YSU NOTEBOOK | More from Springfield, Mo.

Still alive: The loss dampened but didn’t doom Youngstown State’s hopes of winning the Missouri Valley Conference. If the Penguins (3-2, 1-1) win out, they would likely do no worse than tie for first in the league. They could probably afford one more loss and still make the FCS playoffs. “Today was basically just a humbling experience and we’ve just got to learn from it,” defensive lineman Torrance Nicholson said. “We’ve still got all our goals ahead of us. We’ve just got to go out and accomplish them. We know what it takes now.” YSU will play host to North Dakota State on Saturday at 4 p.m. “I hope everybody takes this and learns from it,” Nicholson said. “The only losses that are bad are the ones we don’t learn from. We’ve got to come in [today] and get ready to work.” After two weeks of league play, only Western Illinois (2-0) and Northern Iowa (2-0) are undefeated in conference games. “It’s wide open,” YSU coach Eric Wolford said. “Just can’t give games away.”

Penalty-prone: Wolford’s biggest complaint was his team’s penalties, which cost him 106 yards. (Both teams had nine penalties, with MSU getting hit for 72 yards.) “It’s really disgusting, to be quite frank with you,” he said. “We’ve got to do a better job of not making mistakes. Lots of penalties, holding calls, dropped footballs, sacks. It’s elementary stuff but it’s all correctable.” Wolford said the coaches take the blame. “We’ve got to do a better job,” he said. “If we keep having the same mistakes over and over again, we’ll just have to make some depth chart changes.”

Still streaking: YSU senior WR Dominique Barnes caught just one pass for 17 yards, extending his streak of consecutive games with a catch to 28, which tied him with Jeff Patterson (1980-82) for second on the school’s all-time list. Kyle Smith caught a pass in 30 straight from 2003-05.

Getting to know you: Springfield is the third-largest city in Missouri and is located in the southwest corner of the state, not far from where Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas come together. It’s about three hours southwest of St. Louis. (Roughly the equivalent to going from Youngstown to Dayton, only with a lot more billboards advertising spelunking.) Missouri State’s enrollment is about 23,000, which is 8,000 more than YSU.

Fun facts: Springfield’s nickname is the “Queen City of the Ozarks” and city leaders used to present visiting dignitaries with an “Ozark Hillbilly Medallion.” Springfield is about 45 miles from Branson (a tourist attraction for people that Bart Simpson once described as “Las Vegas if it was run by Ned Flanders”). Springfield is the hometown of longtime “The Price is Right” host Bob Barker, actress Kathleen Turner and golfer Payne Stewart. Brad Pitt also grew up here and attended Kickapoo High School, which I think we can all agree is just an outstanding name for a school.

Joe Scalzo