HURTING PENGUINS

By Pete Mollica

Youngstown State’s patched-up defense trying to hang in there

Ferlando Williams and Da’Michael Horne topped the awards list.

YOUNGSTOWN — The play of the Youngstown State football team in last Saturday’s 31-28 loss to Liberty on a last-second field goal was reflected in the game awards that were released Tuesday at the Penguins’ weekly press conference held at DeBartolo Stadium Club in Stambaugh Stadium.

The Penguins allowed 427 total yards to the Flames in the contest, while the offense could muster just 93 rushing yards.

As a result, there was no player selected as the Hill, Barth and King defensive player of the game, nor was there a player chosen as the Jim Zdelar offensive lineman of the game.

With four starters out for most of the season and a couple more banged up and listed as questionable for this Saturday’s non-conference game at Southern Utah, the defense had problems stopping the Flames, coupled with what coach Jon Heacock called a lot of poor tackling.

“It was kind of frustrating for the defense,” said redshirt freshman defensive end Joel Younkins, a former Hubbard High standout. “We were up by two touchdowns and then down by two touchdowns and to come back and still let the game get away from us is very frustrating.

“But we still believe in ourselves and we have confidence that we will right things this week,” he said.

“We lost a bunch of guys and we need a lot of young players to step up and take over,” Younkins added. “This week we have another non-conference game, but it is still an important game because it is the next game on our schedule and we need a victory to boost our confidence going into the rest of the conference games.”

Senior offensive center and co-captain Brad Samsa of Howland said that the season is still a long way from over.

“Basically, we just have to continue to work hard every day,” Samsa said. “We’ve got to take things one game at a time and we still have an opportunity to win the conference title.

“In the Missouri Valley Conference this year anyone is capable of beating anyone and we just need to hang in there,” he added. “This is a non-conference game, but it’s still our next game and we need to go out and play the best we can to win it.”

Samsa said he’s been impressed with the play of junior quarterback Brandon Summers, who this week was selected as the Haines Family player of the game by the YSU radio broadcast team.

Summers set a YSU record by completing 32 passes against Liberty and threw for 334 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for another score.

“Brandon has really been handling things well,” said Samsa. “He’s real confident back there and the rest of us have to feed off that confidence.”

Wide receivers Ferlando Williams and Da’Michael Horne were named co-offensive players of the game by the coaching staff.

Williams, a 6-foot, 195 pound senior from Warner Robins, Ga., led the Penguins with nine receptions for 87 yards and one touchdown, while Horne, a 5-11, 185 junior from Twinsburg, caught seven passes for 49 yards. Horne, who was also named the team’s special teams player of the game, returned a kickoff for 23 yards and had a couple of stops on the kickoff team.

Freshman defensive end Stephen Meadows (6-3, 225) from Fredericksburg, Va., was the Jermaine Hopkins defensive lineman of the game. He had one tackle for a loss.

Redshirt freshman David Rach of Canfield came up with the Wash-on-Wheels/Derek Pixley hit of the week, while Williams was the recipient of the Wachovia Leadership award.

The Penguins and Southern Utah are scheduled to kick off Saturday at 3 p.m. in Cedar City, Utah in Eccles Coliseum.

mollica@vindy.com