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Naturally, it was going to be close between Stony Brook and Brown. It always is. So the least little mistake was going to hurt. And two pretty big mistakes were going to hurt that much more.
In a strange way, the two penalties that gave Brown 30 yards and a lot of life down the stretch Saturday night at LaValle Stadium were a positive sign. Last week, against Buffalo of the FBS, Stony Brook was pretty much penalty free and never was really in the game. This time, in the home opener against a fellow FCS team, Stony Brook was intense, aggressive and in it to the very end. It was just the Seawolves' misfortune that the ending was a 21-20 loss.
Stony Brook did have one desperate 55-yard field-goal attempt with 56 seconds left, but that, like the whole night, fell short. The Seawolves never did overcome Brown's late fourth-quarter drive that got substantial boosts from a pair of 15-yard personal foul penalties.
"If you're a good football team, those things don't happen to you, or the game isn't close enough where they become that much of an issue in the game," Stony Brook coach Chuck Priore said after his team dropped to 0-3 -- two defeats against teams from the top shelf in college football and one when facing someone its own size, from the FCS.
He said he didn't see either penalty, but acknowledged that they were mistakes born from aggressiveness and passion. "The problem was, it happened in a one-score game," he said. "At the end of the day, those things happen to all teams."
What happened to Stony Brook on its own field Saturday night had looked unlikely for much of the game. The Seawolves ran the ball with authority. Miguel Maysonet gained 161 yards on 23 carries, including a 26-yard touchdown run off a direct snap early in the third quarter, putting the home team up 17-7.
"At the end of the day, a loss is a loss. I'd rather rush for fewer yards and win," said the junior from Riverhead.
Brown, starting its 134th season of football, did get back in the game soon after that, taking advantage of a fumbled punt return. On the next play, a flea-flicker, former All-Ivy League quarterback Kyle Newhall-Caballero connected with All-Ivy receiver (and possible NFL prospect) Alex Tounkara-Kone for a 46-yard touchdown.
Still, Stony Brook was in control 20-14 when Brown took over on its own 43 with 8:44 left. Brown's drive seemed dead after three plays, except it was revived by a personal foul. Five plays later, Brown reached Stony Brook's 20 on a second 15-yard penalty. Five plays after that, Newhall-Caballero passed 12 yards to Tellef Lundevall for a touchdown.
Stony Brook did have one more burst, led by Maysonet and Brock Jackolski (80 yards on 17 carries). But the Seawolves stalled, in part because their best deep receiving threat, Matt Brevi, had left in the third quarter with a separated shoulder.
With fourth-and-15 from the Brown 38, Priore chose to have Wesley Skiffington try the 55-yarder. "The sticks were just too long for us to go for it on fourth down," the coach said. "I can sit here and second guess, take one more play and throw it in the end zone. Maybe we should have done it. You make a decision and go with it, and pray maybe it's going to be made.
"Could he make it? Yeah. What was the percentage? Small," Priore said.
He was nonetheless proud of the way his team played. The players were proud, too. But being proud is different from being happy.
"It's the third game we lost in a row and it's getting old at this point," Jackolski said. "We need to stop what's going on right now, turn it all around."
