Unbeaten YSU gets road test

Youngstown State coach Jon Heacock said the Penguins' next game against Liberty will be the toughest one this season.
The fact that Liberty was routed 59-0 on Saturday by Connecticut and won its opener by only a 17-6 score against Concord, a Division II team, had nothing to do with Heacock's statement.
He was referring to the fact that the unbeaten Penguins will be making their first road appearance of the season when they travel to Lynchburg, Va., for a 7 p.m. kickoff against the Flames on Saturday.
"This is going to be the first time a great many of these kids are going to be away from home, sleeping in a strange bed and going into a strange environment," Heacock said. "It is going to be a difficult situation for them and we must be prepared."
The Penguins (2-0) are clicking on all cylinders offensively. They have rushed for over 200 yards in both wins, and against Northeastern they surpassed 200 yards passing, finishing with 468 yards total.
"It's only going to get tougher and tougher as the season progresses," Heacock said, "but the more confidence this team gets the tougher they are going to be to be beaten."
Heacock likes defense against the run
Heacock, who has always been more comfortable on the defensive side of the ball, is very pleased with his team's effort against the run.
"It's always great to be able to run the football, but when you can stop the run also that just makes things all the better," he said. "If you can run the ball like we have and stop the run like we have, you are not going to lose too many games."
The Penguins did give up 254 passing yards to Northeastern, with over 150 of that coming in the fourth quarter.
"I don't place too much emphasis on those stats because we were in a prevent defense, rushing only three men and most of their completions were under our coverage," said Heacock.
YSU also threw the football 32 times Saturday, a unusually high number considering that the Penguins never trailed.
"First of all, you have to look at the type of passes we were throwing," said Heacock. "They were all very high percentage, short passes, more to the backs than anything and they were all very good calls that enabled our offense to keep moving the football."
YSU limited Huskies'offensive time on field
The Penguins were also impressive with keeping the Huskies' offense off the field for a big part of the contest.
YSU held a huge advantage in time of possession, holding the ball for 38 minutes and 1 second, to Northeastern's 21:59.
The reason for that advantage was three drives by the Penguins, all of which resulted in points and took nearly 18 minutes off the clock.
"When you can control the football like that and keep the opposition's offense off the field you have a much greater chance of winning," said Heacock.
The offensive success was such that Joe Bishop punted only once, and that one didn't come until the fourth quarter.
Bishop has also been doing an outstanding job handling the kickoff duties as well this year. He gets great height on his kickoffs and he almost pulled off a perfect onside kick that the Huskies came up with late in the third quarter.
Horizon League throwsnugget to YSU women
The Horizon League recently announced its women's basketball conference schedule for the 2005-06 season.
It also was announced that Youngstown State may play host to the final two rounds of the conference tournament in March. The semifinals and final will be held at Beeghly Center if YSU is still alive.
That puts some little pressure on coach Tisha Hill and the team, but I think it's something they are really looking forward to achieving.
XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.