It looked to be a rout right from the start.
The Seawolves had barely finished fastening their chinstraps before the University of Buffalo Bulls had dealt the first blow, a 57-yard touchdown pass from Bulls quarterback Chazz Anderson to tight end Alex Dennison on the first play from scrimmage.
It didn’t get any better from there for the visitors, who were handed a humbling 35-7 loss in Buffalo Saturday night.
“We played up two weeks in a row, and we’re physically a little tired and mentally a little tired from the emotion,” Seawolves head coach Chuck Priore said. “They were a better football team today.”
Buffalo (1-1) hosted Stony Brook (0-2) for UB’s home opener. The Bulls were coming off of a 35-16 loss at Pittsburgh, while Stony Brook also came in off a heartbreaking loss to University of Texas at El Paso.
Seawolves running backs Brock Jackolski and Miguel Maysonet were given the ball for the majority of the game to showcase their talent as running backs, with Stony Brook picking up 184 yards on the ground.
But it was Buffalo running back Branden Oliver who stole the show. Last week against Pittsburgh, Oliver ran for a career-high 114 yards and against Stony Brook he scored three touchdowns and rushed for 134 yards.UB is the second Division 1-A team that Stony Brook has played this season.
The Seawolves tied the game 7-7 when quarterback Kyle Essington passed to Jordan Gush for a 16-yard touchdown. The touchdown was a result of 10 plays, 93 yards and 5:03 in possession.
UB took a 21-7 lead on two Oliver rushing touchdowns.
In the Seawolves next possession, Jackolski caught a 34-yard catch with 4:27 left in the second quarter, but the catch wasn’t counted for Stony Brook after the referees called a penalty for an illegal substitution. The deception play, which Priore stated was intentional and is considered legal in the rules of the game, could have been a game-changing reception for the Seawolves.
“It becomes a discretion with the official whether it’s the intent to deceive,” said Priore. “It could’ve went either way.”
Shortly after the penalty was called, both UB and SBU threw interceptions. Khalil Mack intercepted a Michael Coulter pass and returned it to the three-yard line, but was backed up due to an unsportsmanlike penalty. The next play for UB was intercepted by Stony Brook’s cornerback Porter at the 8-yard line. The Seawolves couldn’t convert however, and Buffalo took a two-touchdown lead into the half.
With 8:12 left in the third quarter, Anderson completed a 15-yard touchdown pass to Devon Hughes. Buffalo’s defense continued to put pressure on Stony Brook towards the end of the game and Oliver proved himself to be the star of the game for UB when he ran 43 yards for his third touchdown of the game with eight seconds left in the third quarter. Neither team scored in the fourth quarter.
“We had some long drives and then we couldn’t finish in the red zone,” said Coulter. “All of us on offense have to be clicking for it to run. If one person is off, the play doesn’t run well. We’ll make our corrections and we’ll be fine for next week.”
Stony Brook plays its first home game of the season next week when they will take on Brown on Sept. 17 at 6p.m.
