Big upset provides big boost

Just like that, Youngstown State is back in the thick of things in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

Saturday’s 32-24 victory over No. 2 North Dakota State has to rank right up there with some of the best wins in Penguins’ history.

The unbelievable thing is the Penguins were just two weeks removed from probably playing one of their worst games in history in the 40-7 loss at South Dakota State.

Everybody, including me, said when the Penguins ran all over Central State two weeks ago, it was just a poor Division II team and wondered if the Penguins would be able to produce against a very good team like North Dakota State.

Well that question was answered Saturday, although it started out as if the Penguins might just have a lot more trouble then they needed.

On YSU’s opening drive, it quickly moved down field against the Bison, both running and passing. With a first down and goal from the 1-foot line the Penguins tried two sneaks by junior quarterback Brandon Summers and didn’t gain an inch. They then tried a run by junior tailback Jabari Scott and that lost a yard. So on fourth down they went for the 18-yard field goal by Brian Palmer.

Sitting there watching, the first thing that came into my mind was that this is going to come back to haunt them before the game was over.

But the Penguins weren’t through by a long shot and built a 23-3 lead, before North Dakota State finally woke up and made a game out of it.

There were so many outstanding things that happened in this game.

The best was probably the blocking of the YSU offensive line, which opened holes big enough to drive a truck through. Scott and redshirt freshman Kamryn Keys had an easy time waltzing through gaining 120 and 146 yards respectively as the Penguins totaled 340 yards on the ground and averaged 6.1 yards per carry.

“Preparation was the key,” said YSU senior tackle Tyler Booth. “We have a lot of experience on the line, but we really haven’t played all that much together as a group. Now we’re getting the reps and things are starting to come together.”

Booth sat out all of last season with an injury, while starting guard Eric Rodemoyer was playing at West Virginia and senior center Brad Samsa was playing both tackle and guard. So Booth hit the nail on the head when he said the team hadn’t really played together as an entire group a whole lot.

Junior quarterback Brandon Summers seems to be a great fit to the new YSU spread offense, which spreads people out, but then runs the ball right down their throats.

Summers was 7-of 12 passing for 101 yards and two touchdowns. He’s had four TD passes in the last two games. He was intercepted once and did have a costly fumble that helped the Bison get back into the game, but his good play far overshadowed the two mistakes.

The YSU receivers made some great catches starting with the game’s opening play when Summers fired a 46-yard pass to sophomore Dominique Barnes, who was well covered, but just went up and took the ball away. There were also the touchdown passes to junior Donald Jones and Ferlando Williams. Both were well thrown and the receivers made exceptional catches.

The defense gave up a lot of yards (474) to the Bison, but the Penguins were tough when they needed to be. Twice they forced the Bison to go for field goals when they couldn’t move and the Penguins blocked one of those.

Then there were the four interceptions, two by senior De’Angelo Wilson, one in the game’s final seconds in the end zone that preserved the victory.

And don’t forget about Palmer, the senior kicker from Mineral Ridge, who has made 13 consecutive field goals dating back to last season.

It wasn’t more than a month ago that Palmer was discovered to have a herniated disc in his back and there was concern that he might need surgery and miss the entire season.

Well he really only missed one game and could have played in that one if he had been needed and is off and running toward another big season.

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