UAlbany vs. Stony Brook: CAA's top defense meets top offense

University at Albany football coach Tom Perkovich will get his first taste of the rivalry between State University of New York's two Division I football programs.

It's also a showdown between the Coastal Athletic Association's stingiest defense and its highest-scoring offense.

UAlbany (3-3 overall, 1-1 CAA) takes on Stony Brook (4-2, 2-0) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday for the Golden Apple Trophy at LaValle Stadium on Long Island.

"Any time you're playing a rival, especially for a trophy game, that's big," Perkovich said. "I had experience with that at my last school (Susquehanna). We had two of those a year. Just the energy there and what the guys bring, the week of practice, all the focus, all of that is always big. I think it's a big thing for our guys and I'm sure for (Stony Brook's) guys. I'm interested to see how this goes and how this rivalry is."

UAlbany leads the all-time series 15-12. Both programs upgraded to Division I in 1999.

Third-year Stony Brook coach Billy Cosh is 2-0 against UAlbany. The Seawolves beat the Great Danes 24-6 at Stony Brook two years ago and blew them out 47-12 at Casey Stadium last season.

However, the Great Danes are much improved in their first year under Perkovich. They've already surpassed last year's win total (two) and are coming off a 28-3 win over Delaware State, which beat Stony Brook 41-34 in the season opener.

"They're an impressive outfit holistically," Cosh said.

Stony Brook leads the CAA in scoring average at 34.2 points per game, while UAlbany is allowing the fewest points with a 16.8 average, which ranks 11th nationally in the Football Championship Subdivision.

Seawolves quarterback Quinn Boyd, a redshirt sophomore, has passed for 1,373 yards and nine touchdowns and rushed for 300 yards and three scores.

Redshirt junior running back CJ Hester is second in the CAA with 522 yards and first with 10 touchdowns. He's at his fourth school after stops at Western Michigan, UMass and Michigan.

"We're going to definitely have to be able to slow the quarterback down," Perkovich said. "He makes them go. When he's calm in the pocket and kind of able to survey things, I think he's really good. You've got to control him in the running game a little bit, too, and not lose sight of him."

Stony Brook senior wide receiver Seth Sweitzer, a senior transfer from Merrimack, is second in the league with 40 receptions.

Meanwhile, the UAlbany defense continues to impress under new coordinator Matt Scott. The Great Danes are sixth in nation in total yardage allowed at 277.5 per game, including 14th against the run (106.0) and 15th against the pass (171.5).

Great Danes junior linebacker Dillon Dunathan leads the team with 41 tackles and senior defensive lineman Shawn Lewis is tied for second in the CAA with six sacks.

"I'm not surprised," Perkovich said. "I know schematically what we do is very difficult, and if our guys understand what we're doing, we're aligned correctly, we're where we need to be, I think we have some really good players and guys that are making plays and making it difficult on people."

UAlbany used the bye week to rest its starters, get injured players healthy and give its reserves more practice time.

"It was a great week of development all around," quarterback Aidan Semo said.

Semo said he didn't view Saturday's game against Stony Brook as revenge for last year's blowout. However, he acknowledged the importance of the rivalry, including to assistant coaches Will Fiacchi and Karl Mofor, UAlbany graduates who played against Stony Brook.

"There's a lot of people in this program this game means a lot to," Semo said. "It's another game for us, and obviously, we want to win it."

Done with nonleague play, UAlbany has six CAA games remaining, starting with Stony Brook.

"It's huge," Semo said. "I think momentum is everything."