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Big plays lead YSU over Jacksonville State
YSU vs Jacksonville State
Gallery
jacksonville, ala.
This isn’t the same Youngstown State football team that was struggling to score offensive touchdowns like it was earlier in the year against Indiana State and Northern Iowa.
YSU (10-3) exploded for a 40-24 win over Jacksonville State (10-2) in the second round of the FCS playoffs and a berth in the quarterfinals against Wofford, which upset sixth-seeded The Citadel 17-3 on Saturday night.
Late Saturday night, it was announced that the Penguins would host the Terriers at 2 p.m. Saturday at Stambaugh Stadium. Since neither YSU nor Wofford was seeded, either team could have hosted the quarterfinal. Had The Citadel won, YSU would have traveled for a second straight week.
Quarterback Hunter Wells and his receivers, namely Damoun Patterson and Darien Townsend, torched the highly touted Jacksonville State defense early and often. Wells completed 10 of 18 passes for 290 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.
The Penguins came into the game averaging only 156.7 yards per game through the air but with YSU head coach Bo Pelini believing JSU would stack the box and allow his receivers to get one-on-one matchups all night, the game plan became, “Let it rip.”
“I knew if they were going to put that many guys at the line of scrimmage that we wanted to create some conflicts,” Pelini said. “We thought if you were going to be that aggressive at the line of scrimmage, we were going to take our shots.”
Pelini showed his hand early when Wells hit Patterson for a 70-yard touchdown pass on YSU’s second play from scrimmage and the Penguins were up 7-0 less than five minutes into the game.
That lead swelled to 17-7 after the first quarter, but Jacksonville State came back and YSU took a 20-17 lead into the locker room.
YSU was having success moving the ball but was having issues finishing drive. A first-and-goal at the 5 after an 85-yard pass from Wells to Townsend turned into fourth-and-goal from the 21 and the Penguins had to settle for a field goal.
“The message [at halftime] was to finish,” YSU running back Jody Webb said. “We had to find a way to put points on the board. We had to get it into the end zone.”
Part of that success came from the job the YSU defense did supressing the threat of Jacksonville State quarterback Eli Jenkins. While Jenkins was able to rush for 189 yards, he was largely ineffective through the air, completing just 6 of 26 passes and throwing two interceptions late in the game.
“[YSU] took away the middle of the field and made me think a little bit more than I would’ve thought,” Jenkins said.
Linebacker Lee Wright, who started his first game of the season, said once the defense was able to make Jenkins more one-dimensional, the game simplified for them.
“Eli was a big part of the offense and once we stopped him it kind of got easier for us as the game went,” Wright said.
YSU outscored the Gamecocks 20-7 in the second half behind big runs, including Webb’s 50-yard touchdown 57 seconds into the second half that turned a 20-17 lead back to a 10-point game. Martin Ruiz added an 8-yard TD run to again make it a two-score game.
Webb finished with 140 yards and two touchdowns while Ruiz finished with 63 and a TD,
An interception by D.J. Thomas at the JSU 21 with YSU holding a 37-24 lead with 7:21 to play effectively sealed the game. The Gamecocks could only watch as the Penguins’ offense ate up clock to close it out.
JSU linebacker Quan Stoudemire said they weren’t surprised YSU threw the ball as much as they did, even if it was atypical.
“At the end of the day we just didn’t make the plays we were supposed to,” Stoudemire said. “We didn’t come out and dominate like we did the whole season.”
injury update
YSU defensie end Johnson Louigene was carted off the field in the fourth quarter on a stretcher with an apparent neck injury. He was taken to a local hospital and was released following x-rays.