By Dylan Butler
As he stood in the tunnel of Seawolves Stadium Saturday before Stony Brook’s opening game against St. John’s, Jophiel Philips could hardly contain his excitement.
A sellout crowd of 8,136 — the largest crowd to ever watch a Stony Brook sporting event — roared as the Hofstra transfer and the rest of the Seawolves took the field.
This, the Jamaica native thought, never happened at Hofstra.
“This stadium is great,” said the former St. Francis Prep standout after the Seawolves 34-9 rout. “At Hofstra, it never got crowded. The most we’d get is 4,000. We got [8,136] today. Everyone was for Stony Brook. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
Philips, a 5-foot-9 junior wide receiver, had three catches for 23 yards and his lone rush, a 21-yard reverse to the St. John’s 19-yard line, helped set up Stony Brook’s third touchdown.
“He’s doing great. He’s a very elusive kid, he’s a kid who can really catch,” Stony Brook coach Sam Kornhauser said of Philips. “He just loves to play. We get a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm, we get a lot of good play out of him. I think he’s a very good football player and he certainly adds a lot to us.”
Philips, a two-year starter at St. Francis Prep, went to Hofstra but redshirted his freshman year and played special teams as a sophomore. He said tearing his anterior cruciate ligament on the Hofstra turf is the reason he transferred to Stony Brook.
Now he gets to play on FieldTurf, an artificial surface that has the look and feel of real grass.
“They gave me an opportunity there, I loved my stay. I still watch Hofstra games when I can,” Philips said. “But that’s a chapter in the past and this is the present. We have a great team here, we have a great stadium, great fans. The fans are better here than Hofstra. We’re an up-and-coming program.”
Robinson earns Northeast-10 honors
St. Albans native Dale Robinson, a freshman linebacker at No. 17 C.W. Post, was named Northeast-10 Freshman of the Week after a solid defensive effort in the Pioneers’ 14-3 win at Bryant. The former Holy Cross standout had a game-high 13 tackles, including eight solo tackles, in the win.
A week earlier in Post’s 44-0 demolition of Assumption, Robinson also led the defending Northeast-10 champions with 10 tackles.
Higgins leads Hofstra over Marist, and into national polls
Whitestone native Shaun Higgins, a former standout at Holy Cross, had a goal and an assist in Hofstra’s 4-2 win at Marist last Thursday. The Pride, who also beat Oneonta Saturday, 2-1, moved into the top 25 national polls for the first time since 1999. Hofstra is currently tied for No. 24 with the University of Tulsa.
Mullin and Walker inducted into
