New London - Coast Guard Academy's stalwart defense, which had given up a league-low 61 points in five conference games heading into this one, produced four interceptions in the first half Saturday.

And the Bears' new goal line offense, which they fine tuned during a bye week, had already produced a touchdown.

Designed with a handful of defensive players at skill positions, the aim of the new offensive package was to give the Bears some girth to help move the ball in short-yardage situations. Aaron Black, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound preseason All-American at defensive end, was the first to take advantage, catching a 5-yard touchdown pass to give Coast Guard a 7-0 lead.

But momentum is a fickle thing and it turned on the Bears in their home finale, a 20-10 loss to New England Football Conference opponent Salve Regina.

Down 13-10, Coast Guard drove the ball down to the 6-yard line when a third-down pass by Derek Victory was intercepted by Salve's Matt Conroy and returned 65 yards to the Coast Guard 35. The Seahawks scored in one play to push their lead to 20-10 with 6 minutes, 55 seconds remaining.

"It's just (crappy)," an emotional Black said. "Just our going down hill. You build momentum and you keep on feeding off each other. Momentum is like the biggest part of football. Then everything … we just gave away."

It was the third straight heartbreaker for Coast Guard (3-6, 2-4), which finishes the season on the road next week at first-place MIT. The Bears lost 13-7 at Maine Maritime on Oct. 18 and 14-13 to Endicott on Oct. 25, missing a potential 37-yard game-winning field goal with 8 seconds left.

Victory (29-for-54, 258 yards) was intercepted on three straight possessions in the second half, twice by Conroy. Salve quarterback Steven Wilken, meanwhile (25-for-37, 253 yards), rebounded from his four first-half picks to throw three touchdown passes.

Coast Guard led 10-6 at halftime on Black's first career touchdown and a 25-yard field goal by Tyler Henning. Salve scored 34 seconds before halftime on a 15-yard pass from Wilken to Matt Traynor.

"We're just a little off. It's not like we're being steamrolled," Coast Guard coach Bill George said. "These last two games have been against high-quality opponents and we just came up on the short end. The defense played outstanding. They kept us in all these games. We just didn't seem to punch it in from the red zone. We did seem to have our chances.

"The last three weeks, it seems like we're caught in some kind of Bermuda Triangle here. You've got to find a way to win those."

Eli Maurer led the Coast Guard defense with a pair of interceptions, while James Rizzo (team-best 10 tackles) and Joe Rizzardi also intercepted Wilken. Rizzardi's pick, for 74 yards, set up Henning's field goal. Kyle Wood and Ed Lazowski added sacks.

Bryan Popp led the offense with eight catches for 105 yards and Mitch Holloway (39 yards) and Collis Brown (38 yards) had five catches each. Coast Guard gained only 30 yards rushing on 23 carries.

After halftime, Coast Guard had two quick possessions, with its only first down coming when Salve roughed Henning during a punt.

Salve then launched a 13-play, 89-yard drive to take the lead on a 9-yard scoring pass to Dan Buonocore, taking the time all the way down to 46 seconds in the third quarter.

Coast Guard got the ball to the Seahawks' 21-yard line on the next possession before a holding call and Victory's first interception by Frank Musco, coming on second-and-22 from the 34.

The Bears' next drive was highlighted by a 21-yard completion to Popp, followed by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when a Salve player tackled Popp out of bounds. Wood's catch, on fourth-and-1, got the ball to the 18. A 9-yard catch by Holloway, three plays later, brought it to the 6, but Conroy's interception on third-and-goal would squash the drive.

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday