STONY BROOK, N.Y.—True freshman running back David Avit (Potomac, Md.) set a single game school record for rushing yards by a first year player and helped lift No. 6 Villanova (5-1, 2-0 CAA Football) to a 42-24 victory over Stony Brook (4-2, 1-1 CAA Football) at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Avit rushed 13 times for 183 yards and four touchdowns as the Wildcats rallied past the host Seawolves with 28 unanswered points in the final 22:08 of the contest.
 
It has been an incredible two weeks for Avit, who in consecutive games against LIU last week and today versus Stony Brook has carried the ball 37 times for 343 yards and five touchdowns. The previous school record for rushing yards by a freshman was 173 by Pat O'Brien against Delaware on October 15, 1977. Avit has averaged 9.3 yards per carry over the past two weeks while bursting onto the scene in a loaded Villanova backfield.  
 
Of even more import for the Wildcats was the team's first come-from-behind win when trailing at halftime since the 2021 regular season finale against Delaware, a 21-13 victory on November 20, 2021. Villanova had lost nine straight games when it trailed at the intermission since that date but halted the trend with four touchdowns from the 7:08 mark of the third quarter until the 2:26 mark of the final period. The first of those unanswered scores was a one-yard scamper by Avit for his second touchdown of the game.
 
That score cut the Wildcats largest deficit of the game, 24-14 after a Seawolves score three minutes earlier, to 24-21 midway through the third period. Villanova's defense forced the Seawolves to go three-and-out on their ensuing possession and the Wildcats got the ball back at their own 20-yard line with 5:09 to play in the quarter. It turned out that Avit was just getting warmed up. In a span of just over 10 minutes of clock time, he scored two touchdowns on carries of 59 yards and 72 yards to turn the tide in the game for good.
 
Avit gave Villanova its first lead of the day with 3:47 to play in the third quarter on a 59-yard run, then broke away for 72 yards and a score with 8:40 left in the game which stretched the score to 35-24. That was just enough of a margin to sit Avit on the Wildcats final offensive possession of the game, when redshirt freshman Ja'briel Mace (Somers Point, N.J.) rushed for 21 yards and his first career touchdown.
 
Villanova finished the day with season highs of 280 rushing yards and 432 yards of total offense. Avit, Mace, junior running back Isaiah Wright (Douglassville, Pa.) and sixth year quarterback Connor Watkins (Williamsport, Pa.) all had runs of at least 20 yards in the game. The Wildcats had nine plays from scrimmage of 20 yards or longer.
 
For the second time this season all three of Villanova's starting linebackers reached double digits in tackles in the same game. Fifth year collegian Brendan Bell (Basking Ridge, N.J.) had a career-high 15 total stops, including double digits (10) by halftime alone and 2.5 tackles for loss. The senior duo of Shane Hartzell (Perkasie, Pa.) and Richie Kimmel (Holmes, Pa.) had 11 and 10 total stops, respectively.
 
The overall defensive effort was a strong one by the Wildcats, who got an interception from redshirt freshman cornerback Zahmir Dawud (North Brunswick, N.J.) as well as solo sacks from Bell and redshirt freshman defensive lineman Nigel McSween (Newark, N.J.). The last six Stony Brook offensive possessions of the game resulted in four punts, Dawud's second interception of the season and the end of the game.
 
Earlier in the day, the teams traded touchdowns in the first and second periods. After the Seawolves opened the scoring at the 9:24 mark of the first quarter on a Roland Dempster rushing touchdown, Villanova got even as time expired at the end of the first period. Watkins connected with fifth year wide receiver and football newcomer Lucas Kopecky (Rocky Hill, N.J.) for a 26-yard touchdown pass to tie the game. Kopecky previously played four years for the Wildcats men's lacrosse team.
 
Dempster, who scored all three Stony Brook touchdowns in the game, found the end zone on a two-yard run at the 10:13 mark of the second quarter. Avit countered with a one-yard score with 3:03 to play before the half, but with less than two minutes to play in the second quarter a bad snap on a Villanova punt attempt gave the Seawolves the ball at the Wildcats seven-yard line. Villanova came up with three stops on defense however and held Stony Brook to a 24-yard field goal by Enda Kirby as time expired in the half.
 
Villanova has reached a natural midpoint of the season with six games down and six games to go, and the team's bye week coming up next weekend before the Wildcats travel to Maine on October 19.