Zetts sparks YSU offense

The Boardman native passed for 232 yards in the Penguins' practice game.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- The good news out of Friday's first jersey scrimmage for the Youngstown State football team was that the offense looked good.
The bad news out of the scrimmage was that the offense ran and passed all over the Penguins' defense.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Tom Zetts of Boardman led the offense, completing 14 of 16 passes for 232 yards and a touchdown as the offense rolled to a 43-15 victory over the defense.
Junior starting quarterback Aaron Marshall added 139 yards and another touchdown while hitting on 7 of 17 attempts.
Running game solid
The Penguins rushed for 206 yards led by junior tailback Josh Cayson with 60 yards on nine carries.
Sophomore transfer Monquantae Gibson added 57 yards on 12 carries and sophomore Justin Reams had 50 yards on 12 carries.
Gibson also had two rushing touchdowns, while Reams had one.
The offense piled up 628 yards against the defense and had just one turnover.
"It was a good scrimmage and we had some nice warm weather and it appears we got away fairly injury free, so in those aspects it was a good scrimmage," said YSU head coach Jon Heacock.
Heacock said he was pleased to see the offense performing well.
"You're always happy to see that, but you're also rooting for both sides in this scrimmage," he added.
"The offense was able to come up with a couple big plays early in the scrimmage and that kind of set the tempo for the rest of the way."
Marshall leads first drive
The offense scored on the first series when Marshall found junior wideout Damian Wright for a 69-yard touchdown.
Zetts, who completed his first eight passes in the session, took the team to its second score on the third series.
He set up the score with a 46-yard pass to senior tight end Mike Roberts over the middle and connected twice more in the drive to the 2-yard line, where Gibson carried over for the score.
Zetts also connected on a 31-yard pass to Wright, which set up senior Nick Terracina's 31 yard field goal. Terracina converted on all five touchdowns and also added a 48-yard field goal.
Only offensive error
The offense committed its only turnover on the next series as Gibson fumbled and redshirt freshman defensive back Bob Perez recovered.
Zetts and sophomore wide receiver T.J. Peterson connected on a 56-yard pass play down the sidelines and then Zetts connected on a 13-yard touchdown pass to junior wideout Chris Goffer, who made a good catch in strong coverage.
Reams scored on a 5-yard run and Gibson leaped over the defense for a 1-yard touchdown to close out the scoring for the offense.
Not totally disappointed
Heacock said he wasn't overly disappointed with the defense.
"They are still learning all the new terminology out there and still learning where they needed to be," he said. "I saw one long pass play where we were just lined up wrong and those things can be corrected, so I wasn't really going crazy about the way things were going."
Redshirt freshman transfer quarterback Vince Gliatta completed three of four passes for 44 yards, including a 25 yard toss to sophomore Cody Clark.
"I thought the quarterbacks did well," Heacock said. "I thought Aaron and Tommy handled things very well and you can see where Vince's two-years off from playing quarterback has him a little behind."
Hayslett sprains ankle
The only injury which looked serious was to senior offensive center Coby Hayslett, who suffered a sprained ankle.
"I don't know how serious it is, since he sprained it about two weeks ago, but really just aggravated it today," said YSU head trainer Dan Wathen.
The Penguins will hold a light workout this morning at 10 a.m. and then return Sunday for a session, which will included a kicking scrimmage slated to begin around 4 p.m.