In recent weeks, Eric Wolford has defended his young team through the bad times, while also assuring everyone that the season was not over and that this team was going to get better, contend, and live up to the standard of winning championships. Youngstown State took another big step or two in the right direction by blasting Western Illinois, 56-14.  The Homecoming win puts the Penguins in a position to climb back into the polls with some momentum as they prepare for Northern Iowa.

“Good day for all of the Penguins”, said Coach Eric Wolford.  ” We are getting people to focus on a consistent basis.  We are a stong running team, so there is some opportunity for play-action passes.  We are only a year and a half into this thing.”

“This football team is a work in progress, and when we focus, we can do it.  It was exciting to see four quarters of football and play all three phases of the game this year.  If we are going to make a run, we have to do it now.”

A pattern had developed a few weeks into the season where the offense was scoring a lot of points, but the defense had given up more than the offense could produce a couple of times.  This young defense is really turning the corner and the offense has somehow gotten even better than they were. The Penguins dominated the Leathernecks on both sides of the ball, playing their most consistent football of the season.  The score does not reflect the parity of a tough Missouri Valley Football Conference where teams can jump up and beat the other on any given week.

Youngstown State struck early and often in the first half.  On the first play from scrimmage, Kurt Hess threw a perfect deep ball to Christian Bryan on a skinny post route.  Bryan was a good ten yards behind the defense and the perfect pass from Hess, which traveled about 40 yards before landing in Bryan’s arms, yielded the opening score in a real hurry.  Hess had two more touchdowns in the opening half, a 69-yarder to Jelani Berassa (above) to end the first quarter, and a 17-yard strike to Kevin Watts.  Hess also ran for a score and added another TD pass in the second half to round out his shortened day.

Hess reflected on the win.  “It starts in the trenches, and our offensive line performed very well today.  The defense created some turnovers and offensively, we appreciate that, and we were not going to let ourselves fail to take advantage of those situations.”

Jamaine Cook always punches his card and goes to work for Shane Montgomery‘s high powered offense.  Cook broke the 1,000-yard barrier in the first half.  He also scored the two first half touchdowns to round out the scoring as the Penguins took a 42-0 lead into the locker room.  Just in the first half, Cook had 111 yards on 16 rushes, he also caught a couple of passes for 19 yards.  Hess and Cook, two captains, have produced week in and week out for Youngstown State.

Defensively, the Penguins were chaotic and disruptive and never allowed the Leathernecks to get into a rhythm, keeping them off of the scoreboard until there was 5:21 left in the third quarter.  Aronde Stanton (above), played a solid game at noseman for the second week in a row.  Stanton had an interception to set up a Penguin score in the second quarter.  The entire defense just looked good.  The secondary created chances for the line to pressure WIU quarterback, Josh Hudson, all day.  In return, the line did a pretty solid job against the run and did all of the little things right.

“When we get turnovers like that, it creates chances for our offense”, remarked Daniel Stewart after the game.  “We are starting to finish games and are consistently getting better.  We have a big challenge ahead of us next week.”

YSU, which has not lost at home to Western Illinois since 2003, scored more than 28 points for the seventh consecutive game.  The win also marked a halt to losing Homecoming games.  Prior to this victory, the Penguins had lost five straight Homecoming contests, but this win boosts their all-time record to 48-21-1 on such games.

Hess, who only went one drive into the second half, finished the game 7-10 passing for 209 yards and three touchdowns.  He also ran one in.  Cook (above) finished with 111 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 17 rushes.  Bryan and Berassa only caught a ball each, both touchdowns, 70, and 69 yards respectively. Marc Kanetsky found Ely Ducatel for an 11-yard touchdown in the third quarter, a rare senior-to-senior hookup. Kintrell Disher also scored his first career touchdown as a Penguin. Daniel Stewart recorded five unassisted tackles, including one for a loss.

“All of the guys on defense have made significant improvement”, said Wolford.  “A lot of times when you are a young person, you don’t understand the sense of urgency or focusing on ‘now’.  We have confidence that we can play with anyone on our schedule. Northern Iowa is a good football team, very well coached.”

The Penguins (5-3, 3-2) head west next week to take on Northern Iowa, the #2 FCS-ranked school going into this week.  The Penguins have not beaten Northern Iowa in their last ten meetings and look to bolster their playoff hopes with a big road win. Don’t be surprised to see YSU ranked this week in the new FCS poll.