ORONO- On a cool and blustery first day of November on Saturday, the Maine football team made it five straight wins (four in a row in the conference) with a 28-21 Coastal Athletic Association victory over Stony Brook at Alfond Stadium.
Maine built a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. After Stony Brook went three and out with the games first possession, Carter Peevy finished off a Black Bears drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Mo Irefin. That was aided by a key 11-yard catch on 4th and 3 by Scott Woods at the Seawolves 26 yard line. The second score was all Sincere Baines. The running back ripped off a 45-yard run up the near sideline to set his team up just outside the redzone, and then two plays later took another handoff 24-yards into the endzone. Stony Brook got on the board for the time late in the final few seconds of the first half on a 15-yard TD catch by Dez Williams from Quinn Boyd and it was 14-7 at the break.
Maine stretched their advantage to 21 early in the third quarter. Getting the ball first coming out of the half, the Black Bears went 79 yards. The key play was on 2nd and 4 at their own 49, when Peevy connected with Aaron Arteaga for a 44-yard gain to the Stony Brook 7 yard line. Peevy capped the drive by taking it himself to find paydirt on 2nd and goal at the 1. A big defensive play by graduate linebacker Christian Thomas led to a Seawolves turnover on the next possession. Thomas would sack Quinn for a loss of 14 yards and forced a fumble, and Kye Pressley recovered for Maine at the SBU 15. Peevy would then toss a 14-yard touchdown to freshman wide receiver Daniel Batch in the corner of the endzone on 3rd and 9 to make it 28-7. It was the first career catch and TD for Batch. Stony Brook would pull within seven on a pair of 1-yard scoring runs from lead back Roland Dempster, including one with 40 seconds left to play but the Black Bears would recover an onside kick to hold on for the win.
Quinn would go 33-59 passing for 299 yards and a touchdown in the loss for Stony Brook. Dempster did score on the two short runs, but was held to just 22 yards on 14 carries. Williams had nine receptions for 129 yards and a touchdown, while RJ Lamarre reeled in eight for 71 yards. The Seawolves fall to 4-5 and 2-3 in the CAA. Peevy went 14-25 for 188 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions for Maine, while also adding nine rush attempts for 51 yards and a score. Baines on 12 attempts had 86 yards on the ground and a touchdown. Irefin (31 yards), Woods (23 yards), and Rashawn Marshall (40 yards) each had three catches while Arteaga had his first career reception and a key one of 44 yards. The defense continued to shine, as they had five sacks for a second straight week. Thomas had nine total tackles (five solo, one for a loss, and one sack) while also forcing a fumble. Latrell Couchman had seven total tackles and two sacks. With the five sacks of Quinn, the Stony Brook offense who was averaging a league-high 187 yards rushing was held to a net of three yards on 24 attempts. The Black Bears now improve to 5-4 and 4-1 in league play and will travel to Virginia to take on Hampton next Saturday at 1 p.m. The Pirates are last in the CAA (0-5, 2-7 overall).
Featured photo courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco
