Archive for April, 2011

With the Red-White game just a week away, the Youngstown State Penguins hit the field for their last controlled scrimmage heading into the final week of April practices.  Coach Eric Wolford knows that there is plenty to be done, but was ultimately satisfied with the effort put forth by the team on Saturday.

“I was encouraged by the defense when we were doing third down situations the first time up”, said Wolford.  “At the end of the scrimmage, we created the Western Illinois game again.  There are four minutes left on the clock, and the offense tries to eat up the time on the clock by staying in bounds and taking care of the football.  We ended up popping a big run that put us up by ten points there.  Those are the two things that stick out as positives right now.”

From a statistical standpoint, Pat White (above) had the big day catching 10 passes for 206 yards and five touchdowns.  White hauled in a 70-yarder from Marc Kanetsky. White would also hook up with Kanetsky for touchdowns of 20 and 8 yards.  Najee Tyler found White for a 49-yard score, and Patrick Angle would also find White in the end zone from 21 yards out for six.

White commented on his big day.  “We are going to keep trying to get better every day.  I just made plays I am expected to make and didn’t know I had that many yards.  I’m gonna try to do my thing no matter who is front of me.  Coach commented that we took a step forward today, and that felt good.  We only had five receivers out there.”

Unfortunately, there were still plenty of dropped balls to force receivers coach, Andre Coleman (above) to rub his head a few times.

Wolford commented that the drops are still there and they need to stop.  “Pat White made some nice plays today, but we need to find some consistency with him.  We know we have a pretty good running game.  At receiver, we saw some positive things today, but we need to become more consistent.”

Kanetsky led the quarterbacks on the stats sheets.  The Hubbard, Ohio grad completed 15-17 passes for 241 yards and four touchdowns.  Starter Kurt Hess was 13-26 for 164 yards and one touchdown.

Jamaine Cook also had a pretty big day getting 17 touches for 170 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

With just a week of Spring practice left, the Penguins are focusing on consistency and situations that they got beat in last season.  The Spring game will start at noon on Saturday.  Kelly Pavlik, Tim Ryan, and Jay Williams have already been confirmed as honorary coaches for the event.

The Youngstown Phantoms (23-30-7,53 pts) did their part by winning their last two games of the season, but unfortunately Waterloo also picked up a win which has eliminated the Phantoms from the playoff picture. On Fan Appreciation Night, the Phantoms defeated the Chicago Steel (9-43-8,26 pts) 8-2 and they were led by Ryan Belonger who recorded the second Phantoms hat trick in as many nights.

Danny Mattson and the Phantoms got on the board first with ten minutes left in the first period after Mattson put a rebound shot past Chicago netminder Connor Wilson to give the Phantoms the early lead. It did not take the Steel long to answer when Joel Benson put a wrist shot in the back of the net to tie the game up at one just two minutes later. After the Benson goal, the Phantoms took control of the game for good. Dylan Margonari scored once and Belonger scored twice for the Phantoms to close out the first period. Youngstown took a 4-1 lead into the first intermission.

“Our guys played well and it was nice to see them get rewarded for their hard work,” said Phantoms head coach Curtis Carr. “We said the whole way that we need to win these two games to give ourselves a chance and unfortunately it just did not work out for us.”

In the second period, only two goals would find the back of the net.  Ben Paulides, who has been pushing for a goal this whole season, found the back of the net with a slap shot from the point that beat Wilson low on his glove side.  The Steel would come back :44 later and cut the lead back down to three goals as Aiden Cavallini scored on a rebound in front of the Phantoms crease. The Phantoms went into the second intermission leading Chicago 5-2.

In the third period, the Phantoms would add three more goals to bring their total to eight.  Chris Bradley scored his first of the night with a slap shot from the point and Margonari would score the Phantoms third power play goal of the game but both would be out done by number 16. Belonger tipped a Justin Stevens slap shot past Colin Brennan to secure his first career hat trick and the Phantoms second trick in as many nights.

“I felt like I was one uped by Ambrosia last night,” said Belonger. “I felt like I had to get him back, he had his three, so I felt like I needed to get my three.”

Unfortunately for the Phantoms, their hard work and scoring prowess will still leave them just shy of the playoff after Waterloo defeated the Dubuque Fighting Saints 2-1. Even in defeat there are still positive lessons for both the returning and graduating Phantoms to take with them as they depart for the summer.

