LEXINGTON, Va. - The Stony Brook Seawolves took advantage of four VMI turnovers and survived a late Keydet drive to pull out a 27-20 win in a Big South Conference contest played Saturday afternoon at VMI's Foster Stadium in Lexington, Va.

After VMI had driven 69 yards in eight plays to take a 20-19 lead, Stony Brook responded with a 31-yard kickoff return by Matt Brevi, bringing the ball to the VMI 49. Seven plays later, the Seawolves were in the endzone after a Conte Cuttino 13-yard run. The resultant two-point conversion gave SBU a 27-20 lead with just 52 seconds remaining.

The Keydets got the ball back and drove into Stony Brook territory, but Kyle Hughes was sacked with seven seconds to go, and a desperation heave was intercepted to erase any hopes of a VMI rally. With the win, Stony Brook moves to 3-4 on the year and 2-0 in the Big South, while VMI drops to 1-5 overall and 0-3 in conference action.

In the defeat, VMI was paced by Tim Maypray's 218 all-purpose yards, while Kyle Hughes accounted for 73 rushing yards.  Defensively, Juan Thrasher netted a career-best 14 tackles while Kyle Nikmard matched his career-high with nine stops. The Seawolves were led by Michael Coulter's 316 yards passing, as the SBU quarterback went 28-for-44 with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Leading the SBU receiving corps was Stephan Towns, who accounted for 112 yards on 11 catches.

The Seawolves' accounted for just 130 rushing yards on the day after totaling 447 yards on the ground in last year's meeting.  On Saturday, SBU held a 446-322 advantage in total offensive yards while also dominating the time of possession battle, 37:03 to 22:57.

VMI won the toss and chose to receive, but could not muster a drive and went three-and-out. After the punt, Stony Brook took over at the 20-yard line and went 80 yards in nine plays, culminating with a 20-yard touchdown pass by Coulter. Coulter's strike to Jordan Gush gave the Seawolves a 6-0 lead after the extra point was no good.

The Keydets took the ensuing kick and drove 41 yards in six plays, but a costly fumble gave Stony Brook the ball back at their own 11. The visitors held the ball for almost five minutes and went into VMI territory, but then faced a fourth down from the VMI 47. Freshman Jafri Taylor broke through the line and blocked the punt, driving it back into Seawolves' territory. VMI's Aaron Lewis fell on the ball, giving the Keydets possession at the Stony Brook 19. Two plays later, Maypray ran a sweep around left end for a touchdown. Jeff Sexton's extra point put the Keydets up 7-6, wrapping up the first period's scoring.

Stony Brook immediately answered, marching 69 yards on 12 plays to regain the lead early in the second quarter.  The spurt was capped by a four-yard touchdown toss from Coulter to Brevi, who hauled in the pass despite being blanketed by a pair of Keydet defenders. The reception and point after gave the Seawolves a 13-7 lead, and they regained possession deep in VMI territory less than three minutes later following a second Keydet fumble.

Appearing to take control of the game, Stony Brook drove to the Keydet 4, where the Seawolves faced a 4th down and inches with 4:38 left in the half. A handoff to Conte Cuttino was stopped deep in the backfield, creating a turnover on downs and giving the ball to the Keydets. The home team was forced to punt, however, and the visitors took advantage. A half-concluding, seven-play 44-yard drive ended with a Wes Skiffington line drive field goal, giving the Seawolves a 16-7 halftime lead.

In the first 30 minutes of action, Stony Brook dominated time of possession, 20:02-9:58, while also pacing the Keydets in total yards, 292-121.

The teams were scoreless during the third quarter, and the fourth period began with VMI driving, trailing 16-7. On the first play of the final quarter, Maypray broke free for a 30-yard touchdown run, the 35th score of his career. The extra point cut the Keydet deficit to two, 16-14, with 14:53 left.

After an exchange of punts, Stony Brook took over at their own 43 with 10:43 to play. After completions of 24 and 21 yards, the Seawolves had first-and-goal at the VMI 5.  The Keydet defense held once again, stopping Cuttino for no gain on first down before forcing two incompletions.  Skiffington then converted a 21-yard field goal to put the visitors up 19-14 with 6:47 remaining.  It also marked his 12th field goal of the season, giving the redshirt-freshman sole possession of the school's single-season record.

After the ensuing kickoff, the Keydets took over at their own 31, and on the first play of the drive, Howard Abegesah scampered 22 yards to the SBU 47. Hughes followed with a 10-yard run of his own, and one play later, the VMI senior completed a 28-yard pass to Michael Rainey-Wiles, who made a spectacular sliding catch at the Seawolves' 6. After a first-and-goal rush by Hughes got the ball to the SBU 1, the senior quarterback was stopped for no gain on a pair of sneaks, bringing up fourth down.  This time, Hughes went over the right side and in for the touchdown, though a failed two-point conversion attempt left the score 20-19 with just 2:56 remaining.

After Brevi's long kickoff return, Stony Brook took over at the VMI 49. Two rushes by Cuttino moved the ball to the 37, and set the stage for three consecutive passes to Towns that pushed the drive to the VMI 13. On the next play, Cuttino ran around the left end and into the endzone. The two-point pass made it 27-20 SBU, and set the stage for one last try for VMI.

The Keydets moved the ball to the SBU 35, and took their first timeout of the half with 17 seconds to play. An incompletion and a sack forced VMI to use another timeout, and set up a third-and-16 at the SBU 41 with seven seconds left. Hughes fired a deep pass down the home sideline, but Chris Richards made a leaping interception to end the game and seal the Seawolves' win.

The Seawolves escaped with the victory despite totaling just 26 rushing yards and 154 yards of total offense in the second half, compared to totals of 104 yards and 292 yards in the first half, respectively.  The Keydets, meanwhile, accounted for 201 of their 322 yards of total offense in the game's final 30 minutes.

VMI football will return to action next Saturday, as the Keydets travel to Clinton, S.C. to take on the Blue Hose of Presbyterian College. The Big South contest will begin at 2 p.m.

Quotes - VMI Head Coach Sparky Woods

"Congratulations to Stony Brook. They took the ball with one minute to go and moved 50 yards to win it. I was really disappointed in our play, but credit them -they made plays and we did not. We had our opportunities to win the game. We had been pretty good in the kicking game, but today our kicking game was not good. Our punting and kicking game was poor. We kicked the ball off after taking the lead and they did a good job of running the ball back to midfield. Defensively, it was third down. The first drive, they took the ball 85 yards to score with two holding penalties and they recovered from both of those. Offensively, we can't afford to turn the ball over especially with our defense struggling as much as we are. It was a disappointing loss, and we'll see the film and work on correcting the mistakes and see if we can get to the right place, and go to work on trying to get prepared for Presbyterian."