GATEWAY Penguins eye sixth victory Saturday

Youngstown State is home to winless Illinois State in a Gateway Conference game.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State football coach Jon Heacock feels the Penguins have made improvement since the beginning of the season.
He also knows there is room for more, especially in the kicking game.
Saturday, the Penguins (5-1, 3-1 Gateway Conference) play host to Illinois State (0-6, 0-2) in the Homecoming game at 4 p.m.
The offense is averaging 35 points a game and over 400 yards of offense per game, and the defense has been holding teams to 121 yards a game rushing and has a plus-9 turnover margin advantage. However, the punting and kickoff coverage teams need too improve.
Trying: "We're working on it very hard," Heacock said. "We worked on it last night and we'll work on it tonight and again tomorrow and hopefully by Saturday we'll be improved."
The Penguins have allowed kickoff returns of 78 and 71 yards the last two games.
There were two punts of under 10 yards last week in the win over Southwest Missouri State.
There is nothing wrong with the running game. Last week the Penguins rushed for 393 yards and are averaging over 300 yards per game. Junior P.J. Mays, who had 218 yards last week, is averaging 145 yards per game.
"Our offensive line is doing just an outstanding job right now," said Heacock. "We've got some guys who can run the football pretty well and that always makes blocking a little easier.
"We've got to get better in our third down and short conversion," he added. "You're not always going to make those third-and-8 conversions, but those third and short ones are a must."
Third downs: Overall the Penguins have converted 28-of-73 third downs, or 38 percent.
Heacock was asked, if the Penguins were forced to pass more, could they be successful?
"Sure we could," Heacock said. "We haven't thrown the ball as much as we would like the last two weeks because we wanted to get the running game going again and we were playing teams who we felt we could run the football against."
Senior Jeff Ryan has attempted only 74 passes, completing 45, with four touchdowns and three interceptions. He threw 24 times in the 30-11 loss at Northern Iowa.
On defense: Defensively, the Penguins have been tough against the run, but have given up quite a bit of yardage through the air.
"Our main goal is to stop the run, but we definitely have to do a better job against the pass once we shut down the run," Heacock said.
YSU held Southwest Missouri State to just 53 yards rushing, but the Bears passed for 353 yards.
Heacock said he is concerned about Illinois State despite its winless record.
Have talent: "You watch them on film and you just shake your head," Heacock said. They are a very talented football team.
"You have to take in the history of this game, they've beaten us more times then we've beaten them and almost every game has been close," he added.
"It is very important for us to understand what we are getting into this week," Heacock said.
Illinois State has won five of the nine previous games, although the Penguins claimed a 14-13 last season in Normal, Ill. ISU won 31-28 in 1999 and 48-14 in 1998.