A day after the Youngstown State baseball team was beaten 15-1, a pair of Phil’s helped the Penguins respond with a doubleheader sweep of Butler on Saturday afternoon and win the series.

Starting pitcher Phil Klein won his fourth straight start in game one of the double dip and led YSU to a 5-1 victory.  Phil Lipari‘s walk-off single in the ninth capped a series of late heroics in game two as YSU won 4-3.

The pair of wins improved YSU’s Horizon League record to 3-3, and Butler dropped to 4-5 with the pair of defeats.

“I’m happy for our guys because we showed a lot of character to come back and win two today after how we lost last night,” YSU head coach Rich Pasquale said.  “It was a long day mentally and physically, and for us to win in the last at bat was awesome.”

After Klein allowed one unearned run on four hits in seven innings in game one, the Penguins had to rally from a three-run deficit in game two.

In the second game, Lipari (top photo) had a game-high three hits, and four of his teammates added two hits apiece.

“Klein is putting us on his back, and we’re going with him,” Pasquale said. “He located his fastball tremendously well, and he was dominant for us again against a team that had 18 hits last night.”

Klein struck out 10 batters in his seven innings. He became the seventh player in school history to strike out at least 200 batters over a career.

As an unofficial end point to Spring Football at Youngstown State University, a pancake breakfast is offered to the public to raise money for a good cause.  Head Coach Eric Wolford and his wife are the founders of a charity called No Stone Unturned.  The charity helps families who have had problems financially and fallen victim to the crazy healthcare situations.

Wolford, speaking on the breakfast, commented, “We expect a big turnout and there are a lot of people helping with it.  It is going to be a big day.  Players and many other people will be there helping out.”

The breakfast itself starts at 9 a.m. at Mt Carmel Hall in Youngstown.

Wolford credits his wife for much of the organization of these type of functions.  He says it is their way to “pay ahead” and help people who have children with disabilities continue to provide for their families and not spend every cent they have on medical bills.

 Youngstown State men’s basketball Head Coach Jerry Slocum will be a featured guest today on SportsCenter at 4:30 p.m. on ESPNews.

Slocum has been a highly-requested guest of the national sports media recently due to the Guins being the last team to defeat Butler, who is playing in its second straight national championship game.

Last Saturday at the Final Four in Houston, Texas, Slocum was a guest on FoxSports Radio’s “Game Time Show” with Anthony Gargano, Lincoln Kennedy and Jeff Goodman.

To say that Eric Ryan is ambitious would be an understatement.  Ryan has lured some major events to the Covelli Centre in the past couple of years and the hits keep coming.

Ryan and staff have already booked national acts like the Goo Goo Dolls, Motley Crue, Poison, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Tim McGraw for the upcoming concert attractions at the center.  Pretty gaudy list of musicians there.

Last year, Ryan convinced the powers that be that Elton John should come to Youngstown, and he did.  He also managed to sneak Journey and Heart into town and Styx, Night Ranger, and REO Speedwagon stopped by later.

Think about it, these national acts don’t call smaller venues seeking a few locals.  They are playing here because Ryan and his very capable promotion team are convincing the acts that they will be well received.  Props to Kenny Bigley, Jon Jacubec, and everyone else involved who makes these seemingly unrealistic chances possible for the concert starved Mahoning Valley.

The most likable thing about Ryan is that he takes great pride in what he has achieved.  He is still a very humble guy who always says hello regardless of how busy he is.  I don’t know what else is out there that hasn’t come through Youngstown yet, but I can assure you that Ryan will get the big acts as long as he is in power.

To caption the picture at the risk of sounding quirky, action kicked off for the Youngstown State University football team Saturday afternoon at Stambaugh Stadium. These scrimmages are hard to gauge where a team truly is.  If the offense scores a ton of points, the defense looks really bad.  If the offense struggles, then it was a great defensive performance, but a lousy job on offense.

The Penguins had some series with the first team units facing off, or as Coach Eric Wolford would say,  the ones against the ones.  The worry coming into scrimmage play was the wide receiver position where drops have been a problem since Spring ball started.

“We need someone to step up as we continue dropping the ball.  The receivers will have to catch 20 balls for every one they drop to get used to a ball thrown harder than what they were used to in high school”, vowed Wolford.  “David Rogers, however, is having a great camp.  He has really stepped it up and looked good so far at tight end.”

