BY ARTHUR STAPLE | arthur.staple@newsday.com
The bad old days in the Hofstra-Stony Brook series were supposed to be gone. The Seawolves, under Chuck Priore, had given Hofstra plenty of worry in the annual meeting the past two seasons after two blowouts by the Pride since the series resumed in 2004.
Friday night in a misty LaValle Stadium at Stony Brook, the bad, old days came back. And fast. Thanks to mistakes in every phase of its game, Stony Brook fell behind early and kept falling. It was 31-0 with 4:06 left in the half, and the 43-3 final was a foregone and appropriate conclusion.
"What happened two years ago, three years ago, that doesn't matter to me," Priore said. "Tonight, we made a few mistakes, and Hofstra capitalized."
Hofstra (2-2) won its second straight and 12th straight against its Long Island neighbor thanks to the best start of junior quarterback Cory Christopher's season. He completed 15 of 24 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown, and rushed for two more scores in a very solid performance.
The Seawolves (1-4), losers of four straight, could only count the ways they failed. Their offense has now gone 11 quarters without a touchdown. A bad snap on a punt in the wet weather set up an early Hofstra field goal. And a 60-yard fumble return for another score -- the first of four Stony Brook turnovers -- sealed the deal for Hofstra before halftime.
The game may have turned on the first series for each team. Stony Brook marched down the field into Hofstra territory and had a chance to take the lead, but senior Dwayne Eley dropped a pass from Dayne Hoffman in the end zone on second-and-8 from the Pride 29. Stony Brook turned it over on downs, and Hofstra zipped the other way to take the lead on a 1-yard plunge by Christopher.
The Pride tacked on 10 more points in the next 4:57 on Seawolves errors -- the high punt snap led to a field goal, and Hofstra junior cornerback Leslie Jackman ripped the ball from Stony Brook freshman running back Ed Gowins' hands and raced 60 yards for a score.
"We go from maybe being 7-0 up to 17-0 down," Priore said.
"When we got that first score, we owed it to our defense to come out and produce," Christopher said.
Christopher, who wasn't bothered a bit by the slick conditions, then directed another scoring drive with a 2-yard dive on fourth-and-1 from the Stony Brook 26 for a first down, then a 21-yard strike to Aaron Weaver to the 3 before Brock Jackolski ran a sweep for the score and a 24-0 lead with 7:46 left in the half.
Hoffman was too ambitious on the next Stony Brook drive and was easily intercepted by Ray McDonough at the Pride 32. That led to Anthony Nelson's touchdown catch on a 30-yard pass from Christopher.
When Priore took over in 2006, the Seawolves had no scholarships and were part of the Northeast Conference. They had lost games in 2004 and 2005 to Hofstra by a combined 116-21 score, but the last two seasons were losses by 17-8 and 33-28.
"I think maybe this was the first time we've been on almost equal footing with them in terms of scholarships," Hofstra coach Dave Cohen said. "In the past, it wasn't really much of an equal rivalry."
It still may not be.
