SDSU dominates YSU


By STEVE WILAJ

swilaj@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Throughout the season, Youngstown State coaches and players have given their fans grief for not showing up at home games.

Ironically, the Penguins were the ones absent on Saturday.

On a dreary afternoon, YSU was dominated in all three phases of the game by No. 7 South Dakota State, as the Jackrabbits steamrolled the Penguins, 38-8, at Stambaugh Stadium.

YSU (3-3, 1-2 Missouri Valley Conference) has lost two straight and suddenly faces an uphill climb in trying to end its eight-year playoff drought.

“I apologize,” Penguins coach Bo Pelini said. “Obviously, I didn’t have this team ready to play and I really don’t have much of an explanation for it.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever been this disappointed and this embarrassed. It’s been a long time,” Pelini said. “We didn’t show up.”

It was bad from the start for the Penguins as Jody Webb fumbled away the opening kickoff. Just two plays later, SDSU (5-1, 2-1) took a 7-0 lead. Following the blunder, YSU’s offense never fought back and didn’t find the end zone.

Sophomore quarterback Hunter Wells performed poorly before being benched (18 of 39, 153 yards, one interception), the running game was non-existent (Webb gained 14 yards and Martin Ruiz had three yards) and the Penguins finished just 2of 15 on third-down conversions.

“We got our butts kicked up front and, obviously, the plan wasn’t good enough,” Pelini said. “We didn’t coach it well enough, first and foremost, and we didn’t play well enough.”

While YSU’s defense held up for a while, playing solidly enough to keep the Penguins’ deficit at 17-8 midway through the third quarter, SDSU eventually gained 334 yards of offense and scored 14 fourth-quarter points.

Following the contest, YSU held a players-only meeting in the locker room.

“Tonight, there was some people out there that gave up and some people that weren’t ready,” junior defensive end Derek Rivers said. “That reflects back on us as a team.

“We have a team meeting going on and I promise you we’re gonna fix everything,” Rivers said. “It’s one of those things where you have trials — and when adversity hits — you got to hit it back in the mouth.

“Right now, we still have everything we want out in front of us. We’ve had some key losses and we’re still pushing forward.”

SDSU looked like a team going in the opposite direction of the Penguins.

The Jackrabbits’ defense dominated in surrendering only 278 yards. On offense, junior Kyle Paris, who entered the game with just 53 career rushing yards, paced SDSU with 128 yards and two touchdowns. Freshman QB Taryn Christion rushed for 75 yards and was 8 of 14 for 122 passing yards.

“We came out playing great defense,” SDSU coach John Stiegelmeier said. “When you play great defense, you have a chance to excite everybody on your football team and we did that.”

As for YSU’s quarterback situation, Wells, who started the game 6-for-6, but finished by completing just 12 of his final 33 passes, was replaced by sophomore Ricky Davis. Davis went 0 of 2 while rushing for 41 yards on six carries, although he exited late in the contest with an injury.

Pelini said the quarterback position isn’t the only one that will be re-examined as YSU travels to Southern Illinois next week, a game that, first off, the Penguins will just try to show up for.

“We’re not sure about that,” tight end Jacob Wood said about YSU’s lack of readiness.

“We need to evaluate it this week, make sure we get on top of that and then next week come out ready to play.”

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