STONY BROOK, N.Y. - The Stony Brook Seawolves scored 20 unanswered points in the middle portions of the game and went on to defeat the VMI Keydets, 27-9, in Big South football action contested Saturday afternoon at LaValle Stadium in Stony Brook, N.Y.

The 20-point outburst proved to be the difference for Stony Brook, which won its Big South Conference opener. The Seawolves and improved to 2-3 overall. The Keydets fell to 2-3 and 1-1 in the conference.

Stony Brook quarterback Michael Coulter completed 14 of 19 passes for 194 yards and a touchdown and utilized just two receivers on the afternoon. Sophomore wide receiver Jordan Gush caught a game-high nine passes for 115 yards and a touchdown while junior Matt Brevi had five catches for 79 yards.

The Keydets produced the seventh-longest pass play in school history when freshman quarterback Eric Korenbrock three an 87-yard scoring strike to senior wide receiver Mario Scott in the third quarter.

Stony Brook outgained the Keydets, 379-192, including a 185-8 advantage in rushing. The Seawolves also held a 36:23 to 23:37 edge in possession time for the game.

The first quarter featured just one possession by each team with the Keydets taking a 3-0 lead after one period. VMI took the opening drive and moved 53 yards in 14 plays and settled for a Jeff Sexton 28-yard field goal at the 8:39 mark. The drive consumed 6:21 on the first quarter clock.

Stony Brook countered with a 15-play, 64 drive that piled up 8:42 of possession time that featured a mix of short runs and passes.  Sophomore kicker Wes Skiffington tied the game with a 24-yard field goal from the left hash on the first play of the second quarter.

The Seawolves resumed their scoring string later in the first half to break the game open. Taking the ball at its own 46, Coulter fired a 48-yard pass to Brevi to the VMI 5 on the opening play of the drive. Two snaps later, Coulter on a rollout connected with Gush for a five yard touchdown to put SBU up for good in the contest. Skiffington's extra point made it 10-3 which closed out the scoring in the first half.

Stony Brook extended the margin to 13-3 with 9:44 left in the third quarter when Skiffington tacked on a 44-yard field goal to top off a 10-play, 45-yard drive on the Seawolves' opening possession of the second half. SBU had moved to the VMI 23, but a holding penalty and five-yard sack of Colter by VMI defensive end Chris Harper derailed the drive and SBU had to settle for the field goal.

A key turning point of the game took place on VMI's ensuing drive which started at the VMI 9. A dropped pass at midfield on second down would have handed the Keydet offense some breathing room, but VMI was eventually forced to punt instead from its own endzone. Senior punter Mark Ray bobbled the punt formation long snap and the ball was pounced on by SBU's Rich Vitale for a touchdown. Skiffington's extra point pushed the Seawolves to a 20-3 lead with 8:17 remaining in the third quarter.

After an exchange of punts, the Keydets moved the ball to the SBU21 yard line. But the drive evaporated when Cameron Jones' arching pass to Tracy Hairston was picked off by freshman quarterback Devante Wheeler at the two-yard line and returned nine yards, thwarting another scoring opportunity.

VMI's defense held on downs at the Keydet 29 on the Seawolves next possession and Jones was lifted for Kordenbrock when the Keydets took possession. The freshman tossed an incompletion on his first pass attempt, but followed two plays later with a third and 19 strike to Scott down the left sideline to produce what would be VMI's lone touchdown of the game at the 11:22 mark The extra point try was muffed with a bad snap and VMI trailed, 20-9.

Korenbrock left the game after getting knocked down on the touchdown pass play and redshirt freshman quarterback Adam Morgan finished up duties at signal caller.

The Seawolves closed out the scoring with a seven-play, 69-yard drive capped by Brock Jackloski's 25-yard end run for a touchdown with 7:09 remaining.

The Keydets were led defensively by senior end Damiso Alexander who racked up 11 tackles including a sack. Redshirt junior linebacker A.J. Gross finished with 19 tackles.

Stony Brook senior defensive end Jonas Roussaeu was credited for 3.5 tackles for loss and produced two sacks for 14 yards.

VMI returns home next Saturday to host defending BSC co-champion Liberty at Foster Satdium on Parent's Weekend. Kickoff will be at 1:30 and the game will be televised on the Flames Sports Network and picked up on various cables systems throughout the country.

VMI HEAD COACH SPARKY WOODS -

"Stony Brook has a good team. Their quarterback outplayed us and their pass rush was a factor. Those were the two things that stood out. We were not able to protect our quarterback at crucial times. They had a good game plan. We made some errors in the kicking game that didn't help us much in field position, and had chances. We took the opening drive down the field pretty well, and our defense made some good plays as well but also gave up some big plays, too. We should have kicked it out of the endzone on the punt snap. We can't catch kickoffs out-of-bounds. Rousseau was an outstanding pass rusher and I should have had a better plan to help our tackles out with him. They were keeping us from running the ball and we weren't able to convert against their pressure. Part of it had to do with scheme, and part of it had to do with our inability to protect our passer."

On Korenbrock injury - "I think Eric (Kordenbrock) is going to be fine. He had been our most accurate passer in practice, so I thought we would get him in there for a chance and I thought Adam (Morgan) did a good job at the end and competed hard as I knew he would. We have some work at quarterback and we have to figure out what to do there. That's a big question mark."