Providence, R.I. - Brown scored the first 17 points of the game, all in the first half, and held Stony Brook to 147 yards of offense as the Bears handed the Seawolves a 17-7 loss in non-conference football action. Offensively Stony Brook was led by senior quarterback Dan Sweeney (Niskayuna, N.Y.) who hit 11 of his 16 pass attempts for 90 yards. Junior Cory Giddings (Ocean, N.J.) accounted for the only scoring for Stony Brook when he returned an interception for a score early in the fourth quarter.
"We have a lot of work to do to get better as a football team," said Stony Brook head coach Chuck Priore.
Stony Brook's offense could not get on track at the start of the game, going three and out on its first four possessions. The Brown defense did not allow a first down until there was 3:25 left in the second quarter and held the Seawolves to just 10 yards in the first quarter. The Bear offense was just as effective. Jonathan Edawards scored on a 19-yard run on Brown's first possession as the Bears went on to score on its first three possessions, taking a 17-0 lead on a Robert Raney field goal in the opening minute of the second half.
Stony Brook got its first big play of the day when senior John Smith (Yonkers, N.Y.) intercepted a Brown pass and returned it 22 yards to the Bear 23-yard line. Stony Brook came up empty-handed, however, when the offense again could not gain a first down and senior Luke Gaddis' (East Patchogue, N.Y.) 38-yard field goal attempt hit the left upright.
Senior quarterback Dan Sweeney (Niskayuna, N.Y.) came in to lead the final drive of the half for SBU and completed a pair of passes for 26 yards, driving the Seawolves down to the Brown three where it was first and goal. But again Stony Brook was denied by the Brown defense, which forced a Sweeney fumble on third down as he attempted to scramble around the right side to score Brown recovered and ran out the clock to preserve its 17-0 lead at the half.
Both defenses held the offenses in check, resulting in a third quarter that resulted in only a total of 56 yards of offense between the two squads. And it was defense that got Stony Brook back in the game when, with less than two minutes gone in the fourth, junior Cory Giddings (Ocean, N.J.) grabbed the second Stony Brook interception of the day and returned it 19 yards for a score to cut the Brown lead to 17-7 with 13:56 to go.
Stony Brook's defense continued to play well in the second half, holding the Bears to just 89 yards in the half. But the Seawolf offense could not get any points on the board. In the final quarter Stony Brook drove the ball into Brown territory down to the 19, but was turned away when the Bears stopped the Seawolves on a fourth and four play.
Stony Brook had two more possessions after that, but the Seawolves could not come up with any more points as the Black Bears took the win.
