STONY BROOK, N.Y. – The Golden Apple is staying in the Wolves Den as the Stony Brook University football team (5-6, 4-4 CAA) used an offensive explosion to defeat UAlbany (2-9, 2-7 CAA), 36-14, on Saturday afternoon at LaValle Stadium. The win was the 200
th in program history for the Seawolves as the standard of excellence that began with coach Sam Kornhauser continues with coach
Chuck Priore, the entire staff, and student-athletes.
Stony Brook erupted for a season-high 321 yards on the ground, the fourth-most in a game by a team in the CAA this season. The 321 rushing yards were the most for the Seawolves since they rushed for 336 yards as a team on September 28, 2019, against Rhode Island.
The ground game was paced by redshirt junior running back
Ty Son Lawton and redshirt freshman running back
Roland Dempster. The duo each rushed for over 100 yards in the game and Dempster led the way with a career-high 160 yards on a career-high 19 carries. Lawton ran for 134 yards and a touchdown in the win. He went over the 1,000 yard mark for the season and 2,000 yard mark for his career in the performance.
Stony Brook's offensive line composed of redshirt senior
Cameron Lucas, redshirt sophomore
Cole Gambino, graduate
Anthony Catapano, redshirt senior
Kyle Nunez, and graduate
Justin Morgan controlled the line of scrimmage and helped the Seawolves to another 100-plus yard rushing performance. Stony Brook has rushed for 100 or more yards as a team in 10 out of 11 games this season with the offensive line leading the way.
The Seawolves jumped out to an early lead with 12:23 to play in the first quarter as graduate quarterback
Tyquell Fields threw his first of two touchdowns of the day. Fields found redshirt sophomore wide receiver
Tyler Devera for a 21-yard touchdown.
Stony Brook added to its lead with a 33-yard field goal by
Angelo Guglielmello with 2:31 to go in the first quarter to go up 10-0. The Seawolves defense was flying around all game long.
With 8:40 to play in the second quarter they forced a safety as UAlbany's Jeff Undercuffler was called for intentional grounding in the end zone due to the pressure caused by the Stony Brook defense. On the ensuing drive, Fields connected with redshirt sophomore wide receiver
Shawn Harris Jr. on a 67-yard touchdown strike on the very first play to put the Seawolves ahead, 19-0.
Stony Brook took a 19-0 lead into the halftime break and picked up right where it left off when the second half began. With 12:11 to play in the third quarter, redshirt junior defensive lineman
Jaylyn Stover blocked a punt that was recovered by redshirt freshman running back
Jayden Cook and returned for a touchdown.
UAlbany got on the board with a three-yard touchdown run by Karl Mofor with 7:04 to play in the third quarter, but the Seawolves responded by scoring 10 more points of their own. Guglielmello tallied his second field goal of the game and the Lawton found the end zone from four yards out to seal the victory.
Before the game, Stony Brook honored its senior class for all of their hard work and dedication. The senior class included: wide receiver
Hunter Hayek, linebacker
Elias Reynolds, quarterback
Danny Sanchez, defensive back
Dajon Owens, wide receiver
Lukas Merluzzi, punter
Mitchell Wright, offensive lineman
Justin Morgan, offensive lineman
Regan Craig, defensive lineman
Brandon Lopez, long snapper
Eric DiCrescenzo, wide receiver
Mike Saleme, defensive lineman
Casey Williams (captain), quarterback
Tyquell Fields (captain), and offensive lineman
Anthony Catapano (captain).
STATS AND NOTES
- The 36 points scored are the most in a game by the Seawolves since it also tallied 36 points against Villanova on October 26, 2019. The 36 points are the second-most that Stony Brook has scored in a game against UAlbany. The Seawolves scored 40 points in a 40-21 win over the Great Danes on November 23, 1995, in the first meeting between the teams.
- The defense limited UAlbany to 65 yards rushing. The Great Danes came into the game averaging 122.6 yards per game on the ground, but their rushing attack was stymied by a gritty defensive performance.
- Dempster rushed for a career-high 160 yards on 19 carries. He became the first Seawolf other than Lawton to rush for 100 yards or more in a game this season. It marked the first time this season that Stony Brook had two running backs rush for over 100 yards in the same game.
- Lawton recorded his sixth 100-plus yard rushing game this season with his 134-yard performance. It was his first 100-yard game since he rushed for a career-high 192 yards in the win over Delaware on October 16. He found the end zone with a four-yard touchdown run, which marked his 10th rushing touchdown of the season. He finished the regular season as the CAA's leading rusher with 1,088 yards. Lawton also went over 2,000 rushing yards in his career on Saturday as he now has a total of 2,004 career rushing yards.
- Fields went 10-for-15 for 149 yards and two touchdowns. He moved into fourth-place on the Stony Brook career passing yards list with 4,852 yards as he jumped ahead of T.J. Moriarty.
- Harris recorded four catches for 95 yards and a touchdown. The 67-yard reception was the longest of his career and the touchdown grab was his third of the season.
- Graduate defensive back Carthell Flowers recorded a team-high eight tackles (four solo, four assists) and a half of a sack as the defense dominated.
- Redshirt senior linebacker Reidgee Dimanche finished the game with seven tackles (two solo, five assists), two tackles for loss, and a half of a sack. Redshirt freshman linebacker Tyler King totaled six tackles (two solo, four assists) and 1.5 tackles for loss.
- Redshirt sophomore defensive back Jordan Jackson forced a fumble that was recovered by senior defensive back Akeal Lalaind.
- Guglielmello converted both of his field goal attempts in the game. He has gone 7-for-7 on field goal attempts dating back to October 23, against Richmond.
QUOTES FROM THE SEAWOLVES
"Albany has been the last game of the year for almost every year that I have been at Stony Brook – the last game allows you to move forward correctly. It is certainly a rivalry game, similar recruiting base, when it's all said and done it's a CAA game though. We are also a member with Albany in the America East, so it is a rivalry because of football and all of our sports competing against each other. They are a good program overall, we had a good day today, and we will utilize that for our offseason," said coach Priore.
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