The 2nd-largest crowd (7,228), and the largest student crowd (about 2,600) in stadium history saw the Stony Brook Seawolves football team kick off the 2007 season on Sat. with a win over the Georgetown University Hoyas. Two touchdowns from new transfer Brandon Mason and three touchdown passes from Josh Dudash led the team to a 35-28 win. While SB never trailed, the end of the game was filled with suspense, with Georgetown getting a final scoring drive within the last 2 minutes.
Stony Brook won the coin toss, and made good use of their first possession. They made several big plays quickly, including an 11-yard pass from Dudash to J.J. Cox and a 30-yard run by Mason. The drive was capped off with a 6-yard pass from Dudash to Kevin Halonski for the touchdown. SB’s following drive lasted into the 2nd quarter, with the Seawolves slowly making their way down the field until Dudash connected with Dwayne Eley for a 16-yard touchdown pass, putting the Seawolves up 14-0.
This time, the Hoyas fought back with a touchdown to close the gap to 7 points, following a very smooth drive, aided by a 15-yard personal foul penalty by SB. Within 2 minutes, SB had another touchdown of their own, with Mason running it in to make it 21-7. Despite 2 false start penalties at the beginning of their drive, Georgetown bounced back to score another touchdown. However, the extra point was blocked, meaning they were still down by 8. Stony Brook drove the ball down the field, and was at the 8-yard line with seconds left in the half. Dudash ran the ball, but fell just short of the goal line. Conte Cuttino tried to punch it in for the score, but again came up short. SB was unable to run another play, and went into halftime up 21-13. Head Coach Chuck Priore later admitted that he probably should have passed the ball.
Georgetown started the 2nd half on a strong note, eventually scoring a touchdown on a 4th down pass. They made the 2-point conversion to tie the game. SB broke away again, with 2 touchdowns, both on rushed from Mason, to make the score 35-21.Georgetown came back with a touchdown of their own to make it a 7-point game with 6 minutes to play. SB ran another long drive, ending with a missed field goal attempt by Luke Gaddis, setting up the chance for Georgetown to tie it up, with only 1 minute left to play, and with only 1 timeout left. Despite 2 quick first downs, they didn’t get very far, and the Seawolves had the win.
SB’s offense was strong all day, with their drives usually taking about 6 minutes, taking away Georgetown’s chances to rebut their scores. With the exception of a missed field goal, they never turned the ball over, and Dudash, also the team’s punter, didn’t need to punt all day. They totaled 530 yards. They were also strong on special teams, going 5 for 5 on extra points, but missed their only field goal attempt. Georgetown never attempted a field goal, and had 1 of their 3 extra point attempts blocked.
The team spoke of the psychological boost of winning the first game of the season, whereas last year they started 0-4, including 2 losses by more than 40 points, and a 7-0 loss at Georgetown. They attributed the win to several factors. One would be that the team is a lot more comfortable with their system then they were at this point last year. In addition, they had a lot more game film to work off of. Priore added that while they were able to predict the Hoya defense well, their offense was different than they expected.
SB football’s next game is in Lewisburg, PA against Bucknell, at 6PM.
