It was the last regular season home game for the seniors on the No. 9 Stony Brook football team, and they along with the rest of their teammates made it count.
The Seawolves decimated conference opponent Virginia Military Institute Keydets 45-7, improving their overall record to 9-1 and 5-0 in conference play.
“Obviously it was a great win for the seniors,” head coach Chuck Priore said. “I’m really excited about the way we played. I thought we played hard on defense. We didn’t give them anything except one drive.”
The first half went about as well as it possibly could for Stony Brook.
The team scored four touchdowns and never allowed the Keydets to do the same. In fact, the Seawolves did not have to punt the ball at any time during the half.
The Seawolves ate up a little more than six minutes on their first drive and scored a touchdown when senior quarterback Kyle Essington threw a pass to fellow senior wide receiver Kevin Norrell.
It was the first of three such touchdown pass completions of the evening between those two. Essington threw for 166 yards and completed 12 of 17 passes on the day. Norrell caught eight passes and gained 113 yards.
“Each week these guys go in and do their job,” Norrell said, “And it shows. We’re having fun out there, and everything is easier when it’s like that.”
A few minutes later, senior running back Miguel Maysonet ran for 16 yards to score the second touchdown of the game, improving Stony Brook to 14-0.
He scored three touchdowns in the game; he has done so six times this season, a Big South conference record.
He also broke his and the Big South’s single-season rushing yards record in the game. He ran for 149 yards, averaging 7.4 yards a carry.
Junior running back Marcus Coker also punished the Keydets by accumulating 139 yards.
Stony Brook added another two touchdowns in the second quarter as the result of another run from Maysonet and pass to Norrell.
The Keydets were limited to completing only three first downs in the half and gaining 55 yards of total offense as opposed to 229 from Stony Brook.
Maysonet added another touchdown to his total in the third quarter, but the Keydets finally broke onto the scoreboard with a touchdown of their own with 38 seconds left in the quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Essington completed his third and final touchdown pass to Norrell of the game, and the Seawolves kicked the only field goal of the game with 6:08 left to further increase their margin to 45-7.
Stony Brook coasted to victory with the time remaining.
This was the last regular season home game that Stony Brook will play as a member of the Big South conference.
Stony Brook has lost only one regular season game at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium while a member of the conference. The Seawolves are 23-4 overall in conference play.
Next week, the Seawolves will travel to Liberty University in Virginia to play their last game of the regular season.
At the moment, it is not certain if Stony Brook will win the conference and therefore its automatic bid to the FCS tournament, so this away game is still very significant.
“They’re going to be pumped in front of their home crowd,” said Maysonet, who has been nominated for the Walter Payton award, which shall be given out after the season. “If we go out there and play our game and do what we do best, we’ve been handling business so far.”
The game will take place at 3:30 p.m. this upcoming Saturday in Lynchburg, Va.
