New London — It started with Eli Maurer and his 20-yard interception return for a touchdown just before halftime Saturday, just when the Coast Guard Academy, stopped short of the goal line on the previous play, was about to go into halftime trailing by two touchdowns.

It was the beginning of what Coast Guard football coach Bill George called one of the team's greatest wins in his 16 seasons, certainly one of the best in the Bears' spirited rivalry with Merchant Marine, coming before 4,228 fans at Cadet Memorial Field.

"What it means is you can breathe and I mean that for our guys," George said at the end, soaked from standing at midfield in the pouring rain to receive the Secretaries' Cup, awarded to the winner of the annual game. "When you get three close, close losses three years in a row ... the coaches put pressure on themselves and the players do, too."

Coast Guard overcame a 14-point deficit to beat Merchant Marine for the first time since 2010, 42-31.

Sophomore quarterback Derek Victory threw three second-half touchdown passes, wide receiver Collis Brown threw a 32-yard pass and caught a 31-yard touchdown on the very next play to tie the game at 28-28 and the Bears' defense allowed Merchant Marine and its powerful triple-option attack just a field goal after halftime.

Trailing 31-28, Coast Guard got back-to-back touchdowns from junior Jordan Groff, the first two of his career, one for 50 yards which along with the ensuing kick from Tyler Henning gave the Bears the lead for good at 35-31 with 12 seconds to go in the third quarter. The second one for Groff, 47 yards, came with 5:20 to play and gave him a total of six catches for a team-best 136 yards.

That was all after a season-opening 45-14 loss last week to St. Lawrence, what George called a long week and a first half against MMA which featured a pair of turnovers.

"It was a great offseason, a great preseason and then we go out against St. Lawrence and look like we hadn't played football. But that's what this place is all about," George said. "People come here to learn about adversity."

"We haven't won a Secretaries' Cup since I've been here," said senior defensive end Aaron Black, who led the Bears with 14 tackles. "It's all assignment football when you play them. We made a couple mistakes in the first half, but at the end of the second quarter we started to play assignment football. Going into the second half, we said, 'They will not get in the end zone one more time.'"

Strong safety Joe Rizzardi (12), defensive end Joel Wyman (11) and linebacker Kyle Wood (10) all added double figures in tackles, with Wyman leading the way with two and a half tackles for a loss. Pawcatuck's Brendan McNeil, a sophomore, had eight tackles at linebacker.

Merchant Marine had a third-and-three at the Coast Guard 25 on its first drive of the second half. McNeil came up and hit the Mariners' Zachary Boucher for no gain on third down and Cory Sonnega stopped Josh Woodburn also for no gain on fourth down to give the Bears the ball.

The Mariners then had a first-and-goal at the Coast Guard 9, but were hit with a false start penalty. The stops on that series went to the Bears' Rizzardi, McNeil and Woods, resulting in Merchant Marine's 21-yard field goal by Erik Swayne. Finally, with Coast Guard clinging to a four-point lead in the fourth quarter, Black had three of the tackles himself to stop the Mariners deep in their own territory, leading to the Bears' final touchdown drive.

"The offense was on fire," George said. "Ray (LaForte, offensive coordinator) called one of the greatest games I've ever seen."

"I had a blast," said Victory, who finished 20-for-31 for 281 yards, three touchdowns and one interception in his first Merchant Marine game as the starting quarterback. "When the second pass of the game gets intercepted, you think it's going to be a long day. But we didn't get down. It didn't phase us. We thought every single one was going into the end zone. We're quicker, we're stronger, we're smarter than we were last year. We gel well."

Jake Wawrzyniak rushed for 88 yards and first-half touchdowns of 1 and 38 yards for Coast Guard (1-1).

Quarterback Matthew McDaniels ran for 174 yards and a touchdown for Merchant Marine, which outgained Coast Guard 473-425.

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday