The Stony Brook football team crushed the Charleston Southern University Buccaneers 49-7 in the team’s opening conference game of the season.
“What we are doing as an offense is working,” senior running back Miguel Maysonet said.
Even though they elected to kick off the ball to start the game, it was the Seawolves who got off to a fast start. They forced the Buccaneers to a short first drive and took the ball for their own. On its own opening drive, Stony Brook scored the first touchdown of the game with 10:45 left in the first quarter when senior quarterback Kyle Essington threw a 29-yard pass to fellow senior wide receiver Kevin Norrell, who would set his personal record for receiving yards and touchdowns through the evening.
“Kevin is really talented,” Esssington said. “I trust him to get open and bring down that deep ball.”
The two teams exchanged unsuccessful drives as the first quarter gradually came to a close. The Seawolves found themselves well-positioned at the end of the quarter as they had a fresh set of downs at Charleston Southern’s 30-yard line. They would make good use of these circumstances. A 28-yard pass from Essington led to a diving catch by Norrell, putting the ball a couple of yards from the end zone. Maysonet would make the short run at the beginning of the second quarter to give the Seawolves a 14-0 lead.
It would be a big night for Maysonet, who broke both the Stony Brook and Big South conference record for rushing yards. He ran for 88 yards on the evening overall.
“It’s not an individual job,” he said. “I try my hardest to run the ball; our line does a great job blocking for us.”
However, the Buccaneers would not let themselves be shut out completely. With their next drive, they pushed down the field from their 24-yard line and scored their one and only touchdown of the game. Buccaneer quarterback Malcolm Dixon threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Will Hunt to seal the deal.
But, from that point forward, it was entirely Stony Brook’s game. The Seawolves got down the field quickly in the their next drive; Essington completed a 42-yard pass to Norrell and later made contact with senior wide receiver Jordan Gush to score Stony Brook’s third touchdown of the game. Gush had three touchdowns on the evening, a personal record.
Essington also had a strong night, completing five touchdown passes overall, tying a school record.
“We all just keep building confidence week-in, week-out,” he said.
It looked as though the Buccaneers were going to keep themselves within striking distance, but the Stony Brook defense would only allow them to attempt a field goal on their next drive, an attempt in which they would not be successful. Any prospects for their victory were quickly drifting away.
The next Stony Brook drive featured yet another long completed pass to Norrell, this one for 51 yards. He would catch Stony Brook’s fourth touchdown of the game later in the drive. That would bring an end to the scoring in the first half.
It would not take the Seawolves long to pick up where they left off in the second half. With less than three minutes in the books, Essington completed another touchdown pass to Gush. The Buccaneers tried to make a dent in the scoreboard and inched their way down the field to Stony Brook’s 26-yard line. But junior linebacker Reggie Francklin brought those aspirations to an end with an interception. Instead of Charleston Southern getting closer, the Seawolves would increase the gap with another touchdown pass to Gush, making the score 42-7.
Junior running back Marcus Coker would score the last touchdown of the game later that quarter, making the score 49-7. The starters would be withdrawn after having tied or broken a number of records.
The fourth quarter passed without much incident. The Buccaneers once again got close to scoring a second touchdown, but that drive was brought to an end by an interception as well.
With this game in the past, head coach Chuck Priore has to prepare for an away game against Coastal Carolina University next week.
“I think at the end of the day,” he said. “We’ve got five straight games against conference opponents. We’ve got to take it one game at a time.”