No playoff berth for SBU after 54-28 loss to Liberty
LYNCHBURG, Va. - The word filtered down to the Stony Brook players Saturday with about two minutes left. The huge tiebreaker advantage they had brought into the game would do them no good. And with the Seawolves nearing the end of a 54-28 loss to Liberty, the cruel reality set in: They were Big South co-champions, but there would be no berth in the FCS playoffs.
"That's heartbreaking," linebacker Craig Richardson said. "It just kind of took the wind right out of us. It's disappointing."
Liberty's victory over the Seawolves coupled with Coastal Carolina's 70-3 rout of Charleston Southern forged a three-way tie atop the Big South standings at 5-1. Because each team was 1-1 against the other two, the tiebreaker was the number of points allowed in conference games. Coastal allowed 109, followed by Stony Brook at 122 and Liberty at 138, so Coastal earned the automatic playoff berth.
Stony Brook entered the day with 68 points allowed in five games, followed by Coastal with 106 and Liberty with 110. When Coastal allowed three in a game that ended shortly after the Stony Brook game began, Liberty was eliminated and the Seawolves had a 41-point advantage in the points-allowed tiebreaker. Thus, they could have lost 40-0 to Liberty and made the playoffs.
After a 51-yard catch by Brett Arce, Stony Brook (6-5) actually took a 28-27 lead on Miguel Maysonet's second touchdown of the game and Wesley Skiffington's extra point with 10:36 left in the third quarter. But when a touchdown gave Liberty (8-3) a 44-28 lead 1:47 into the fourth quarter, Coastal (6-5) clinched the tiebreaker. SBU now had to win to advance.
"Tiebreakers, three-way tie, everybody beat themselves, go figure," coach Chuck Priore said. "It's what they came up with. That's the rule. That's what it is."
The coaching staff became aware of the Coastal score very early in the SBU game, but the players were not told about it until the final minutes.
Priore said he wasn't concerned about the tiebreaker earlier in the week because the singular focus was on beating the Flames.
Michael Coulter threw touchdown passes of 13 yards to Michael Lepore and 50 yards to Matt Brevi and Maysonet scored on 12- and 1-yard runs.
Maysonet and Brock Jackolski each had averaged more than 100 rushing yards per game, but Liberty held Maysonet to 33 yards on 12 carries and Jackolski to 26 on nine rushes, although Jackolski did have an 85-yard kickoff return to set up the first TD. Coulter, who hadn't thrown an interception in six games, was intercepted twice, with Doncel Bolt returning the second one 46 yards for the final TD, giving the Flames 27 unanswered points.
Liberty's Mike Brown passed for 334 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 160 yards and two TDs on 30 carries, giving him a Big South-record 494 total yards. Brown and Pat Kelly (Big South-record 235 yards, 10 receptions) combined on TD passes of 65 and 79 yards.
Matt Bevins' 50-yard field goal put the Flames up for good at 30-28, and Liberty then forced a three-and-out. "That changed the whole complexion of the game," coach Danny Rocco said.
The Seawolves trailed 20-14 at halftime but took the lead when Coulter found Brevi on a 50-yard touchdown pass. Liberty quickly answered with Brown's 65-yard TD pass to Kelly.
Seconds later, Coulter found tight end Arce for a 51-yard gain, setting up Maysonet's 1-yard touchdown run for a 28-27 lead.
"The run game sets that up," Coulter said of the deep passes. "It's nice to have a solid run game. They played a little aggressive, and we found some weaknesses in the secondary."
Said Rocco, "Our big concern all day was the play-action play, the big shot. They got a couple of them on us, and it cost us dearly. But in the big scope of things, we knew we could get off the field with these guys."
Brown found Kelly for a back-breaking 79-yard touchdown pass on a slant pattern, as Kelly used a screen from teammate Kyle DeArmon to break free of the Stony Brook secondary for a 37-28 lead. Brown's 2-yard touchdown run made it 44-28.
