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Townsend lifts Penguins over Sycamores
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown State football team’s four drives in Saturday’s second half led to two punts and two missed field goals. Trailing by four points, junior Darien Townsend knew something had to change.
Indiana State punter Thomas Bouldin launched a 62-yard punt that Townsend barely kept in bounds. About 30 yards later when he reached midfield he was surrounded by nearly all his teammates and easily ran the punt back for a 79-yard touchdown.
It was all YSU (6-2, 4-1 Missouri Valley Football Conference) would need in the second half. The Penguins came from behind to win 13-10 over the Sycamores (4-5, 2-4).
“I saw a lot of great blocks,” Townsend said. “I saw one jersey and he was getting blocked so I knew we were getting out of there.”
YSU’s defense made life miserable for Sycamores quarterback Isaac Harker in their final drive. Defensive end Avery Moss had back-to-back sacks for an exclamation point on another dominant defensive performance.
“It was a close game and I’m terrified of losing,” Moss said. “I want us to keep this roll we’re on this year.”
Harker came into the game averaging 292 yards per game and YSU limited him to 148 yards, intercepting two passes. Harker had thrown just five interceptions in the team’s first eight games.
“The defense played very well,” YSU head coach Bo Pelini said. “I didn’t think we played well early. We were a little sloppy and we get better as the game went on.”
The Sycamores were able to drive down the field on their first possession 72 yards before having to settle for a field goal. Quarterback Hunter Wells threw an interception that led to a touchdown near the end of the first quarter. But after that, the Penguins’ defense shut out the Sycamores.
Wells made his first start of the season. He was the last of YSU’s four quarterbacks to see the field this year. Ricky Davis sat out with concussion like symptoms. Pelini said Davis would be back practicing on Monday.
Wells completed 13 of 26 passes for 101 yards, throwing two interceptions early.
“Hunter was fine,” Pelini said. “He made those two errors, but overall I thought he did some really good things.
“He was going to be a little rusty but I thought he played well.”
Martin Ruiz did his job and then some. He racked up 151 yards, averaging 6.9 yards per attempt.
Ruiz was a big part of the reason why the Penguins racked up 12 first downs on the ground, but the team still had issues scoring touchdowns in the red zone. YSU was 2-for-4 on red zone chances with two field goals.
“Between the 20s, I thought we moved the ball up and down the field,” Pelini said. “We didn’t execute [in the red zone]. We have to execute when we get down there and we’ve got to score some touchdowns.”
Next up for the Penguins is a trip to Fargo, N.D., for a road game against defending national champion North Dakota State.
While Moss was pleased with the way his defense played in the second half, he thinks they’ll have to play even better to extend their winning street.
“We still got a lot of stuff to work on,” Moss said. “I had some missed assignments I wish I could have back. We have to play two halves of the game against North Dakota State because you can’t play just one [solid] half against them.”