Coast Guard Academy Sports Roundup

The Coast Guard Academy football team finished their season with a win over the Maine Maritime Academy on Saturday, while the volleyball team may be out of the running with a loss to Wellesley College. The cross country running teams also competed in the Eastern College Athletic Conference championships. The following information was provided by Jason Southard, sports information director at the Coast Guard Academy:

Football: Coast Guard 52, Maine Maritime 15

Senior quarterback Jarrod Owens threw for career-high 334 yards and four first half touchdowns passes while also rushing for a touchdown as Coast Guard closed out a frustrating season with a 52-15 win over Maine Maritime in a New England Football Conference (NEFC) Bogan Division game.

Coast Guard snaps a five-game losing streak and finishes 2-7 overall and 2-5 in the Bogan Division. The Bears lost five games this season by seven points or less, four of those in the final minute of play.

Owens was 33 of 57 for 334 yards with the four touchdowns and no interceptions while also rushing for 44 yards and a score. The 33 completions was one shy of the school record of 34 set by current backup quarterback Jon Resch vs. Maine Maritime in 2009 and Jeff Hagan vs. Trinity in 1985.

Sophomore Tyler Hames led the Bears with 17 carries for 108 yards and a touchdown as he was also the Bears leading receiver with a 13 receptions for 111 yards, both career highs.

Junior Eric Gerken had ten receptions for 84 yards and set the single-season school record with 70 receptions breaking the previous record of 61 set by Kelly Hatfield in 1984. He finishes his Coast Guard career with 137 receptions, 1,442 yards and 11 receiving touchdowns.

He played a season at Iona before attending the Coast Guard Academy. He finished the season with 781 receiving yards, the first Coast Guard player to finish with over 700 yards since Tom Wallin had 824 in 1998.

The Bears opened a 31-0 lead, scoring on five of their first six possessions, before the Mariners' Nick Bourassa returned a kickoff 78 yards for his fourth career touchdown return to get MMA on the board.

Hames provided the big plays on the Bears first three scoring drives, only to see teammates put points on the board. On Coast Guard's second possession, the sophomore made one of his 13 receptions on the day, picking up 21 yards on a screen to get the Bears down to the Mariners three. Hames finished the game with 111 yards receiving, but it was senior Ryan Webster on the receiving end of the first touchdown pass from Owens.

After the Mariners went three-and-out, Coast guard took over in MMA territory. Hames busted loose for a 23 of his 108 rushing yards on the day before a pass interference call set the Bears up with first and goal from the nine. Coast Guard settled for a field goal, making it 10-0. On their next possession, Hames provided runs of 14 and 13 yards to put Coast Guard into the red zone. Owens took it from there, hitting freshman Collis Brown from 17 yards out to make it 17-0.

Owens hit Gerken from nine yards out, and junior Casey Paris for 46 yards on the next two possessions to put the game out of reach. Owens used eight different receivers on the afternoon. In addition to Hames' 13 catches, Gerken pulled in 10 passes for 84 yards, while Brown hauled in four for 72 yards.

Owens rushed for 44 yards on the afternoon, picking up the bulk of the yards on a 42-yard scamper in the first quarter. He plunged in from a yard out in just before halftime. That added up to Coast Guard piling up 496 yards and 30 first downs on the afternoon.

Meanwhile, the injury plagued Mariners were limited to 252 yards, mostly in the second half. Maine Maritime, which had 56 yards of offense in the first half, finally got some traction in the running game behind Ian Champeon, Bourassa and Cameron Panciera. Champeon finished the day with 71 yards. Bourassa recorded 53 yards, while Panciera produced 47 yards.

Working in relief of Ben Violette, Bradley Reed tossed his first career touchdown pass to Nate Duford in the third quarter. Reed completed five of his 13 passes for 47 yards. He was picked off twice. He was sacked three times, while Violette was dumped once. The fourth sack resulted in a fumble recovery by junior Joe O'Loughlin who rumbled 30 yards to paydirt for his first career touchdown.

Linebacker Nick Peters paced the Coast Guard defense with nine tackles, including a pair for losses. Defensive back, Dante Adams, wreaked havoc on the Mariners offense with seven tackles. Three of his stops were for losses, including two sacks. The second sack forced the fumble that was picked up by O'Loughlin. Adams broke up a pass and intercepted another.

Volleyball: Wellesley 3, Coast Guard 1

Sydney Carfagno had 13 kills while Isabel Custodio added 11 kills as third-seeded Wellesley knocked off second-seeded Coast Guard 3-1 (24-26, 25-18, 25-20, 25-19) in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) tournament semifinals at Springfield College.

Wellesley will take on top-seeded and host Springfield in the NEWMAC tournament championship game. Springfield was a 3-0 winner over fourth-seeded MIT in the first semifinal of the day. The winner gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.

Coast Guard had its winning streak snapped at nine dropping to 23-6 on the season while Wellesley improved to 23-8 overall.

The Pride, who are 30-2 and ranked 19th in the nationally, were regular season NEWMAC co-champions with Coast Guard. Springfield beat visiting Coast Guard 3-1 during the regular season this year which is why the Pride are the top seed after both finished 8-1 in NEWMAC regular season play.

Coast Guard jumped out to an early 7-3 lead in the opening game before Wellesley rallied to take a 12-11 edge. The Bears responded with five of the next six points taking a 16-13 lead. Coast Guard led 18-16 and ran off five straight to take what seemed to be a commanding 23-16 lead before the Blue scored seven straight to tie the set at 23-23. DePorto had a kill for a 24-23 edge before Wellesley fought off set point and tied it 24-24. Back-to-back kills by juniors Catherine Walker and Keriann Mason gave the Bears a 26-24 win in the opener.

In the second game, Wellesley used a 6-1 spurt turning an early deficit into a 12-8 lead. The Blue maintained their lead and tied the match with a 25-18 win.

Wellesley used a 5-1 run to open up a 17-12 lead in the third game and never looked back posting a 25-20 win in game three.

The Blue closed jumped out to a 14-6 lead in the final game and never looked back winning 25-19.

Walker led the Bears with 17 kills to go with 15 digs while Mason finished with ten kills and a team-high 20 digs.

Junior Karen Matic added ten kills to go with her team-high 26 assists.

Coast Guard beat Wellesley, on its home court, 3-0 in the regular season (25-22, 25-18, 25-14). The Bears were the only team to sweep the Blue this season.

The Bears will await word on a possible berth to the ECAC New England Division III tournament on Monday.

Cross Country Running

Senior Devin Quinn was the top Coast Guard finisher as the Bears placed 16th of the 44 teams at the men's competition of the ECAC Division III Cross Country Championships at Williams College.

Quinn was 66th overall with a time of 28:22.28 as four Bears placed in the top 100.

Freshman Joe O'Connell was 88th in 28:49.97, sophomore Brad Pienta placed 90th with a time of 28:53.91 while freshman Brian Mussard finished 97th posting a time of 28:58.72 for the Bears.

In the women's competition, freshman Kendall Auth was the top Coast Guard finisher, placing 43rd overall as Coast Guard placed 14th of the 40 teams.

Auth finished in 24:50. Sophomore Moira McNeil and senior Tess Swiecanski were 88th and 89th with a time of 25.59.

Also for the Bears, senior Kathryn Peek placed 101st in 26:14 while sophomore Kristen Schultz was 172nd with a time of 28:07.