Nov. 19, 2005
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POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y.-Senior quarterback James Luft (Lake Peekskill, N.Y.) hit junior wideout Prince Prempeh (Hamilton, N.J.) with a 20-yard scoring strike with seven seconds left to give the Marist football squad a 30-28 win over visiting Stony Brook Saturday afternoon at Leonidoff Field. The Red Foxes (7-4) tied a school record for wins in a season, while the Seawolves dropped to 6-5 overall. Stony Brook, who shared the Northeast Conference championship with Central Connecticut State this season, is the fourth school from the NEC that the Red Foxes have beaten this season. Marist also picked up wins over Sacred Heart (22-20), CCSU (31-22) and Wagner (38-21).
Stony Brook got on the board first when Josh Anderson hauled in a 38-yard pass from quarterback Josh Dudash just 2:15 into the contest.
Marist fired right back with a pair of rushing touchdowns, courtesy of sophomore running back Obozua Ehikioya (West Hempstead, N.Y.) who scored from five and one yard out, respectively. Ehikioya finished the season with 17 touchdowns and 1,017 yards rushing. Only the late J.J. Allen scored more touchdowns in a season for Marist (21, 1998). He also became just the fourth Marist back in the school's I-AA history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season.
The Seawolves scored twice more in the second quarter when their fullback, Christopher Sturmoski, plowed over for a pair of one-yard runs.
Marist capped the first half when Luft completed a 22-yard scoring toss to senior wideout Guy Smith (New Milford, Conn.) with two seconds to go to tie the score at 21. Marist finished the first half with more than 26 minutes of time of possession, a figure it would increase to more than 40 minutes at game's end.
After sophomore kicker Bradley Rowe (Stratham, N.H.) put the Red Foxes up 24-21 with a 27-yard field goal at the 7:49 mark of the third quarter, the two teams waged a field position battle the rest of the way.
Stony Brook's Anderson appeared to seal the win for the Seawolves when he stretched a 13-yard touchdown pass from Dudash over the goal line for the go-ahead score with 57 seconds left.
However, Luft raced Marist back down the field on a six play-73 yard drive that took just 44 seconds for the game-winner to Prempeh.
Ehikioya led Marist with 105 yards and two scores on 26 carries, while Stony Brook's Assad Hafiz ran for 84 yards on five carries.
Luft went 20-for-32 on the afternoon for 252 yards with two touchdowns, while Dudash completed 14 of 20 passes for 171 yards and a pair of scores. Luft finished his career as Marist's school record holder in passing yards in a game (319 at Saint Peter's, 2005), completions in a season (163, 2005), passing attempts in a season (292, 2005), passing yards in a season (2,232, 2005), touchdown passes in a season (16, 2005), career completions (359), career passing yards (4,703) and career touchdown passes (29).
Senior Tim Traynor (Lincroft, N.J.) led the Red Foxes' receiving attack with four catches for 59 yards, while Anderson's seven catches for 80 yards led the way. Smith, who holds nearly every receiving record for Marist, finished his career with 2,019 receiving yards, the most in school history. He also holds all-time school marks in receptions in a game (12 at Iona, 2003), receiving yards in a game (194 at Saint Peter's. 2003), receptions in a season (56, 2003), receiving yards in a season (905, 2003), touchdown receptions in a season (7, 2005) and career receptions (133).
Senior Andrew Sperl (Wallingford, Conn.) led Marist in tackles with six, while junior defensive lineman Tim Aulet (Pomona, N.Y.) had five tackles and 1.5 sacks for a loss of nine yards. The Seawolves' defense was led by Ray Goodsir and Chris Merkle's 13 tackles.
