Somewhere around 3 p.m., Missouri State scored their second touchdown of the third quarter to cut Youngstown State‘s lead to 27-24.  At the same time, Northern Iowa had just kicked a field goal to force overtime at the end of regulation against Illinois State.  YSU, meanwhile, was trying to take care of business, knowing that if they could not beat Missouri State, something they had not been able to do for the past several seasons, the outcome of any other games would not matter.  The Penguins seemed to have control of the game until they gave up some big plays in the last minute, to fall, 38-34, to Missouri State.

“We got two first downs, but we needed three”, said Kurt Hess.  “This is rough, it was an emotional game.  It hurts, but I hope that we can learn from it and that it will make the team better.  I don’t think it was a successful season because the goal was to live up to a standard of making the playoffs and winning championships, and we failed to do that.  Pain is pain.  Last year we got used to losing like this every week .  This year we got on a roll and played with more confidence, it is different, but again, pain is pain.”

Early on, the Penguins marched 80 yards in 11 plays to grab a 7-0 lead.  Linebacker-turned-TE, Will Shaw caught a pass from Kurt Hess for a ten-yard score.  The game opening drive took 6:29 and the Penguins established the fact that they were ready to play, no flat start this week.

Trevor Wooden and Missouri State seemed up to the challenge as they retaliated with a 61 yard drive that tok eight plays.  Wooden, who was a force to be reckoned with all day, started his havoc through the air finding Cadarrius Dotson for a 16-yard strike to tie the contest.  The Penguins struck back quick as Hess found Shaw again, this time on a 52-yard hookup with a post pattern.  At the end of the first quarter, Youngstown State led 14-7.

After the Bears got a 29-yard field goal from Austin Wittmer, the ‘Guins went back to work.  A drive that lasted six plays and went 54 yards was punctuated by a Hess-to-Christian Bryan score on an 18 yard play.  With the score, the Penguins went ahead 20-10.  After an interception by Jeremy Edwards set YSU up in Southern Missouri territory again.  The opportunistic Penguins took advantage of the situation and punched another score in just before halftime.  Hess threw his fourth touchdown of the half, this time finding Jelani Berassa for a twelve-yard completion to make it 27-10.

In the second half, Missouri State proved they would not go away without a fight.  Wooden took the game over from his quarterback position and kept running for positive yards, first downs, and eventually two touchdowns (45, 3) to pull the Bears back into the game at 27-24.

At 3:20 p.m., Hess threw his fifth touchdown of the game, a school record for touchdowns in a game, finding Kevin Watts for a five-yard touchdown.  Hess also set a record for touchdowns in a season with 26.  He joined Mark Brungard and Trenton Lykes as the only quarterbacks to throw for more than 2,000 yards in a season, twice. It also marked the 13th time in 22 career starts that Hess had thrown for over 200 yards in a game.  Heckler note:  Sophomore Captain?  Answer:  All day…

At 3:31 p.m., Northern Iowa defeated Illinois State, 23-20 in 2 OT, meaning with a win, Youngstown State had better odds of making the postseason FCS Playoffs.  However, at 3:33 p.m., Missouri State scored a touchdown to shrink the Penguins lead to 34-31 with 6:28 left in the game.

With the Penguins taking over the next possession at their own 31, something Eric Wolford had wanted to see happen all year sort of took place.  The offense set out to finish the game by running the ball, chewing the clock, and ending things.  After two first downs, the Penguins were forced to punt.  Missouri State went to block the punt, narrowly missing, but the return set them up on their own 40.  In two plays, the Bears got to YSU’s 36 with 1:32 to go in the game.  A second-and-one, and a third-and-one, both failed to produce a first down.  On fourth down, Wooden snuck around left end for the first down.

After an incompletion, with :25 left in the game, Wooden found Robert Fields at the two yard line with :18 remaining for a 30-yard completion.  With ten seconds left in the game, Wooden found Dotson on a corner fade, and the Bears stunned everyone with their fourth touchdown of the second half to take a 41-37 lead with ten seconds left.  YSU got the ball back and ran two plays but were unable to score and ultimately fell, thus ending their playoff hopes.

“It was the worst loss I have ever experienced in my football career”, said DL Andrew Johnson.  “We did not take them lightly, and they didn’t do anything different in the second half.  We should have won, and we should be in the playoffs right now.  It was not a successful season because we did not accomplish our goals.”

Eric Wolford (above), in his second season with the Penguins, had plenty to say after the game.

“We did not deserve to win this game today.  We committed several foolish penalties and our kickoff and punt coverages were atrocious.”

“It’s tough for the seniors to go out like this”, said Wolford.  “A lot of them [the seniors] really didn’t even play that much, but they were always supporting whoever was playing. We have grown to some extent.  We need more consistency.  The games we have lost, we are losing by what – three, four points.  We are in the games and are competitive, now we have to be able to handle the pressure at crunch time.”

Give Wolford and these players credit.  Some wrote them off five weeks ago when they sat at 2-3.  To pretty much control your own destiny after defeating the #1 ranked team says a lot about a couple of things Wolford has stressed – character and dealing with adversity.  Congratulations Penguins on a very exciting season.  Good luck seniors in whatever path life may take you.