The Stony Brook football team failed to finish its season strong, as the Seawolves fell to the Albany Great Danes 27-17 up in New York’s capital on Saturday afternoon.
Running back Omar Osbourne led the way for the Great Danes, rushing for 166 yards
on 24 carries.
After a scoreless first quarter, Albany started the scoring when Cole King hauled in a 33-yard touchdown pass from Will Fiacchi to give Albany a 7-0 lead with 8:06 to play in the first half.
This capped a nine play, 80-yard drive that spanned 4:20.
Fiacchi got into a rhythm on this drive, completing three straight passes for double-digit yardage to move the ball into Seawolves territory.
King had a catch for 14 yards on the drive as well.
The drive contained 73 of Fiacchi’s 135 passing yards on the day.
Conor Bednarski was only in the game for two and a half quarters, finishing 7-for-14 for 73 yards and an interception.
The only scoring drive the junior quarterback led was off of a fumbled punt return by the Great Danes.
Stony Brook went three-and-out on a drive that started at midfield, but Josh Gontarek muffed the Luke Allen punt.
The ball was recovered by Christian Ricard, who was playing in his last game in a Seawolves uniform, at the Albany 16-yard line.
Though Bednarski and his offense could not get any yardage on the drive, they were able to salvage three points with a Przemyslaw Popek 33-yard field goal that cut the lead to 7-3.
The Great Danes tried to get more points before the half, and marched to Stony Brook’s 12-yard line.
Then, Fiacchi threw his lone pick of the day on a screen pass, and Davonte Anderson made a great diving interception to thwart the effort.
Anderson’s pick was the 16th of his career, breaking Stony Brook’s Division I record for interceptions in a career.
He passed Chad King’s record of 15, which was set back in 2005.
A pair of Patrick Toole field goals in the third quarter gave the Great Danes breathing room, putting them up 13-3 going into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth, the fireworks began as both teams put up 14 points, going back and fourth for a wild 15 minutes.
It started with the newly-inserted quarterback John Kinder who entered the game with 6:22 to play in the third.
Adrian Coxson was wide open in the middle of the field, and the senior Syracuse transfer found him for a 78-yard touchdown to cut the Great Dane lead to 13-10 two plays into the fourth quarter.
Albany took the ball back, and with a healthy dose of Osbourne, scored a touchdown on a time-consuming drive of its own to make the lead double digits again at 20-10 with 8:11 to
play in the fourth.
This drive spanned 11 plays for 76 yards as the Great Danes methodically moved the ball down the field and ran it every play once they got into Seawolves territory.
Stony Brook took the ball and answered right back, taking the ball 75 yards on seven plays. Marcus Coker finished it off with a two-yard touchdown run to cut the lead back down to three at 20-17.
But, the Great Danes answered right back and finished off Stony Brook quickly with a three-play, 75-yard drive.
Osbourne capped the drive off by taking it 68 yards to the house, effectively taking the game and putting it out of reach with 3:23 to play in the game.
Kinder and the offense had two more drives, but the senior threw two interceptions and ended Stony Brook’s hopes of a comeback.
Stony Brook only ran the ball for 78 yards on the day, but Stacey Bedell became the sixth player in program history to run for 1000 yards in a season with a 10-yard rush on the first play of the game.
The Seawolves finished with a 5-7 overall. SBU went 5-6 during the 2013 season.
They also finished with a 4-4 record against CAA opponents.
This was an improvement on last season, when the team went 3-5 in conference play.
With the loss at Albany on Saturday, Stony Brook finished with a 2-4 record on the road.
Albany improved its record to 7-5 this season.
The Great Danes also improved to 3-5 in CAA play.
