YSU punter making his kicks count Transfer Ben Nowicki played well last week

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — Following the completion of the 2006 football season the Youngstown State coaching staff knew they needed to recruit a punter for this year.

Joe Bishop, who had handled the punting duties for four seasons and earned All-Gateway Conference honors, was graduating, and the Penguins didn’t have another true punter on the roster.

Coach Jon Heacock and his staff went out and found one they believed could handle the job right away when they brought in junior college transfer Ben Nowicki.

Nowicki (5-foot-10, 175 pounds) was a first-team National Junior College Athletic Association All-American last season and led the nation in punting with a 44.2 yard average on 43 punts for Mesa Community College in Mesa, Ariz.

The Gilbert, Ariz., native from Mesquite High School was thrown right into the Penguins’ lineup and struggled somewhat at first.

Early this season his punting average was around 35 yards per kick and he had a couple that didn’t even come close to that average.

In the last couple of weeks Nowicki has started to come around and kick like the Penguins thought he would.

Saturday, in the Penguins’ 24-17 loss to Southern Illinois he came up with his best effort of the year.

He kicked four times against the Salukis for an average of 46.8 yards with a long of 55 yards. Two of them were inside the Salukis 20-yard line, with one being downed at the SIU 3.

Nowicki was named the Hill, Barth and King special teams player of the week by the YSU coaching staff.

He also was named the Gateway Conference special teams player of the week.

“Ben did a great job on Saturday and came up with some very big kicks,” said Heacock. “He’s a talented guy and he’s now performing just like we thought he would when we recruited him.

“I was especially glad to see him have the good game because he works so hard in practice, he really deserved the honors he received this week,” he said.

YSU defensive line coach Antoine Smith has had the Penguins’ front line playing exceptionally well against the rush through the first five games of the season.

Going into Saturday’s game the Penguins were allowing just 92 yards per game on the ground, but the Salukis rushed for over 200 yards.

“I was disappointed Saturday that they were able to run for over 200 yards,” Smith said. “That’s why this week we will be going back to work on our fundamentals.

“The good thing is that they are correctable mistakes,” he added. “The fact is we’ve had a couple of redshirt freshmen in there and it takes a little time for them to get used to the pace of the game.

“We’ve got a good group of players on the defensive line and they work hard,” he added. “Torrance Nicholson and Luke Matelan, both redshirt freshmen, are hard workers and nobody spends more time watching film than those two.”

The Penguins will take a break from Gateway Conference play this Saturday when they play host to Southern Utah (0-5) in a 4 p.m. kickoff at Stambaugh Stadium.

mollica@vindy.com