The Stony Brook football team’s defense put out yet another strong performance, allowing 242 yards of total offense to the Towson Tigers, 77 in the second half, and forcing a big interception, as the Seawolves snapped a two-game losing streak and defeated last year’s national runner-up 14-3 in a Colonial Athletic Association football matchup on Saturday afternoon at Johnny Unitas Stadium in Towson, Md.
Christian Ricard again led the way for the Seawolves, recording 10 tackles, and 2.5 for a loss.
The Seawolves defense as a team recorded 12 tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
Travon Reid-Segure made the most of his first start of the season, recording eight tackles, four of which were solo.
On the offensive side of the football, it was a solid dose of Stacey Bedell early and James Kenner late that led the Seawolves to its second victory of the season.
160 of Stony Brook’s 289 yards came on the ground. Kenner finished with 80 yards, 56 of which coming in the fourth quarter, while Bedell finished with 51 yards.
Each back scored a touchdown in the game, and Bedell’s score late in the first quarter proved to be the winner.
Davonte Anderson set up the scoring drive with his second interception of the season.
He picked off Connor Frazier’s pass in the red zone and was able to maneuver the Towson offense to take the ball into Tigers territory to the 47-yard line.
This was Anderson’s 14th career interception, which puts him one short of tying the Division I program record set by Chad King.
After the pick, the Seawolves engineered an 11 play, 47-yard drive that was capped off by Bedell’s one-yard touchdown run to give the Seawolves the first and last lead of the game.
Stony Brook converted two 3rd downs on the drive, one of which had to be done again because of a holding penalty.
Bedell had 18 rushing yards on the drive, and Marcus Coker added 15 on the ground, including 11 on the first play of the march down the field.
The Seawolves were able to rush the ball very well, but in what turned into a key matchup in the game, the Towson rushing attack was not able to get going against the Stony Brook defense.
The Tigers’ Darius Victor came into the game averaging 117 yards per game on the ground, leading a team that averaged 193.6 yards on the ground per game.
Stony Brook held Victor to just 59 yards on 17 carries and the team to only 105 yards, and the Tigers averaged just 3.4 yards per carry.
When Towson was able to get some offensive momentum going, they turned the ball over all three times.
They were only able to generate three drives of 30 yards or more, and all three times they turned it over.
The first was the Anderson interception, and the other two were turned over on downs.
The Tigers’ only points were set up by an interception thrown by Conor Bednarski, one of two he had throughout the day. His pass intended for Jahrie Level was deflected and caught by Towson’s Tye Smith at the Stony Brook 29-yard line.
The Seawolves were able to keep the Tigers out of the end zone, and Sam Hurwitz hit a 26-yard field goal to make it 7-3 Stony Brook with 12:50 to play in the first half.
The Tigers’ only threat in the second half was created by the second of Bednarski’s interceptions, as this time it was Jordan Mynatt making the turnover.
After getting to the Stony Brook 19, Towson could only go backwards as they fell as far as the 36 before settling to a 4th and 22.
The Seawolves were able to stop them short, but a defensive holding call on Naim Cheeseboro kept the drive alive.
Three plays later, Hurwitz came back on the field to attempt a 36-yard field goal.
Julian Quintin would have none of it, swatting the kick into the air. The ball was caught by Anderson and returned to the Seawolves’ 43.
Stony Brook got their second score of the game late in the fourth to seal the deal.
The Seawolves were able to chew up most of the clock when they got the ball back at the Towson 49 with 6:01 to play in the fourth.
Kenner muscled his way to 47 yards on the drive, and powered it in from two yards out with 1:24 to play to ice the victory for Stony Brook and give them a 14-3 lead.
This gauntlet of games for Stony Brook continues next weekend back at LaValle Stadium when they take on the reigning CAA champion Maine Black Bears at 7 p.m. on Oct. 11. The following week the Seawolves will take on Elon University.