Penguins down, but not out

Despite what a lot of people think Youngstown State’s football season is certainly far from over, despite Saturday’s loss to Southern Illinois.

The Penguins showed they are one of the top three teams in the Gateway Conference, but a few mistakes and some awful officiating led to their downfall.

YSU is every bit as good as Southern Illinois — anyone who saw the game would easily realize this — but the Penguins have put themselves into a position where another loss could threaten their chance of making the postseason.

There is still a lot of football to be played, and Saturday Southern Illinois (6-0, 2-0) travels to Northern Iowa (5-0, 1-0), which could be the game of the year in the Gateway.

The Penguins can’t afford to lose another game and still have a realistic chance at the playoffs. Three losses would put them in the same situation as in 2005 when they were left out of the playoffs by the selection committee, even though they shared the conference title with two other teams.

Another loss
will be costly

Another loss this year, especially if it is to Northern Iowa, means the Penguins probably won’t even share in the conference championship and that would put them sitting when the playoffs come around.

It’s hard to root for Northern Iowa, but Penguins’ fans have to this weekend, then hope YSU can go to Cedar Falls, Iowa, in a few weeks and knock off the Panthers.

YSU hasn’t had a lot of success against Northern Iowa, losing six straight games and eight of the last 10 since joining the Gateway in 1997. They are 1-5 at the UNIDome. All time, dating to 1978, the Penguins have won just six of 21 meetings against UNI.

YSU (4-2, 1-1 Gateway) plays host to winless Southern Utah Saturday afternoon at Stambaugh Stadium. The Penguins follow that with another home game against Illinois State (2-4, 0-2) in the homecoming contest Oct. 20.

Then they head to Cedar Falls to face the Panthers.

The Penguins played hard Saturday and battled Southern Illinois right to the final play. It’s not like they got blown off the field — the final total yardage was 372 to 330.

Penalties, turnovers
were downfall

The Penguins committed two turnovers — the first, a fumble by senior quarterback Tom Zetts after he made a big run up the middle and was deep in SIU territory, hurt. Even though the Salukis didn’t score off the mistake, it stopped the Penguins’ drive and a possible touchdown.

A couple of key penalties called against the Penguins also hurt. Two of them, one for defensive holding and another for a personal foul, helped set up Southern Illinois’ game-tying field goal at the end of the first half.

YSU coach Jon Heacock said the Penguins made too many mistakes, especially at this stretch of the season when they need to be mistake-free.

But with so many injuries and so many new faces on the field it’s hard to imagine this young team playing perfectly.

Saturday the temperature hovered around 90 degrees and it was even hotter on the artificial surface.

There were over 13,000 hostile fans in the stands, but the Penguins still made SIU work for every point.

Zetts needs to be more consistent for the offense especially getting the ball downfield.

Williams needs help
making offense run

Junior Ferlando Williams is still mystifying opposing defenses with his quickness and speed, but the offense needs more than just him.

By the way, Williams finally threw a pass from the quarterback position. It wasn’t a very good one, about 5 feet over the head of his receiver, but at least he threw one and defenses must now take that into consideration in the future.

Defensively the Penguins weren’t able to get pressure on Salukis’ quarterback Nick Hill. They did sack him twice, but he still completed 13-of-20 for 165 yards and a touchdown.

The season is definitely not over, but it could be in a couple of weeks unless the Penguins can pull get the win in Cedar Falls.

XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.