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YSU avenges blowouts by pounding Central St.
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YSU's Jabari Scott eludes James Crook of Central State.
By Pete Mollica
The Penguins rushed for 239 yards on 47 carries in a 38-0 rout.
YOUNGSTOWN — Smash-mouth football returned to the Youngstown State offense Saturday afternoon at Stambaugh Stadium.
The Penguins, who had lost two straight and had been outscored 83-7, turned to its ground game and rolled past Division II Central State 38-0 before an announced crowd of 14,143.
YSU (1-2) ran 56 offensive plays against the Marauders (0-3) and 47 were rushes as the Penguins totaled 239 yards on the ground and 346 total yards, which was more yards than they had gained in their two previous games combined.
It was the 13th straight home-opening victory for the Penguins, the eighth under head coach Jon Heacock.
“It was the home opener and we got the win; those things are exciting,” Heacock said. “Today, we improved as the game went on, especially on defense, where we had a lot of new, young faces.”
After a week full of adversity, Saturday’s game gave the Penguins a chance to “take a deep breath,” Heacock said.
“There has been a lot of adversity to overcome already this year, but our guys just keep on grinding out there,” Heacock said.
Junior quarterback Brandon Summers, a transfer from Toledo, made his first start for the Penguins and kept the offense moving for the three quarters he played.
Summers threw only eight passes, but completed six of them for 101 yards and two touchdowns. His quickness and elusiveness added a whole new dimension to the offense.
“I thought he handled things very well today,” Heacock said. “He has the ability to do things with the football that drives defenses crazy.”
One of those things came on his second touchdown pass, where he had to reverse his field and scramble for several seconds before finally finding senior wide receiver Ferlando Williams open in the end zone on a 5-yard touchdown pass.
“The play was designed to go to the right to the tight end, but I saw he was covered and had to change directions and scramble to the right until I saw Ferlando,” Summers said.
“I thought I did all right today,” Summers said. “I could have made a couple of better throws, but I felt a lot more comfortable back there as the game went on.”
For most of the game, Summers handed the ball off to junior tailback Jabari Scott, who rushed 14 times for 111 yards and two touchdowns.
When redshirt freshman quarterback Paul Corsaro came on in the final quarter, he handed off to redshirt freshman tailback Kamryn Keys, who rushed 15 times for 89 yards.
Williams caught two passes on the day, but both were for touchdowns. The first one was a 64-yard play on a perfect pass from Summers and Williams had to dive the final yards to the end zone.
The Penguins also got a special teams touchdown in the second quarter when senior defensive back DeAngelo Wilson returned a Central State punt 39 yards.
Wilson had a big day returning punts as he picked up 95 yards on five returns and had another return of 35 yards that helped set up the Penguins’ final touchdown.
While the Penguins didn’t turn the ball over, the defense forced a pair of turnovers — an interception by senior Jarvis Richards and a fumble recovery by sophomore Andre Elliott.
YSU held the Marauders to 198 total yards, including 101 rushing. They had 153 of those yards in the first half.
“Our defense got much better as the game went on,” Heacock said. “There were a lot of young faces out there, but overall we got to play a lot of players today.”
The Penguins scored the first two times they touched the football. The first scoring drive was helped by back-to-back face mask penalties by the Marauders and ended with Scott’s 17 yard touchdown run.
The second score took just two plays as Summers and Williams connected.
The third score didn’t come until late in the second quarter when Wilson ran back the punt.
YSU scored the first three possessions of the second half, a 2-yard run by Scott, the 5-yard pass to Williams and a 23-yard field goal by senior Brian Palmer in the final quarter.
“No offense will work if you don’t block and today we blocked,” Heacock said. “Every play we have is designed to score a touchdown, but that depends on the execution, which until today hasn’t been very good.”
mollica@vindy.com