YSU comes up short, 21-20

By Pete Mollica

Penguins give

No. 4 N. Iowa

all it can handle

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown State football team gave one of its better efforts of the season Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to defeat No. 4-ranked Northern Iowa.

The Penguins (2-7, 1-4 Missouri Valley Football Conference) gave the Penthers all they could handle, but still suffered a 21-20 loss before an announced crowd of 15,937 at Stambaugh Stadium.

The defeat assures the Penguins of their first losing season since 2004 and the third in eight seasons for head coach Jon Heacock.

A blocked extra point try in the final four minutes was the difference in the game. The Penguins had two other opportunities after that, but couldn’t muster up a drive of any kind.

It was the eighth straight loss by the Penguins against the Panthers, all of them under Heacock.

“This one might have been the toughest,” Heacock said. “We had our shots at them, but you just cannot make mistakes against a team like them.

“There are no moral victories and one play doesn’t cost you the football games,” Heacock said. “That was a heck of a football team we played today and we gave them one heck of a battle.

“It’s difficult with what these kids have been through, yet none of them likes coming out on the short end of things,” Heacock said. “These players want to win and that’s what they have going for them over the next three games.

The Penguins welcomed back a couple of players from the injury list, but had several others who were missing from a week ago.

Sophomore defensive tackle Torrance Nicholson, who hasn’t played since the first half of the South Dakota State game in early September, came back Saturday to bolster the defense. He led the Penguins with 12 tackles, three for losses and one sack.

Junior starting quarterback Brandon Summers returned to the lineup after a two-week absence and promptly threw two touchdown passes and passed for 167 yards.

But those efforts still weren’t enough against the Panthers (6-2, 4-1), who have owned the Penguins since 2001.

The Penguins played without starting wide receiver Ferlando Williams and starting tight end Derrick Bush, both out with injuries.

YSU’s redshirt freshman tailback Kamryn Keys came up with his second 100-yard rushing game as he totaled 101 yards on nine carries, including a 61-yard touchdown run that enabled the Penguins to tie the score at 14-14 late in the third quarter.

Northern Iowa jumped out to a 14-0 early first half lead. The Panthers scored their first touchdown late in the first quarter on a 64-yard drive. Redshirt freshman quarterback Zach Davis hit tight end Schuylar Oordt with a 1-yard touchdown pass that was tipped in the air by YSU’s De’Angelo Wilson.

The Panthers, on their next series, put together a 16-play, 80-yard drive that used up almost nine minutes on the clock before Derrick Law scored on a 1-yard run.

YSU finally got on the scoreboard thanks to a 48-yard kickoff return by sophomore Dominique Barnes to the Panthers 41-yard line.

Four runs by Keys and a couple by Dana Brown moved the ball to the UNI 18. Summers fired to the back of the end zone where Da’Michael Horne went up and made a leaping grab for the touchdown.

Both defenses controlled most of the third quarter until the Penguins broke the big run by Keys.

Starting from their own 16, Summers hit Horne with an 11-yard pass and then Keys ran 11 more to the 39. On first down, Keys slanted off tackle through an enormous hole, broke into the clear and out-raced everyone to the end zone.

Northern Iowa came right back with another long drive, this one 76 yards on 12 plays and using nearly six minutes off the clock before Law scored again on a 1-yard run.

YSU got a break when the Panthers got off just an 11-yard punt and took over at their own 42 yard line.

Summers, on third down, found junior Donald Jones open on a hook pattern. He made two great moves broke into the clear to complete a 51-yard scoring play.

Senior kicker Brian Palmer, who had made 19-20 extra points this year, saw his game-tying point blocked by UNI’s Darryl Lloyd with 3:55 remaining.

The YSU defense gave the Penguins two more opportunities at the Panthers, but neither drive went much of anywhere.

mollica@vindy.com