YSU FOOTBALL Heacock is hoping for three victories

Coach Jon Heacock wants to send the team's seniors out with a winning streak.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State coach Jon Heacock is still coming to work every day at 6 a.m., and he's still putting in 80-hour work weeks.
YSU (4-4, 2-3 Gateway) is out of contention for a conference championship and won't make the I-AA playoffs for the second straight year, but the Penguins still have three games remaining, including Saturday's Homecoming contest against Southern Illinois at 4 p.m.
"We still have three games remaining, three more chances for our seniors to come away with victories," Heacock said. "We're now playing for the team, the university, the program and Penguin tradition.
"Just because it didn't work out the way that you wanted it to doesn't mean that you just go up and stop," he said. "We're going to work just as hard this week as we have all season long."
Down the drain
The Penguins saw a chance to get back into the playoffs and league title contention go down the drain the last two weeks, with back-to-back losses to Northern Iowa (22-7) and Western Illinois (19-0).
"You go back and look at the films and you see a lot of opportunities that we had that we didn't take advantage of," said Heacock. "Those opportunities you have to make good on, especially in Gateway games.
"I really thought we were ready to play last week," he added.
Several Penguins are still pretty banged up. Senior tailback P.J. Mays is nursing a strained knee, but is listed as probable. His backup, junior Josiah Doby, is out for the second straight week with an ankle injury.
Senior defensive tackle Guy Mazard, who sprained an ankle against Western Illinois, also is expected to play Saturday.
"We can't make an issue about who we have or who we don't have," Heacock said.
The second year coach thought freshman red-shirt quarterback Aaron Marshall is making improvement.
"He probably played better in the second half than he did in the first half last week," Heacock said. "He made some good throws in the second half."
Marshall was 9-of-15 for 121 yards against the Leathernecks, while junior Luis Gonzalez came on in the final quarter and was 7-of-14 for 64 yards.
Running game weak
The biggest disappointment for the Penguins was in the running game, which netted just 10 yards without Mays and Doby. Junior Mike Burns led the team with 42 yards on 15 carries.
Senior wide receiver Jerald Burley had his best game of the season with five catches for 79 yards, while freshman Kyle Smith had four catches and freshman red-shirt Shawn Carlson added three.
The YSU defense also played well, allowing just one touchdown for the second straight week, but the opposition has kicked nine field goals in those two games, five by Northern Iowa and four by Western Illinois.
Heacock expects a tough game from the Salukis, who lead the nation in scoring offense even though they lost their top two running backs for the year.
QB is the key
"Their quarterback [Joel Sambursky] is the glue that holds that offense together," Heacock said. "He takes all the pressure off the running backs and runs the option very well.
"Even when Mo [Abdulqaadir] went down, he kept making plays for them," Heacock added. "They have good special teams and they've not played any different when the won or lost. They are a very opportunistic team."
mollica@vindy.com