Ground and pound. That has been Stony Brook head man Chuck Priore’s mantra ever since he came to Long Island over nine seasons ago.
Saturday afternoon against Elon, the Albany graduate coached his 100th game for the Seawolves and his team delivered a 20-3 victory over the Phoenix in a Colonial Athletic Association football matchup at Rhodes Stadium in Elon, N.C.
Stacey Bedell led the way for Stony Brook, rushing for 118 yards and a touchdown for a team that had 181 total rushing yards in the game.
The Seawolves went heavy with run plays, running 47 on the ground to just 13 in the air.
Bedell ran for 100 yards for the second straight game, and for the fourth time in his last five games.
Stony Brook ran 17 straight rushing plays to start the game before an early second quarter pass play that gained 15 yards.
After allowing a field goal on their first time on the field, Stony Brook’s defense locked down, recording four three-and-outs and picking off Elon’s Mike Quinn three times.
Marvin Hart recorded two of the three picks. The Seawolves now have six interceptions in as many games.
After turning the ball over on their first drive of the game, Stony Brook started at their own 25 and took the ball the other 75 yards on seven plays to take a 7-3 lead on Bedell’s 39-yard touchdown run.
He now has a touchdown in five straight games.
The team’s traded punts on the next two drives before the first of four Elon turnovers gave Stony Brook the ball at the Phoenix 44 yard line.
Six plays after the fumble, the Seawolves scored their second touchdown of the game on an 18-yard pass from Conor Bednarski to Adrian Coxson.
It was a very light day for the junior quarterback, as he completed six of those 13 attempts, going for 81 yards and that touchdown.
Four of those completed passes were to Coxson, who garnered 51 yards receiving in the contest.
James Kenner finished the scoring for the day with a three-yard touchdown that capped a seven-play, 43-yard drive late in the fourth quarter to make it 20-3 Stony Brook.
On the flipside of the ball, the Seawolves defense stopped Elon’s offense from getting a whole lot of anything going.
They allowed 250 yards of total offense, with 72 coming on Elon’s final drive in garbage time, which ended in a Jaheem Woods interception.
They also held the Phoenix scoreless in the second half, the third straight time that the Seawolves have held their opposition scoreless in the latter half of the game.
Stony Brook has also only allowed 13 points in the past three games, while allowing 216.3 yards per game. That total is the best in Division I in FBS and FCS.
Adding onto the accolades, Stony Brook has not allowed double-digit points for the third straight game, which is a Division I-program record.
Christian Ricard led the way again for the Seawolves, recording six tackles with four solos and two assisted efforts.
Ricard also had two tackles for loss totaling four yards and earned half of a sack along with Julian Quintin.
The senior rover is second in the CAA in tackles for loss, averaging 2.06 per game and is sixth in the conference in sacks with an average of 0.81 per game.
Quintin was one of three players that finished with five tackles in the game. 19 different Seawolves were able to record a tackle in the matchup, with 13 having multiple.
The biggest game of the year to date is coming up next Saturday for Stony Brook, when the team heads up north to take on the Wildcats of New Hampshire and their second-ranked offense in the CAA. Kickoff up in Durham, N.H. is scheduled for 3 p.m.