The other problem that the Penguins are facing is depth.  There were a good chunk of players not suited up due to injuries.  Many are starters, mostly on defense.

“Hopefully Monday, we are going to get some guys back.  Will [Shaw] and Deonta [Tate] should be ready to go.  John Sasson should be ok, I think he tweaked his hamstring out there in the middle of the scrimmage today.  We will also get Deionte Williams and Donald D’Alesio back in to get some repetitions at practice”, remarked Wolford.

Allen Jones had a couple of nice runs for the offense including a big 65-yard jaunt.  Kurt Hess hooked up with Juilian Harrell for a couple of scores and Hess even showed his mobility on a 20-yard run for another score.  Najee Tyler connected with Pat White for a 20-yard score (above).  Tyler was picked off  in the scrimmage by free safety Justin Austin.  Adaris Bellamy scored a two-yard touchdown to round out the offensive production.

Defensively, it was nice to see Taylor Hill back on the field making plays for the defense.  Hill stuffed Torrian Pace on a third-and-one play forcing a field goal from David Brown. Brown missed a field goal earlier in the scrimmage to which Wolford stated, “He has never kicked on a field with a crown, he needs to get used to not kicking on a flat field.”

Spring practice resumed Monday and a second scrimmage will take place this coming Saturday leading up to the Red-White Game on Saturday, April 16.  Tickets and tailgate passes are on sale for the big Spring game.  Tailgate passes are available on a presale basis only and can be purchased by calling the YSU Ticket Office at (330) 941-1978.  Only 200 passes are being sold and over 100 are gone, so act quickly to tailgate from 8 a.m. to noon.  The game starts at 12:05 and game tickets can be purchased for $5 apiece.  All tickets are general admission on the home side of the Ice Castle.

Youngstown State senior pitcher Phil Klein won his third straight start and got plenty of offensive help to lead the Penguins to a doubleheader split at Le Moyne on Saturday.

Klein, who has allowed five earned runs in the last 27 innings, allowed one run on five hits in posting the seven-inning complete game. The Penguins won Klein’s start 5-1 in game two but fell 8-4 in game one.

“Phil was dominant today,” YSU head coach Rich Pasquale said. “He worked ahead and stayed ahead of hitters all day. We played well defensively behind him, and we had a much better approach at the plate in game two than we did in game one.”

Klein did not allow a hit until there were two outs in the third, and three of Le Moyne’s five hits came consecutively in the seventh inning.

The Penguins gave Klein all the help he would need in the top of the third when they scored three runs on five hits and an error to go up 3-0. YSU had five straight hits in the inning, and all three of its runs scored after there were two outs. After Armani Johnson was thrown out at the plate for the second out of the inning, Joe Iacobucci singled in Padraic Williams for the game’s first run. Greg Dissinger then singled in Iascobucci, and Dan Hurlimann drove in Jeremy Banks.

Dissinger singled in Iacobucci, and Banks scored on a passed ball in the fifth to give Klein a 5-0 cushion.

The Dolphins’ lone run came with two outs in the seventh when Ryan Mahoney singled, stole second and scored on Kody O’Connor’s single.

Iacobucci was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, and Dissinger was 3-for-4 with two RBIs.

In the early game, Le Moyne built a 4-0 lead and through four innings and matched the Penguins the rest of the way in an 8-4 victory.

Mahoney hit a solo homer in the second to give Le Moyne a 1-0 lead, and the Dolphins scored twice in the third. O’Conner’s solo blast in the fourth made the score 4-0.

Williams brought in Johnson with an RBI groundout for YSU in the top of the fifth, but Le Moyne equaled that with a run in the bottom half.

The Penguins mounted a rally with three runs in the sixth, but the Dolphins scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to maintain their four-run edge. In YSU’s half, Craig Goubeaux drew a bases loaded walk, Johnson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and Phil Lipari singled in a run.

YSU starter Kevin McCulloh allowed six earned runs on 12 hits while striking out three in 5.1 innings. Reliever Blake Aquadro allowed one run on four hits in 2.2 innings.

Le Moyne’s Mark Kuzma earned the win despite allowing four runs on four hits and five walks in 5.1 innings. Reliever Casey Cannon surrendered two hits and struck out six in 3.2 innings to earn the save.

Johnson had two of YSU’s six hits in the opener. Pat Wiese and Don Schaaf had four hits apiece for Le Moyne, which posted 16 hits as a team.