Oct. 18, 2008

Final Stats

Stony Brook, N.Y. - A 23-yard scoring pass from freshman Dayne Hoffman (Ada, Mich.) to junior Adrian Sawyer (Oakland, Calif.) with 1:06 to play was the difference as Stony Brook came from behind to take a thrilling 20-19 win over Charleston Southern on homecoming weekend. The win was Stony Brook's first as a member of the Big South and evened the Seawolves conference mark at 1-1. Junior Conte Cuttino (Uniondale, N.Y.) ran for a season-high 107 yards for Stony Brook, pushing his career total over the 2,000-yard mark.

"It has been a tough five weeks," said Stony Brook head coach Chuck Priore. "We talked about playing with your heart. You don't do what we did on the last drive of the game or make a goal-line stand if you don't play with your heart. I am proud of the way we played today."

Stony Brook (2-5, 1-1 Big South) began its game-winning drive from its own 17-yard line with less than five minutes to play. On the strength of the rushing of Cuttino and freshman Edwin Gowins (Bellport, N.Y.), the Seawolves drove down the field, reaching the Charleston Southern 13. A holding penalty pushed SBU back 10 yards and gave the Seawolves a 2nd and 20. An incomplete pass made it third and long, but Hoffman found Sawyer open over the middle in the end zone for the score.

Charleston Southern (3-4, 1-1 Big South) had 58 seconds left to try and get in position for a field goal on its final drive. The Buccaneers made it out to their own 45 before Tribble Reese completed a pass into Stony Brook territory at the 49 to Tim Jones. A hit from senior Andre Jean-Pierre (Irvington, N.J.) knocked the ball loose and Jean-Pierre recovered the fumble to secure the win for the Seawolves.

Charleston Southern took the first lead of the day late in the first quarter, scoring on a Reese to Gerald Stevenson 30-yard pass play after starting its drive by recovering a Stony Brook fumble. Stevenson proved to be the big offensive weapon for CSU during the game, hauling in seven passes for 143 yards and three scores.

In the second quarter Stony Brook came up with 10 points to take its first lead of the game. After the Seawolves defense turned in a goal-line stand that saw them stop CSU on a 4th-and-1 at the Stony Brook two, Stony Brook took the momentum of the stop and turned it into a scoring drive. Stony Brook drove out to its own 44 where Hoffman hit senior Dwayne Eley (Bowie, Md.) for a 33-yard gain down to the CSU 23. Two plays later the same pair hooked up for the score, a nine-yard play down the right side, to tie the game with six minutes left in the half.

Stony Brook then held Charleston Southern to a three-and-out on its next drive, and got the ball back on the CSU 43. The Seawolves took advantage of the field position when it got a 37-yard field goal from senior Luke Gaddis (East Patchogue, N.Y.) that put them on top 10-7. Charleston Southern came back on a eight-play, 68-yard drive that took just a little more than two minutes, with Reese and Stevenson hooking up on a 19-yard scoring play with eight seconds left on the clock. The extra-point attempt hit the right upright, however, leaving the Buccaneers with a 13-10 lead at the half.

Stony Brook took the opening drive of the second half 67 yards, tying things up on Gaddis' second field goal of the game, this one from 25 yards away. Charleston Southern answered on its first possession, running just four plays before Stevenson scored his third TD of the game, this time taking a Reese pass 39 yards to the end zone. Again the extra-point attempt hit the upright, making it two misses on the afternoon that proved to be big ones by the time it was over. With the miss Charleston Southern held a 19-13 lead with 9:56 left in the third.

Both teams were able to move the ball on drives in the third and most of the fourth quarters, but neither was able to get any points on the board until the game-winning drive by Stony Brook late in the game. Charleston Southern got the ball at the Stony Brook 31 mid-way through the third quarter after a short Stony Brook punt, but the Seawolves defense forced CSU into a fourth-and-two that it went for, with a Reese pass being tipped away by sophomore Arin West (Toms River, N.J.).

Hoffman finished with a career-high 210 yards passing, hitting on 17 of his 31 attempts, with a pair of touchdowns and no interceptions. Gowins nearly made it two backs over the 100-yard mark, rushing for 97 yards. Eley led the receivers with season highs of seven catches for 89 yards. In all Stony Brook totaled 417 yards of offense, its second-highest output of the season, while holding Charleston Southern to 331 yards. Reese led Charleston Southern by hitting 19 of 33 pass attempts for 218 yards and three scores.

On his third carry of the game early in the second quarter, a two-yard gain, Cuttino became the fifth back in the history of Stony Brook football to go over the 2,000-yard career mark. His 107-yard game gives him 2,091 career yards and moved him past Clinton Graham (2000-04) into fourth-place all-time at Stony Brook.