Nov. 16, 2007

Stony Brook, N.Y. - I hope everyone is looking forward to celebrating the holiday season as we are preparing for the final week of the 2007 campaign. Last Saturday, we won our fifth home game of the season with a solid win over Central Connecticut, a win that allows me to highlight some important themes as we strive to be a complete football team.

I'd like to take this momemt to acknowledge our tremendous senior class who played their final home game at LaValle Stadium last weekend. Dan Berluti '08 (Southington, Conn.), Kyle Brown `08 (Napanoch, N.Y.), Adam Cooper '08 (San Diego, Calif.), J.J. Cox '08 (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), Josh Dudash '08 (Beachwood, N.J.), Kevin Halonski '08 (Budd Lake, N.J.), Mark Saraceni '08 (Hamden, Conn.), and Matt Smeader '08 (Hillsborough, N.J.) have all been an integral part of our program during their time on campus. I will forever be grateful to them for helping build the vital foundation for future success and look forward to them remaining a big part of our program for years to come. They always have a home with Stony Brook Football.

With two weeks to prepare for CCSU, the focus was to take care of our duties off the field as well as dissect, analyze and prepare for the Blue Devils. I commend our coaches for an outstanding game plan and excellent teaching that helped shut down a high-powered offense and opportunistic defense. The players also maintained a positive outlook during the bye week, understood the magnitude of the game and ultimately performed very well on Saturday.

The win against Central Connecticut secured an undefeated 5-0 record at home, a characteristic synonymous with quality football programs. More importantly, the unblemished home record exhibits how much progress we have made as a team and program. The outcome wasn't so much about the score but rather how we performed by outmatching our opponent.

The offense was able to dictate the game with a dominant run attack. Brandon Mason '09 (Phillipsburg, N.J.) rushed for 140 of the team's 165 yards to go along with three touchdowns. Lynell Suggs '09 (Bronx, N.Y.) and Dwayne Eley'09 (Bowie, Md.) added to the point total with two spectacular touchdown catches from quarterback Josh Dudash. Dudash was impressive, wrapping up his career at home by throwing for a total of 233 yards and 3 touchdowns with no interceptions.

The defense executed its part of the game plan flawlessly by stifling Central Connecticut's running game. The unit allowed only 82 rushing yards and the secondary did their part as well by allowing even fewer passing yards (81). A consistent pass rush by the defensive line produced sacks by Adam Soivilien '09 (Dorchester, Mass.), David Gross '09 (Wichita Falls, Texas) and Michael Meadows '09 (Shrub Oak, N.Y.) and no doubt helped in ruining Central Connecticut's passing attack. Over the past two games, the defense has given up only seven points while allowing less than 200 yards of total offense by our opponents.

This week we take on a nationally ranked opponent for the fourth time this season. Elon University is a member of the Southern Conference and up until last week had a chance to win the conference title. Elon will pose a number of different challenges to our team but nothing that I feel is beyond our capabilities. Our defense is going to be facing an offense that is ranked second in the nation in passing while our offense will be facing a defensive group that commits its players to stopping the run attack. This is a great opportunity to compare our program to what is considered to be one of the elite conferences in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision. We are excited about traveling to warmer weather in North Carolina and competing against a quality opponent. We thank all of those in advance who are making the trip to Elon and our fans at home cheering us on. Go Seawolves!

Chuck Priore
Head Football Coach