Stony Brook brought a 1-3 record into its homecoming game against Virginia Military Institute Saturday afternoon at LaValle Stadium, but the Seawolves didn't feel like a 1-3 team. Sure, they took their lumps at South Florida in their first-ever game against a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent, but an overtime loss at Brown and a five-point loss to nationally ranked Massachusetts were winnable games.
The opening of Big South Conference play represented the road to redemption and an automatic bid to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs that goes to the league champion. Stony Brook responded with a 27-9 victory over VMI in front of a season-high crowd of 7,432 that saw the Seawolves (2-3, 1-0 Big South) dominate on defense.
Quarterback Michael Coulter was supremely efficient while completing 14 of 19 passes for 194 yards and a 5-yard touchdown to Jordan Gush that gave SBU a 10-3 halftime lead. Running back Miguel Maysonet carried 21 times for 99 yards and had two other runs totaling 30 yards wiped out by penalties. Brock Jackolski added 91 yards rushing on 17 carries, including a 25-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter for the game's final score.
But it was Stony Brook's defense that was most impressive in shutting down VMI (2-3, 1-1 Big South). The Keydets opened by driving 63 yards in 14 plays before settling for a 28-yard field goal by Jeff Sexton. Quarterback Cameron Jones completed 9 of 10 short passes, which came as a bit of a surprise to a Seawolves defense expecting a run-oriented attack.
But once defensive coordinator Jim Gush adjusted, it was lights out for VMI's offense, which netted only 8 yards rushing, 192 yards of total offense, committed three turnovers and was limited to a mere 23 minutes, 37 seconds of possession time.
"We know what type of team we are," said defensive end Jonas Rousseau, who was a force with five tackles, 2.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for losses. "We knew we should have won those games . We didn't come here timid. We knew we were one or two plays from being 3-1. We came here and put a complete game together."
After a 24-yard Wes Skiffington field goal made it 3-all, Coulter recognized a VMI defense that head coach Chuck Priore had shown him on video just 90 minutes before game time. He knew the post route would be open and hit Matt Brevi down the middle for a 48-yard gain that set up the TD to Gush two plays later.
"It happened like coach thought it would," said Coulter, who would have completed 18 of 19 if not for four dropped passes. "It's a good start to the conference season."
In the third quarter, the Seawolves added a career-best 45-yard field goal by Skiffington, and SBU's Rich Vitale recovered a fumble by punter Marc Ray in the end zone for a TD and a 20-3 lead. VMI inserted freshman Eric Kordenbrock at quarterback, and he connected on an 80-yard scoring pass to Mario Scott against a blown coverage. But Kordenbrock was leveled on the play and left the game.
"We made some mistakes, made it a closer game than it should have been," Priore said. "We dominated. Anytime you hold a team to 8 yards rushing and you're able to possess the ball for 36 minutes, you should win and control the game. They're a good defensive team, and we ran the ball for more yards against them than Virginia or William & Mary did. Defensively, one big play hurt us. Other than that, we controlled the game."
