43
Penguins can’t catch up at Heinz
Youngstown boys: Pat Narduzzi tops Bo Pelini
By Joe Scalzo
PITTSBURGH
On Saturday, the Youngstown State football team proved once again it can go toe-to-toe with a Power Five conference team in September.
It also showed that it has some work to do to beat the best from the Missouri Valley in November.
“I think we saw this team has the potential to be very good,” said Penguins coach Bo Pelini following a 45-37 loss to Pitt at Heinz Field. “But we can’t be our own worst enemy, which we were at times.”
The game was pitted as a matchup of two Mahoning Valley defensive specialists — Pelini (Cardinal Mooney) and Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi (Ursuline) — but it became a battle of big plays, with the Penguins answering every time it looked like the Panthers were ready to pull away.
And while the Penguins couldn’t pull off a repeat of their 2012 upset at Heinz Field, they made the last few minutes plenty interesting.
After YSU running back Jody Webb broke off a 75-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to eight with 4:24 remaining, Pitt lined up expecting an onside kick, allowing the Penguins to kick deep and pin the Panthers at their own 7.
YSU’s defense then forced a three-and-out, taking over at the Pitt 46 with 3:01 left. But YSU gained just 2 yards on the next four plays — a 2-yard pass, followed by three incompletions — and by the time the Penguins got the ball back, they were at their own 17 with 26 seconds left.
“We showed we can play with a lot of people from this game,” said YSU cornerback LeRoy Alexander, a transfer from Nebraska who had two interceptions, returning one for a 41-yard touchdown. “We’re fighters. All 60 minutes we’re going to play. We’re not going to let somebody run over us.”
Sophomore QB Hunter Wells had a so-so performance, completing 19 of 38 passes for 274 yards and a touchdown in his first game against an FBS school. (Dante Nania started last year’s opening loss at Illinois.) While some of his struggles were protection-related — he was sacked five times and faced almost constant pressure — he admitted he also missed some throws/reads.
“If I had played better, we probably could have had 14 more points,” Wells said. “It’s on me. I’m gonna take responsibility for that and I’m gonna get better.”
Webb, who filled in for starter Martin Ruiz after he went down with a thigh bruise in the second quarter, carried 17 times for 142 yards and two touchdowns, but the speedy 5-foot-9, 170-pounder couldn’t match Ruiz’s strength between the tackles. Most notably, he got stuffed on a fourth-and-1 at the Pitt 45 early in the fourth quarter. On the next play, Panthers QB Chad Voytik threw a deep touchdown to Scott Orndorff that gave Pitt a 38-23 lead.
“Let’s face it, you don’t deserve to win a football game if you can’t get fourth and a half-yard,” Pelini said. “We need to fix that because there’s no excuse for that.”
Pitt’s other crushing play came with 38 seconds left in the first half when Panthers returner Avonte Maddox picked up a fumbled kick return and raced 89 yards for the touchdown, immediately swinging the momentum back to Pitt after Alexander’s interception return and making it 24-13 at halftime.
“The kick return was ridiculous,” Pelini said.
Pitt also dominated the line of scrimmage, overcoming a knee injury by standout RB James Conner (who carried eight times for 77 yards and two TDs before leaving the game) and suspended WR Tyler Boyd (a preseason All-American) by turning to freshman RB Qadree Ollison, who carried 16 times for 207 yards and broke off a 71-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter.
“There are pretty wins and ugly wins,” said Narduzzi, who played one year at YSU under his father, Bill Narduzzi. “Today’s win was probably somewhere in between.”
The same is true of losses. Over the last five years, YSU has gone from a program happy to score a touchdown in a money game to being angry over an eight-point loss. That started with Eric Wolford. It continues with Pelini.
“There are no moral victories,” Pelini said. “That doesn’t exist in my world. We were capable of winning that football game, I fully expected to win that football game and it didn’t happen.
“Now it’s on to the next one.”