PENGUIN FOOTBALL YSU just doing things better

The Penguins close out the season Saturday at Southwest Missouri State.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown State football team hasn't really been doing anything different these last two weeks, they just been doing what they normally do better than early in the year.
YSU coach Jon Heacock prefers not to look back at the early part of the season.
"We're trying not to look back," he said. "Our guys have grown up. Right now we are playing some good football and we'll have to play even better this week."
Saturday the Penguins will meet Southwest Missouri State (5-5, 2-4) in a Gateway Conference battle at Plaster Field in Springfield, Mo. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.
Seek third straight win
The contest will be the season final for the Penguins (4-6, 2-4), who have won two in a row.
"We definitely haven't changed anything, we're just working harder," Heacock said. "It takes a tremendous amount of character to hang in there like these kids have done."
One position where the Penguins have had an unusual season is at tailback.
Junior Josh Cayson opened the season as the starter, but by the second game sophomore transfer Monquantae Gibson had taken over and had three straight 100-yard games.
Then Gibson got hurt and Cayson came back and had three straight outstanding games. Last week Cayson was being disciplined for breaking a team rule and didn't make the trip to Western Illinois.
Gibson and sophomore Regis Edgerson each had 100-yard games with a pair of touchdown runs to lead the Penguins to their second straight win, 34-9 over the Leathernecks.
"They are all competing for their chance," Heacock said.
Cayson has been reinstated this week, but Gibson is listed as the starter, with Edgerson his backup.
"Our running game is in place and we're comfortable with it, but we're still running the same plays we did at the beginning of the season," he added.
Although the Penguins have never lost to Southwest Missouri State, Heacock expects to have all he can handle Saturday in Springfield.
"This is a very good football team," Heacock said. "They're secondary is very talented with 17 interceptions, they have very good special teams and a very talented return specialist.
"We are going to need a great job out of our special teams this week," he said.
Terracina nears mark
One of those special team players is senior kicker Nick Terracina, who can put his name into the YSU record books again this week in his final game.
Terracina has made 44 consecutive extra point kicks dating back to the Kent State game in 2003. The school record is 46, held by Jeff Wilkins. The Lake Charles, La. native can also become the first Penguin kicker since John Dowling in 1986 to convert all his point-after kicks in a season.
Terracina is 27-for-27 this season and leads the team for the second straight season in scoring with 60 points.
mollica@vindy.com