ROBERT O’ROURK FILE PHOTO | Stony Brook running back Miguel Maysonet, a Riverhead High graduate, rushed for 220 yards against Army this season.

As Miguel Maysonet soaked in the Riverhead football team’s county championship victory over North Babylon at Stony Brook University in late November, he joked about how he heard he’s responsible for a decline in attendance at Riverhead games this season.

People kept telling him, Maysonet said, that everyone in Riverhead would travel to Stony Brook on Saturday afternoons to watch him play.

There was plenty of reasons to make the trip west, as Maysonet put on a weekly show as running back for the Seawolves. A 2009 Riverhead graduate who helped lead the Blue Waves to an undefeated season his senior year, Maysonet capped off his college career with a jaw-dropping senior season that landed him the Big South Conference Offensive Player of the Year award for the second straight season.

Maysonet was one of three finalists for the Walter Payton Award as the top player in the Football Championship Subdivision. He ended up second in the voting, which was announced during a ceremony Dec. 17 in Philadelphia.

Maysonet was named to a bevy of All-American teams following the season, including the Associated Press first team.

At 5-foot-10, 210-pounds, Maysonet rushed for 1,964 yards this season, tops in the FCS. He scored 23 touchdowns to join former Stony Brook running back Brock Jackolski as the only players in Big South history with a 20-touchdown season.

His rushing total was the 11th most yards in a season in FCS history.

He helped lead Stony Brook to a 10-3 season that ended in the second round of the FCS playoffs against Montana State. Maysonet scored two touchdowns in the Seawolves’ playoff victory over Villanova.

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