Despite the loss to Brown on Saturday night for their home opener, the Seawolves running game proved again to be dominant by gaining 246 rushing yards in the game.
Stony Brook’s Miguel Maysonet rushed for 161 yards and scored one touchdown. Despite his success on the field, Maysonet stated that it meant nothing to him since they were unable to come away with the win.
“At the end of the day a loss is a loss,” Maysonet said. “I’d rather rush for zero yards and win than rush for 160 and get a loss.”
Saturday’s game was the first of four consecutive home games for Stony Brook which is a first in their 12-year Division-1 history. The loss gave them their first 0-3 start since 2006.
The Seawolves had the first lead in the game when kicker Wesley Skiffington made a 38-yard field goal with 4:37 left in the first quarter.
Brown’s senior Alexander Tounkara-Kone helped Brown get on the board with a 38-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Newhall-Caballero with 3:28 remaining in the first. The game went into the second quarter with Brown leading 7-3.
This season Coach Chuck Priore has been alternating between senior quarterback Michael Coulter and junior quarterback Kyle Essington. Essington has been showcasing his abilities at his run game and in the second quarter he ran for an 18-yard touchdown with 14:54 left to go giving Stony Brook a 10-3 lead. Essington’s touchdown was the only scoring play before halftime.
When asked about his alternating quarterback situation Priore stated that, “It’s all pre-structured before the game. I feel that we have two good quarterbacks.”
Newhall-Caballero was very successful through the air for Brown coming up with 292 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Brown’s quarterback had such an accomplished outing.
“That kid led the country two years ago in passing efficiency and total yards. That was not a hidden secret,” Priore said.
After halftime, Stony Brook was the first to score with Maysonet running in for a 26 yard touchdown with 6:22 left to go in the third quarter giving the Seawolves a 17-7 lead.
Shortly after, Tounkara-Kone scored his second touchdown of the game with a 45-yard pass from Newhall-Caballero bringing Brown closer with the score at 17-14.
Stony Brook’s defense should be given a great deal of credit for this game and they played extremely well.
Sophomore linebacker Jawara Dudley who Priore has called “a hell of a football player”, made 14 tackles and one sack in the game.
An unfortunate incident occurred in the third quarter when Stony Brook’s wide receiver Matt Brevi suffered a shoulder injury after attempting to dive for a catch in the end zone.
Priore was asked about the injury to Brevi and he simply stated “shoulder separation.” It’s unknown so far whether he will be available to play in the homecoming game this Saturday against Lafayette.
Neither Coach Priore or anyone on the Stony Brook squad has ever lost a homecoming game.
Skiffington made a 32-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to give Stony Brook the 20-14 lead.
However, penalties were a major issue in this game and made it difficult for Stony Brook to maintain the lead.
The Seawolves had a total of 11 penalties for 133 yards.
Priore said the problem with the penalties was that they happened in a one score game.
“If it’s a two score game, we get the ball back, we have got to kill the clock,” Priore said. Priore was very proud of the way his team played and despite the penalties he made it clear that “at the end of the day those things happen to all teams.”
Tellef Lundevall caught a 12 yard pass from Newhall-Cabellero with 3:06 left to go in the fourth quarter and that sealed the deal for Brown. Stony Brook attempted to make it to within field goal range but Skiffington missed a long 55-yard attempt with less than a minute left to go.
“Losing is part of the game,” Priore said. “You never accept it, but you deal with it, and you deal it with it positively, and that’s how we’ll deal with it.”
Stony Brook will play their homecoming game against Lafayette on Saturday at 6 p.m.
