It was finally good to see the Youngstown State football team on the right side of a one-sided game.

It was finally good to see the Youngstown State football team on the right side of a one-sided game.

OK, so it was against Central State, a winless Division II team, but with everything the Penguins have gone through this month, any win is a step in the right direction.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is this week the Penguins will face a team that is probably the toughest team still left on the schedule in North Dakota State.

The Penguins get to play the Bisons at Stambaugh Stadium.

Even Saturday’s 38-0 whipping of Central State wouldn’t be enough of a effort to defeat North Dakota State, which comes into the contest 2-1 and ranked No. 2 in the SportsNetwork poll and No. 1 in the FCS coaches poll.

While the Penguins were beating up on Central State last Saturday, North Dakota State was taking Wyoming, a FBS team, right to the final whistle before dropping a 16-13 decision on a last-second field goal.

“Our kids and our coaches know what lies ahead of them this week,” said YSU coach Jon Heacock. “They had a little chance to relax this past week, take a deep breath for the first time in a while. Now it’s back to the grind of our schedule and the Missouri Valley Football Conference.”

The Bison are in their initial season in the conference and the Penguins will be their first official conference battle. Kickoff is at 6 p.m.

Saturday the Penguins made huge strides forward both on offense and defense, but then again they really didn’t have any other way to go but up.

After giving up 83 points and scoring just one touchdown in those first two games, the Penguins were at about rock bottom and then things got worse.

First junior quarterback Todd Rowan, the team’s starter in the first two games, decided to quit the team when he found out he was being replaced as the starter by Brandon Summers.

It that wasn’t enough earth shaking news, that same day the Penguins learned they would be without their top three defensive linemen for quite a while. Senior co-captain Mychal Savage, an All-American a year ago, will miss the remainder of the season, while sophomores Torrance Nicholson and Luke Matelan are both out for anywhere from six to eight weeks.

Summers holds the key to the Penguins future.

The 6-foot, 210-pound junior, who came to the Penguins last winter as a transfer from Toledo, has all the tools to operate the Penguins’ spread offensive attack.

Saturday the offense spread out some, but basically returned to the ground game that has been a YSU trade mark for many years and it worked, at least against the Marauders.

Will the Penguins be able to pound away time after time this week against the Bisons? No way.

That’s where Summers has to become the determining factor.

He has the ability to run, scramble and make things happen, which is what he’ll probably need to do against North Dakota State.

He has what Rowan didn’t have — quick feet and excellent speed and both those assets are needed to make this offense work against the league powers.

Summers isn’t the only weapon on offense, but he’s the key to making everything else happen.

Junior tailback Jabari Scott is getting better every week, but he still lacks size to bang into the defense every week, but he’s a real threat outside with the option and again Summers has to make that happen.

It is still going to come down to the offensive line, which looked good Saturday, but the big question is how they will perform now that the schedule gets tough again. They weren’t effective at all in the first two games.

The defense, even patched up like it is, will only get better as the younger kids get more playing time, but they really don’t have much time for development, they’ve got to get the job done now.

For the Penguins the season really begins this Saturday and if they want any chance at all at the postseason they’re probably going to win at least eight of their final nine games.

XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.