Westhampton Beach Grad, Hansen Award Winner Dylan Laube To Play At Stony Brook September 2

University of New Hampshire sophomore running back Dylan Laube knows a wave of emotions will rush over him when he steps onto the football field at Stony Brook University for his team’s season opener September 2.

The Westhampton Beach alumnus will be playing in his first game on Long Island since 2019, when his NCAA Division I Wildcats topped the Seawolves 20-14, and second since he helped lead his Hurricanes to their first Suffolk County and Long Island Championship wins in program history. Those victories, both at Stony Brook’s Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium, capped a perfect 12-0 season.

After redshirting his freshman year, Laube carried the ball 224 yards on 54 attempts in 2019 and gained an extra 367 yards on 26 receptions. He had one of his best collegiate games in that October 2019 showing, gaining 48 yards on seven carries against the Seawolves. The running back’s other came a month prior at Florida International University, where he caught a pass from then-freshman quarterback Max Brosmer down the right sideline, cut to the middle, burst between two would-be tacklers at midfield and raced to the end zone for a third-quarter score that accounted for one of the longest pass plays in program history — covering 86 yards.

While it’s his first game back in town, Laube said the Colonial Athletic Association matchup will also be more purposeful and emotional not just for him, but his entire UNH team. That’s because not only was last fall’s Football Championship Subdivision schedule wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic, prompting a delayed and shortened season that ran March through April, but the Wildcats were sidelined for the remainder of the season after the March 5 season-opener — a 24-20 loss to the University at Albany — due to ongoing COVID-19 issues within the program.

“It was a rough adjustment. You practice nonstop, and then there were no games. When you’re used to playing football every fall and every summer, it changes the way you approach stuff,” Laube said. “But we’ve been preparing since last spring, even when COVID hit and through the COVID-canceled season — especially this summer. We came back with a chip on our shoulder. We’re flying around, playing well … This is the closest team we’ve ever had. I’m expecting big things for us not just at Stony Brook but for the rest of the season.”

His hometown fans are, too. Laube’s younger brother Deegan, a rising senior on the Hurricanes football team, said he’s asked daily about the game and getting tickets.

“We all can’t wait. I am so excited and pumped to watch him play,” he said, adding he trained with his brother and some of the best athletes across the Island at Revolution Athletics in Bohemia over the summer. “He is so ready to play this opening game and has trained even harder for this season than ever before.”

When he played locally, Deegan Laube attended every one of Dylan’s games to not only cheer him on, but study the way he played with the hope that he “could be like him someday.”

“Dylan has always made me proud to be his younger brother,” Deegan said. “Playing football myself and working with him has helped me have a mindset to push my ability as a player and set goals for myself.”

Bill Parry, Westhampton Beach’s former head coach, is flying home from vacation in Hawaii just to see his former athlete play. Current Hurricanes head coach Bryan Schaumloffel is also looking forward to the contest.

“New Hampshire and Stony Brook play great football, so it should be a great game,” Schaumloffel said, before focusing on what Laube means to the program. “Dylan was a special player for us and someone we always look back to and reference. He was a great leader. He worked tirelessly. He set the tone for the players that came after him.”

Laube, a Hurricanes’ halfback, racked up 185 yards on 29 carries and scored four touchdowns in the Suffolk County championship game his senior season, and advanced 227 yards on 25 carries and scored a record-tying six touchdowns in the Long Island Championship win. Those final six scores brought him to 47 total that 2017 season, surpassing previous record-holder Jason Gwaltney of North Babylon, who had two 45-touchdown seasons in the early 2000s. Laube also went on to, with now-Ohio State University tight end Jeremy Ruckert out of Lindenhurst, share the Carl A. Hansen Award, named after the former Westhampton Beach football coach and athletic director and given to the top football player in Suffolk County. He even ran for three touchdowns and earned Most Outstanding Player honors as Long Island held off New York City, 28-27, to win the 23rd Empire Challenge at Hofstra University’s Shuart Stadium in 2018.

“Dylan is a great athlete. He’s every coach’s dream,” Parry said. “He’s the first one on the field, last one off. Kids follow him. He’s a big reason why we had all the success we did — the kids just gravitated to him and followed his lead. And he led through his work.”

Laube is part of a group of elite gridiron greats to hail from Long Island in recent years. He joins the likes of Lindenhurst’s Ruckert, who played in a 52-24 College Football Playoff national championship loss to Alabama; Sayville’s Jack Coan, a senior who formerly played for Wisconsin and was recently named the starting quarterback for the University of Notre Dame; Shoreham-Wading River’s Ethan Wiederker, a senior offensive lineman for Northwestern University, who played in a 35-19 winner over Auburn in the 75th Citrus Bowl; his Wildcats classmate Xavier Arline, a sophomore who plays quarterback for the U.S. Naval Academy; and Newfield’s Elijah Riley, also a Hansen Award-winner who played safety for the U.S. Military Academy West Point and was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2020.

And there are plenty of other locals on the Stony Brook team. Laube said it will be an attractive matchup for anyone interested in football.

“If you’re a kid looking to play at the next level — whether it’s Division I, II or III — it’s a nice game to watch,” he said. “Everyone is excited to get out and see some football.”

Regardless of the outcome, Laube is looking forward to being back on the Long Island gridiron in front of many familiar faces. He said he and his teammates will feel a major sense of relief to finally get another game under their belts.

“We’re all antsy and ready to go. We’re back,” Laube said. “LaValle Stadium is definitely a field that means so much to me and my community. It’s a field I’ll always remember. It’s a field that will always hold a special place in my heart. It’s going to be an overwhelming feeling playing there again, and I’m going to be a little nervous, but I’m going to take it one play at a time, have fun and put it all out there.”