Missouri State hosts YSU at homecoming

By Pete Mollica

Both the Bears and the Penguins are struggling coming into this conference matchup.

YOUNGSTOWN — Missouri State football coach Terry Allen is hoping the school’s annual homecoming game will just be the thing to help the Bears get their season turned around.

Missouri State (1-3, 0-1 Missouri Valley Conference) will play host to Youngstown State Saturday in a 2:30 p.m. kickoff at Plaster Field in Springfield, Mo.

Allen, who was the very successful coach at Northern Iowa from 1989-96, has struggled to a 9-17 record in his three seasons with the Bears. He has a career record of 104-76 in 16 seasons as head coach, but 50 of those losses have come since he left Northern Iowa. He spent four seasons as the coach at Kansas where he was 20-33 before taking over at Missouri State.

“We just haven’t been able to put anything together this season,” Allen said. “Our defense has been banged up and teams have been able to run the football against us, but we’ve shown improvement offensively the past two weeks and hopefully we’ll get things turned around here quickly.”

Allen is 1-3 all-time against the Penguins, including 0-2 at Missouri State. In fact, the Bears have only beaten the Penguins once in 12 previous meetings and YSU has won three straight.

The Bears have big problems on defense this season.

In four games they are allowing 477.8 total yards and almost 300 yards per game rushing.

Last week in their 33-21 loss to Western Illinois, the Bears allowed 520 total yards, including 459 rushing, 273 of them by Western Illinois tailback Herb Donaldson, who also scored four touchdowns.

“He’s a good back, but we made him look like an All-American,” said Allen.

The Bears opened the season with a 35-27 loss to Division II Washbaugh and then took on Oklahoma State and were pounded 57-13. But they rebounded in week three with a 45-28 victory over Southeast Missouri State, even though the Redhawks outgained them 445-to-314.

Offensively the Bears are pretty balanced, averaging 142.5 yards per game rushing and 181.2 yards passing.

Sophomore quarterback Cody Kirby (5-foot-11, 200 pounds) leads the offense. He’s completed 64-of-118 passes for 727 yards and eight touchdowns while being intercepted three times. He’s also scored one rushing touchdown.

The running game is led by sophomore tailback Kingjack Washington (5-10, 165) who has 255 yards on 47 carries and one touchdown. His backup, Stephen Johnston (5-11, 204, soph.), has 138 yards on 19 carries.

Kirby has three talented receivers, led by junior tight end Clay Harbor (6-4, 230) who has 13 receptions for 140 yards and two touchdowns. Freshman wide receiver Chase Mejia (5-10, 190) has 12 catches for 119 yards and senior wide receiver Chris Geisz (6-2, 209) has 10 catches for 156 yards and three touchdowns. The Bears have 12 receivers who have caught at least one pass.

The offensive line is a veteran one with three seniors, including tackle Kevaughn Brown (6-4, 320) and guard Seth Reichert (6-4, 313).

The top tackler on defense is sophomore free safety Skylar Smith (5-11, 198) who has 33 stops, one sack an interception and a fumble recovery. Senior linebacker Jeremy Dawson (5-11, 210) has 31 tackles and sophomore linebacker Tony Randolph (5-11, 195) has 30 tackles.

Junior place kicker Matt Hottelman leads the team in scoring. He’s 13-for-13 in extra points and 5-of-6 in field goals with his longest being 49 yards. His only miss this season was from 51 yards.

mollica@vindy.com