Springfield, Mass. — Coast Guard Academy almost ended its season with a major upset.

Almost.

Nick Connell scored from three yards out with only 11 seconds remaining as Western New England — the top-ranked team in New England — held off the Bears 36-29 on Saturday afternoon.

Western New England, the New England Football Conference champion, finishes the regular season 10-0 (7-0 in the NEFC) while Coast Guard, in its final NEFC season, finishes 3-7, 2-5.

The Bears will move into the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference next year.

Connell carried 30 times for 188 yards and two touchdowns for Western New England, which will learn its NCAA Division III playoff fate on Sunday.

The Bears trailed 29-21 when senior quarterback Derek Victory threw a 53-yard touchdown pass to Darius Adams with 4:32 remaining and then connected with Kyle Jackson on the two-point conversion to tie the game. It was the 50th and final touchdown pass of Victory's career.

Coast Guard began the fourth quarter down 29-14.

Victory was 24 of 48 for 366 yards with two touchdowns, but was intercepted five times. He broke the Coast Guard single-season passing yards record, finishing with 2,636 yards to break the previous mark of 2,514 set by Jon Resch in 2012. He will graduate with with 15 school or conference records.

Adams set the single-season school record as he became the first Coast Guard player to have over 1,000 receiving yards in a season. He finished with 1,054 to shatter the old mark of 983 set by Collis Brown in 2013. Adams had five receptions for 105 yards on Saturday and finished the season with a school record 13 touchdown receptions in his first year of football at any level.

"I thought the guys came to play," Coast Guard coach Bill George said. "They would have easily said the season is over, but they worked hard all week, and we had our chances. We played hard, we hung in there, battled back to tie the game.

"We didn't just come to get the season over with, we came to beat one of the better teams in New England and we came close, but it isn't horse shoes, so we will build from this."

Coast Guard turned the ball over on its first two possessions and both times the Golden Bears capitalized as Terrence N'Dabian scored on a 7-yard run with 12:20 left in the first quarter before quarterback Anthony Service's 18-yard touchdown run with 9:04 left in the opening quarter gave Western New England a 13-0 lead following a missed extra point.

The Bears got on the board as freshman Liam Middleton caught his first career pass, a 21-yard TD from Victory with 6:52 left in the first to cut the deficit to 13-7 after sophomore Cole Austin's extra point.

Kevin Patterson's 26-yard field goal on WNE's next possession pushed the lead to 16-7 with 4:02 left in the first quarter. Coast Guard would then march 71 yards in eight plays with Jeff Porter scoring on a 2-yard run on the final play of the first quarter making the score 16-14.

Dante Aiken's 14-yard touchdown run with 6:58 left in the half was the only scoring of the second quarter as WNE led 23-14 at the break.

There was no scoring in the third quarter, but on the second play of the fourth quarter, Connell scored a 3-yard run with 14:36 left in the game making the score 29-14 as sophomore Michael Goldsworthy blocked the extra point. The touchdown was set up by an interception at the Coast Guard 29-yard line.

Coast Guard made it a one score game when Victory drove the Bears 90 yards in just six plays and scored on a 1-yard run to make the score 29-21 with 4:43 left.  Victory had big pass plays of 36 yards to Cody Bain and a 44-yard pass play to Chip Crowley down to the 1-yard line on the drive.

Coast Guard recovered an onsides kick and on the next play Victory threw the 53-yard strike to Adams. The Golden Bears marched 79 yards in 12 plays for the winning drive.

Western New England finished with 551 yards, 364 rushing and 187 passing while the Bears had 439 total yards, 366 passing and 73 on the ground. Crowley had six receptions for 111 yards while Bain added five catches for 86 yards. Porter led the Bears with 14 carries for 67 yards.

Senior Fred McClimans had a career-high 15 tackles for Coast Guard while Goldsworthy had the Bears' only interception.