Stonington — The Stonington defense did more than enough to win Thursday’s football game and give themselves the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II title all to themselves.

The Stonington offense wouldn’t let it happen.

Thirty five yards. That’s all the offense the Bears could generate in a 13-7 loss.

Stonington also turned it over seven times for the second straight week.

“We had breakdowns of what we were doing, our coaching staff, myself,” Stonington coach A.J. Massengale said. “We’ve got to clean it up.”

And once again, there are three champions in the four-team ECC Division II. Bacon (5-4, 2-1), Montville (4-5, 2-1) and Stonington (2-6, 2-1) will split the title.

Montville beat Bacon Academy in Week 1 (14-0, Sept. 9).

Stonington beat Montville in Week 4 (35-0, Sept. 29).

Bacon went from an 0-2 start to winning their third division title in as many seasons.

“It means everything right now,” Bacon senior George Tsakiris said about earning a title. “After the first two losses that we had at the beginning of the season, we stepped up. We said we had to (go) 8-2. That didn’t happen. Now 6-4 is our goal.”

Bacon, Stonington and Waterford shared the Division II title last season.

The Bears defense allowed just 164 yards and kept getting the team out of a jam.

Senior Travis Pacheco had two fumble recoveries and a sack for Stonington and junior Riley Burnside had an interception and a fumble recovery. Junior Evan Champagne also recovered a fumble.

“They did awesome,” Massengale said. “We put the defense in a bad spot at the end of the first half and a few different times, but the defense held, man. The defense played excellent.

“The kids played hard. That’s a physical group that they (Bacon) have, a big, physical team, and they run hard. And our kids did a great job with it.”

The Bobcats fumbled the ball away twice on their first two drives. Burnside recovered the second turnover at the Bacon 29-yard line with more than seven minutes left in the first quarter.

Bacon was flagged for pass interference on first down. Marco Tedeschi threw a 16-yard touchdown to Burnside on the next play to give Stonington a 7-0 lead.

The Bears defense held until late in the first half when the offense fumbled the ball at the Stonington 25.

Jon-Mike Murray threw a 10-yard touchdown to Tsakiris to tie the game with 18 seconds left in the first half.

The Bears turned it over on their second play of the second half at their own 27. It set up a 1-yard run by Ryan Guire to push Bacon ahead 13-7.

n.griffen@theday.com