Stony Brook has best offensive day of season, but JMU QB has the answers
Stony Brook Seawolves quarterback Conor Bednarski passes the football against the James Madison Dukes in the first half of an NCAA Division I football game at LaValle Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The big-game script was all too familiar for Stony Brook. The Seawolves took a two-touchdown second-quarter lead while their defense, ranked No. 2 in the FCS, kept James Madison's No. 9 offense and quarterback Vad Lee well contained.
But for the umpteenth time in their two seasons in the Colonial Athletic Association, the Seawolves were unable to finish. The Dukes held them scoreless in the second half and Lee hit them with the customary backbreaker, a 76-yard TD pass to Brandon Ravenel that was the difference in SBU's 27-24 loss Saturday at LaValle Stadium.
Seawolves running back Marcus Coker, who has fought to regain his form since recovering from a motorcycle accident in April, had his best game with 145 yards on 18 carries. Quarterback Conor Bednarski was at his best, completing 17 of 29 passes for 260 yards and touchdowns of 11 yards to Will Tye (seven catches, 90 yards) and 43 yards to Adrian Coxson.
But the highest-scoring game of the season by Stony Brook (4-6, 3-3 CAA) was no match for Lee, who started last season at run-oriented Georgia Tech and transferred to play for the Dukes (7-3, 4-2) in coach Everett Withers' wide-open, hurry-up offense. The Seawolves came into the game allowing an average of 235.3 yards, but the Dukes gouged them for 513 yards as Lee completed 20 of 33 passes for 314 yards and three TDs and rushed for 56 yards on 16 carries.
"He's by far the best of anybody we've seen this year," SBU rover back Christian Ricard said. "He was able to extend plays it seemed like forever, and when he did, he would break it for a 20-yard run. He's a phenomenal player."
Lee had an unshakable ability to overcome negative plays. With JMU trailing 17-3, he was sacked by defensive end Victor Ochi, whose two sacks gave him an SBU season-record 11. On the next play, Lee threw a 37-yard TD pass that was negated by a holding penalty. On the next play, he completed a 47-yard TD pass to Ishmael Hyman to pull within 17-10.
"It was just a miscommunication," said cornerback Marvin Hart, who had five pass breakups. "It was just the quarterback is a phenomenal athlete."
After a botched onside kick gave Stony Brook possession at the Dukes' 40, Coker carried three times for 20 yards, scoring on a 5-yard run for a 24-10 lead.
"Great blocking by the line opened up holes, and we had good blocking downfield by the wideouts, so I was one-on-one most of the time with the DB," Coker said.
Near the end of the third quarter, with Stony Brook leading 24-20, Coker added a 29-yard run during an 89-yard drive that reached the JMU 2 after Bednarski's 24-yard pass to Tye. That's where the game turned.
Two carries by Coker and one by Stacey Bedell left the ball at the 2. Coach Chuck Priore called for a fake field goal, and running back James Kenner lost 7 yards on a shovel pass from holder Carlos Hernandez.
"I wanted a touchdown to make it 31-20," Priore said. "We weren't going to win with 27 points. We knew we were going to try the fake field goal the first opportunity we had. We practiced it all week."
The Dukes saw it coming. "They had different personnel on the field," Wither said. "We expected something different."
JMU took over at its 9, and three plays later, Ravenel broke wide-open in the middle of the field out of a five-receiver formation to score the winner. "That's them lining up in all these different formations, and you have one person thinking they have this guy and another person thinking they have this guy and someone is running free," Ricard said. "That's JMU's game."
And that left SBU to ponder how another big fish got away.
Greg Logan has worked for Newsday since 1982 covering a wide array of sports and events, currently including the Brooklyn Nets beat.
