No title, no playoffs for LU

STONY BROOK, N.Y. — As Liberty linebacker Wes Cheek conducted a post-game interview from the field at LaValle Stadium late Saturday afternoon, his eyes wandered. He looked up at the video board at the opposite end of the field and saw a gigantic photo of Stony Brook coach Chuck Priore hoisted on the shoulders of his players, the Big South championship trophy in his clutches.

Cheek briefly shook his head, as the nightmare replayed in his mind. Stony Brook trailed by four and needed to drive 74 yards for a touchdown in less than a minute. And the Seawolves did just that, with Michael Coulter’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Gush capping a stirring comeback and a 36-33 victory that ended Liberty’s 16-game Big South win streak and knocked a probable FCS playoff berth from the Flames’ grasp.

“It’s kind of surreal,” Liberty quarterback Tommy Beecher said. “I can’t really believe it’s over.”

Beecher had led the Flames on a go-ahead drive just moments earlier, his seven-yard touchdown pass to Dominique Jones giving Liberty a 33-29 lead with 55 seconds to play.

By the time Stony Brook (6-5, 5-1 Big South) got the ball back, only 48 ticks remained on the clock, and the Flames were sitting in wait to stop a quarterback who, to that point, had only thrown for 83 yards.

On the first play of the drive, Coulter missed receiver Donald Porter over the middle. On second down, two Stony Brook receivers ran on the left side, with one staying close and the other — Jordan Gush — running a smash route to the left sideline. Liberty cornerback Kajuan Lee bit on the underneath route, leaving Gush wide open with help no over the top. He took the short pass and ran 64 yards down the left sideline before Lee ran him down to save the touchdown.

Stony Brook called a timeout, and Liberty coach Danny Rocco walked onto the field, giving his defense an incredulous look, as if to say, “what the heck just happened?”

“We went to our nickel defense and made a change-up call,” Rocco said. “We played a hot zone, five-man rush, zone-fire defense that we run all the time. Our right corner for whatever reason bit on an underneath throw, which is just an absolute Cardinal sin. They got in behind him, but there’s no defense behind that.

“The first guy I’ll second guess is myself. I was standing on the near sideline and yelling at Kajuan, ‘Get back! Get back! Get back!’ I shouldn’t have to do that. But if I did, he would have gotten back, they would have thrown the ball into the flat, we’d tackle a guy for an eight-yard gain and the clock would be ticking and we’d probably be a lot happier right now than we are.”

Coulter needed just one more play to finish the Flames off, hitting Gush again over the middle for a 10-yard touchdown and a 36-33 SBU lead.

Liberty’s last hope ended, strangely enough, on a Beecher interception on a Hail Mary play as time expired. Beecher’s arm was hit on the throw, and Benjamin Clements picked off the pop fly and took a knee, Beecher’s first interception in seven games.

“We’ve had a whale of a run,” Rocco said. “We won 16 straight conference football games dating back to October 28, 2006. Did I think this thing would last forever? No. But when we got the lead with under a minute, I started thinking this lead would last through this year.”

One play didn’t win the game for Stony Brook. The Seawolves dictated the pace early with their power run game and took a 21-13 lead into halftime thanks to 102 rush yards from Eddie Gowins and 71 more from Conte Cuttino.

The Flames (8-3, 5-1) had two touchdowns called back due to penalties and didn’t take their first lead until the fourth quarter when Mike Brown ran behind a big block from Derek Bishop, broke a leg tackle and rushed free for a 70-yard touchdown and a 26-21 Liberty lead.

“They were in man coverage,” Brown said. “I just had to break one tackle and it was a foot race to the end zone.”

Gowins, who ran for 165 yards and three touchdowns, struck one more time though, a 42-yard touchdown run with 8:34 left that put the Seawolves up 29-26. The Flames had bottled Gowins and Cuttino up in the second half until that run.

Despite the defeat, Liberty was still recognized as Big South co-champion, the third straight season the Flames have won at least a share of the championship. That was of little consolation to LU players, though.

Said Brown: “It hurts. It’s disappointing. We just left too many things to chance out there today.”