Second-half turnaround

October 16, 2011 at 12:04a.m.

Penguins reverse fortunes for rare road win

Carbondale, Ill.

With more than 12,000 fans filing out of their seats and more than 50 players whooping and hollering on the Youngstown State sideline, Penguins defensive end Chuck Lengyel looked around and yelled at no one in particular, “That’s the way to step on their [stinking] throat!”

Coming off the most disappointing loss of the Eric Wolford era, the YSU football team shook off a bad first half to capture its first road win in 99 weeks, defeating Southern Illinois 35-23 in a crucial Missouri Valley Football Conference game on Saturday.

“Nothing comes easy for us,” Wolford said. “Hopefully this is a sign we’ve turned the corner.”

Trailing 17-7 at halftime, the Penguins played an almost flawless second half, with quarterback Kurt Hess throwing for three touchdown passes and Josh Lee recovering a muffed punt return in the end zone with 2:48 left to seal it.

Leading 28-23 with three minutes left, YSU RB Jamaine Cook was stuffed on a third-and-5 at Penguin 47 to force the crucial punt.

Southern Illinois opted to go after Nick Liste’s kick, sending 10 players, and Liste got the punt off a split-second early.

SIU’s LaSteven McKinney tried to catch the ball at his own 6, but muffed it. The ball rolled into the end zone and Lee dove on it, but the official initially signaled a touchback.

With the Penguins in disbelief around them, the officials huddled for more than a minute, then signaled touchdown.

“We had 9,000 calls that didn’t go our way, so it was nice to finally get one,” Wolford said.

The win helped erase the memories of last season where YSU repeatedly lost late leads and finished the year with seven straight conference losses.

But after giving up 72 points in back-to-back losses to Indiana State and South Dakota State in recent weeks, YSU’s defense played its best game of the season, holding the Salukis to just one touchdown on seven second-half possessions.

Defensive coordinator Rick Kravitz unveiled a more blitz-heavy scheme and it frustrated sophomore QB Kory Faulkner, who threw an interception, was sacked four times and wasn’t as sharp as his numbers (20 of 35, 184 yards) would indicate.

“Coach [Kravitz] told me he was going to use me as a weapon,” said freshman linebacker Davion Rogers, who had one of the sacks and disrupted SIU’s offense as an edge rusher. “We always talk about working as a unit and we stayed together and everyone did their assignment.”

Hess completed 16 of 21 passes for 264 yards, two TDs and no interceptions, hitting freshman Christian Bryan for five catches, 131 yards and one touchdown. YSU finished with 464 yards and almost certainly would have scored more points had it not lost two first-half fumbles.

“The defense played really great and really kept us in the game in that first half,” Hess said. “Christian made a lot of big plays and that’s what they recruited him to do.

“Honestly, they weren’t great throws but he’s a good receiver and I trusted him to come down with the ball.”

Jamaine Cook added 32 carries for 179 yards and a touchdown for YSU (3-3, 2-2), which heads home for winnable games against FCS non-scholarship St. Francis and Western Illinois over the next two weeks.

“It’s a huge win,” Bryan said. “We were down. As much as I hate to say it, nobody was upbeat this week. We said we were but we weren’t.

“This is one of the better wins I’ve been a part of in my whole football career. It was great the way we came together on both sides of the ball and finally played to our potential.”