led to an 11-yard touchdown pass from Jones to junior Miguel Moroles, his first career TD, with 5:12 left in the half.

Catholic's Sean Gould kicked a 38-yard field goal with 6:25 left in the third quarter to pull the Cardinals within eight, 17-9, but Austin restored the Bears' 11-point lead when he kicked a 23-yard field goal with 10:02 remaining, his NEWMAC-leading 10th of the season. He is now 10for-11 this season and just two shy of Coast Guard's single-season record of 12 held by four different kickers, the last being Tyler Henning in 2013.

The Bears finished with 385 total yards, 241 rushing and 144 passing while Catholic had 357 yards, 315 passing and just 42 yards on the ground.

Moffatt had six receptions for 84 yards to lead the Coast Guard receivers while Crowley led the defense with 10 tackles in addition to his interception.

Berger was 31 of 48 for 310 yards with one touchdown and one interceptions for Catholic.