HARRISONBURG — When James Madison senior linebacker Brandon Hereford planted Stony Brook quarterback Joe Carbone into the turf on the Seawolves’ third play from scrimmage, it might have set up the superb performance for the Dukes’ secondary.

The five starting defensive backs each had an interception in a 26-7 JMU victory Saturday at Bridgeforth Stadium.

“[Carbone] got banged up a little bit on that play and went out for a few plays,” second-year JMU coach Mike Houston said. “It set the precedent for the rest of the day that we were going to pin our ears back and get after him when they dropped back and try to get as much pressure on him as we could.

“I thought that was a factor later on. You saw him ducking away from a lot of hits late in the ballgame as he got rid of the football and a couple of those ended up being interceptions.”

Carbone said taking the shot from Hereford didn’t rattle him, but Stony Brook coach Chuck Priore disagreed.

“He was fibbing to you. His shoulder is pretty banged up,” Priore said.

In the past two games, JMU freshman D’Angelo Amos has made the most of his role on special teams.

Last month in the team’s win at Elon that clinched the outright Colonial Athletic Association title, Amos blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown. Against Stony Brook, his 49-yard punt return set up the offense inside Stony Brook territory late in the first half.

Amos was filling in for senior punt returner John Miller, who had exited earlier in the second quarter with an injury. Miller limped off the field and was spotted in street clothes on the sideline.

“It definitely helped me because I had the experience,” said Amos, who fielded punts earlier this season when Miller had to miss the Delaware game due to injury. “They weren’t just throwing me in for the first time, I was comfortable back there especially since before I had a little bit of success with it.”

JMU’s offense capitalized on Amos’ punt return with a touchdown just six plays later.

“I ran up, I thought let’s get good yardage for our offense and when I caught it, I saw open grass and one of my guys, [sophomore] Bryce Maginley, in front of me,” Amos said. “I wanted to ride it all the way down the field.”

When the Dukes had to punt, freshman Harry O’Kelly did his job, pinning Stony Brook inside its own 20 three different times while averaging 41.6 yards per punt.

“Our punt team was outstanding all day long with the kick and the coverage,” Houston said. “The punt return by D’Angelo was significant and against a team that is very, very good on special teams, our average starting field position was the 38 and theirs was the 26.”

JMU senior quarterback Bryan Schor started strong and carried the Dukes’ offense throughout the 26-7 win.

Schor completed his first seven throws for 72 yards during the game’s opening series and capped the first drive with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Trai Sharp.

The plan early for JMU was to let Schor move quickly and spread the ball to his receivers on the perimeter.

“None of it was really scripted,” Schor said. “It was just something that we like to do. We like to play fast-tempo football and it seemed to work really well at the beginning and we just tried to rally off that the rest of the way on that drive.”

Schor finished the game 26-of-35 for 255 yards and two touchdowns. He completed passes to eight different receivers.

JMU will host Weber State in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs on Friday at Bridgeforth Stadium in Harrisonburg.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN2.

Weber State (11-2) was the co-champion of the Big Sky Conference and upset fellow league co-champ Southern Utah, which was seeded eighth, 30-13 on Saturday in the second round.

Meeting the Wildcats will mark just the third time in JMU history, the Dukes face a team from the Big Sky. JMU has faced Montana twice — in the 2004 national championship game and the 2008 semifinals.