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YSU bounces back
Penguins too much for Salukis
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
So, it turns out the sky was falling at Youngstown State on Saturday.
It was called rain.
A week after frustrating its fan base with a disappointing loss to Western Illinois, the Penguin football team put together its best performance of the season in a wet and windy 26-14 win over Southern Illinois at Stambaugh Stadium.
What did it prove?
“We’re resilient,” sophomore running back Jody Webb said. “We’re able to, in our words, take a loss and bounce back. That’s gonna happen. We’re not gonna win every game. We’ve got to be able to overcome, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Webb ran for 88 yards and two touchdowns and true freshman quarterback Hunter Wells ended any talk of a quarterback controversy by throwing for 269 yards and a touchdown in his first Missouri Valley start, putting the Penguins (5-2, 2-1 MVFC) firmly back into the playoff hunt.
“I think it was important for us,” YSU coach Eric Wolford said. “Our kids were really upset about last week. We really felt like last week that we gave a game away.
“We know the importance of every game.”
After playing the final three quarters of last week’s game, Wells played all but one snap on Saturday, leading the Penguins to 17 points on their first three drives. (It would have been 21, but Andre Stubbs couldn’t hang on to a third-down pass in the back of the end zone.)
Salukis quarterback Mark Iannotti tossed two touchdown passes in the third quarter to pull them within six, 20-14, but the Penguins essentially put the game away with 8:31 left on Webb’s 9-yard touchdown run.
After YSU’s defense forced a three-and-out, the Penguins put the game in the hands of their offensive line and they delivered, paving the way for a 13-play, 72-yard drive that erased the final 6 minutes and 59 seconds — all on the ground.
“I think it [the line’s performance] was pretty decent,” Wolford said. “We don’t like to praise those guys too much.”
Saturday might merit an exception. Southern Illinois entered the game with a league-best 24 sacks and managed just one, a meaningless coverage sack early in the fourth quarter.
YSU’s defense was just as impressive. The Salukis entered the game averaging 33 points (second-best in the MVFC) and 416 yards, but finished with 224 total yards and were intercepted twice.
“We have to clean up that third quarter a little bit, but besides that I think we played a really good game,” said senior safety Donald D’Alesio, who had one of the interceptions. “We were focused all week in practice and [defensive coordinator Jamie] Bryant did just a great job of putting us in position to go out there and make plays.”
The Penguins did have two turnovers and suffered their weekly special teams breakdown (they had a punt blocked for the second straight week and third time this season), but the victory should put the focus on next week’s game at South Dakota State and not on Wolford’s future with the program.
“Obviously, we’ve never beat them since I’ve been here,” said D’Alesio, who is in his fifth year. “We got to be up for the challenge and have a great week of practice.”