New London — The news comes from Coast Guard Academy punter Tyler Henning, also the Bears' kicker, who was named New England Football Conference Special Teams Player of the Week for the second time in the last three games.

Henning's punts pinned MIT inside the 20-yard line five times in Saturday's Coast Guard victory, making the Engineers start drives at their own 3, 6 and 9 in the second half.

This is the story of Henning's assistants, if you will. They're the guys who race down the field and down Henning's punts.

They call themselves "the hawks."

They vary from game to game, but sophomore defensive backs Matt O'Donnell, Oliver Kremer and Ryan Robertson are hawks, as is freshman linebacker Jake Behne. None of them start on defense, but all have played a large role in the special teams for Coast Guard, which is 4-2 overall, 3-0 in the NEFC entering this week's game at Curry College.

"It's kind of an honor to be the punt hawk," Kremer said at Wednesday's weekly team football luncheon. "We take pride in our special teams. Every single person on the team is buying into every single play. Tyler is one of the best punters in the nation. He makes all our jobs easy."

"It's all about the team aspect," O'Donnell said. "It's what you can do to help the team."

Kremer is a prime example of the team concept. He was slated to be a backup quarterback this season behind junior Derek Victory and sophomore Adam Davis before the arrival of freshman Ethan Goldcamp moved Kremer further out of the mix. Kremer moved to defensive back — he has four tackles to his credit — also giving him the opportunity for some special teams work.

"No, I don't think I was disappointed," Kremer said. "But I've never played a snap of defense in my life, not even little league. James (Rizzo) got hurt, but he's taught me a lot about being a cornerback and Joe (Rizzardi), Eli (Maurer) and Mark (Behne), too."

Jake Behne is the younger brother of Mark, Coast Guard's starting free safety, who won the Division II/III Gold Helmet Award this season. Bears' assistant coach Jay Driscoll, who coaches "the hawks," calls Jake the "young, skinny Behne."

"The football team helps out a lot," Behne said of being a freshman at a military academy. "They look out for you, make sure you're on the right track."

And so these are Henning's go-to men. He boots it. The opposing return team many times watches it sail far past where it is set up. The punt hawks make sure, if there's an opportunity, that the ball doesn't roll into the end zone.

Henning is ranked eighth nationally with 42.4 yards per punt; he had a 67-yarder wiped out against MIT by a roughing-the-kicker penalty. He leads the NEFC with eight punts of 50 yards or more and 15 kicks inside the 20.

Coast Guard has won three straight games for the first time since 2007.

"When you have a powerful punter ... we've faced two of the top five backs in the nation (in Division III) and it's not quite as easy to go the distance (on a drive)," Coast Guard coach Bill George said. "They've got to get a lot of first downs. Percentage-wise, that way you have chances of turnovers, of one run being stopped.

"We've got a very strong red-zone defense and we've got to keep that up."

George said that at the start of Tuesday's practice, Coast Guard went over special teams from 4:15-4:55 p.m.

"We always have," he said. "It's an edge at a place where you don't have monsterous linemen."

"It's a big aspect of the game," Kremer said. "A lot of games, special teams was the deciding factor."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday