Stony Brook's Roland Dempster rushes for 114 yards, 3 TDs in rout of Merrimack

A few minutes after Stony Brook’s 35-10 steamrolling of Merrimack on Saturday afternoon at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium, Seawolves coach Billy Cosh was asked about the importance of the win.

“This one was huge,” he said. “We had to play our best and we found a way to do that.”

Especially considering Stony Brook (2-3) and Merrimack (2-3) entered the game on different trajectories. Whereas Merrimack had alternated wins and losses in their first four games, the Seawolves had dropped three of four, including the previous Saturday’s 30-27 loss to Lindenwood.

But Stony Brook looked like the team that entered the season with FCS playoff aspirations coming off an 8-4 season.

The Seawolves led 20-7 at the end of a first half in which they were able to move the ball with relative efficiency and creative play-calling.

The Seawolves took the opening kickoff and drove 44 yards in seven plays before Michael Mannino drilled a 49-yard field goal.

After forcing Merrimack into a three-and-out on its first drive, Stony Brook marched 43 yards in 10 plays, but the drive stalled when Roland Dempster (114 rushing yards, three touchdowns) was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-1 at Merrimack’s 26-yard line.

The decision not to kick the field goal did not come back to haunt Stony Brook, which forced Merrimack to punt for the second time in the quarter. This time the Seawolves took full advantage, as Chris Zellous’ 3-yard flare to Dez Williams capped an eight-play, 89-yard drive with a touchdown.

Merrimack cut Stony Brook’s lead to 10-7 when Keshawn Brown hauled in Ayden Pereira’s 19-yard touchdown pass with 6:54 left in the second quarter. The Seawolves responded with Enda Kirby’s 39-yard field goal two minutes later, and Dempster’s 2-yard touchdown dash with 38 seconds remaining extended the advantage to 20-7.

In their highest-scoring first half of the season, the Seawolves possessed the ball for 14 minutes and 37 seconds, gained 261 yards on 39 plays and totaled 16 first downs.

“I think we could have had 21 points, maybe 28,” said Zellous, who threw for 167 yards and ran for 117. “Actually put up touchdowns and not field goals, so I think we have to continue to clean up [and] as we progress on long drives, keep the fundamentals and techniques clean. Then we’ll [finish with] seven instead of three.”

Stony Brook’s offensive unit made a statement in the opening 30 minutes. The defense made one of its own in the final 30 minutes.

After the Seawolves forced Merrimack to punt to open the second half, Dempster’s second touchdown of the game — a 5-yard sprint up the middle followed by Zellous finding Williams in the back right corner of the end zone for the two-point conversion — stretched the lead to 28-7.

Although Merrimack cut the deficit to 28-10 on Carlton Thai’s 47-yard field goal with 4:02 left in the third quarter, the Stony Brook defense held in what linebacker Anthony Ferrelli hopes is a season-changing moment for a unit that was allowing 30.2 points per game.

The drive began on Stony Brook’s 20-yard line after Seawolves punter Clayton Taylor had his kick blocked. The Seawolves forced Pereira to throw three straight incomplete passes before Merrimack was penalized on consecutive plays ahead of Thai’s kick.

“It was definitely a game that we needed,” said Ferrelli, who finished with 11 tackles and had 1 1⁄2 sacks. “That drive was a statement drive for us.”

LIU falls. Jack O’Connell found Zachary Kim for a 12-yard touchdown pass with 10:55 left in the fourth quarter to break a tie in host Stonehill’s 10-3 win over LIU in the NEC. O’Shawn Ross rushed for 52 yards on 10 carries for the Sharks (1-4, 0-1).