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Less than 24 hours after the Youngstown Phantoms handed defending champion Dubuque a 5-2 setback, the Fighting Saints returned the favor.  The Phantoms trailed 4-0 but fought back to make it 4-3 but never got closer.  Sam Anas had a pair of goals for the Phantoms in defeat.  Tyler Lundey also tallied twice for the visiting Dubuque team.

John Doherty got Dubuque on the board when he knocked the puck in for the third time this season.  Doherty was assisted by Mike Matheson on the opening goal that came 8:33 into the first period.  The Fighting Saints picked up another goal before the end of the period. Eliot Grauer got his first goal of the season with 1:30 left in the first to put Dubuque ahead, 2-0.

The second period saw the Fighting Saints put up a couple more goals to take a 4-0 lead.  Tyler Lundy connected twice for the visitors to notch his fifth and six goals of the season.  The first goal came at even-strength and the second was with a man advantage.

At that point, something kicked in for the Phantoms, namely Sam Anas.  Anas helped the Phantom get back into the game with his third and fourth goals of the year. Both of the goals scored by Anas were on powerplay chances, a department the Phantoms have really been struggling with.  Before the first Phantoms goal, the home team was 0-29 in their most recent powerplay drought. J T Stenglein and Richard Zehnal picked up assists on the first score.  Anas connected from a bad angle, something he has been pretty proficient with, unassisted to cut the score to 4-2 at the end of the second period.

Sean Romeo (above) got a start because Matt O’Connor was between the pipes in both, the Friday and Saturday games.  Romeo struggled at times but stopped some good shots by Dubuque to keep it close.  A three game stretch in three days is tough for a young team to perform at the USHL high-level brand of hockey.

In the third period, the Phantoms nudged closer when Stenglein picked off a pass and scored a shorthanded goal 7:34 into the final stanza.  Dubuque watched a 4-0 lead go to 4-3 with over ten minutes left in the game and the result still hanging in the balance. The Fighting Saints were whistled with 3:37 left in the game for slashing.  Unfortunately, the Phantoms only got one good shot, whereas the Fighting Saints took two.

The Phantoms were right there, one would get the feeling if there were three minutes extra to play, that they somehow would have found a way.  With the win, Dubuque raised its record to 9-3-1.  The Phantoms fell to 8-5-0 and showed a whole bunch of heart in the loss.  Many teams fold up the tent and switch everything.  Credit Anthony Noreen for sticking to his guns, as it almost paid off tonight.

“We did not play 60 minutes tonight, we only played about 40”, said Noreen.  “The first twenty minutes we did not play to our standards.  I told the team not to pay attention to the scoreboard and they were able to get back in the game.  In years past, this game may have ended up 9-0 instead of 4-3 because there would have been some pouting and they would not have stay focused.”

Without their best defenseman, Chris Bradley, and their leading scorer, Austin Cangelosi, away at a World Junior Tournament, give Noreen and the boys credit for being so competitive.  Both Bradley and Cangelosi scored goals for Team USA earlier in the day and Noreen surely could have used the points in Youngstown.

“The thing I liked about our powerplay tonight was that things just seemed more urgent”, commented the coach.  “I want our powerplay to go out there and outwork the penalty kill.  ‘Want’ to get to the net, ‘want’ to score goals.  There are a lot of teams in this league that we could hit that probably would not hit back.  That team [Dubuque] is the most skilled team in the league, but they are also one of the most physical.  I thought our physical play, for playing our third game in three days with a shortened lineup, was impressive.”

Youngstown State sophomore quarterback Kurt Hess (Dayton, Ohio) was named the Missouri Valley Football Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week while junior placekicker David Brown (Ojai, Calif.) was tabbed the Special Teams Player of the Week, the league announced on Sunday.

Hess completed 20-of-24 passes for 237 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for another in the Penguins upset win over No. 1 ranked North Dakota State. Hess threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jelani Berassa in the second quarter before his one-yard score with 17 seconds left before the end of the first half pulled YSU within 21-17 at the break. In the second half, he threw a 10-yard scoring toss to Jamaine Cook to give YSU a 24-21 lead.

It was the second weekly honor for Hess this year who was named the league’s Offensive Player of the Week following wins over Illinois State.

Brown had a career-high two field goals made, including the game winner as the Penguins upset top-ranked North Dakota State. Brown made a 33-yard field goal in the first quarter and drilled a 30-yard kick in the third quarter which put YSU on top 27-24. That second field goal proved to be the difference in the game. Brown also made all three of his extra-point tries in the Fargodome.

South Dakota State cornerback Winston Wright was named the Defensive Player of the Week while Southern Illinois running back Jewel Hampton was named the Newcomer of the Week.

The Penguins close out the regular season on Saturday when they play host to Missouri State. Kickoff at Stambaugh Stadium is set for 1 p.m.

The Youngstown State women’s basketball team had its highest offensive output since the 2007-08 season and held off a late charge in a 91-81 at IPFW on Sunday afternoon at the Gates Sports Complex.

Brandi Brown scored 18 of her 22 points in the second half, and Kenya Middlebrooks had 17 of her 21 in the first half for YSU, which improved to 1-1 for the season. Heidi Schlegel added 17 points, which shot 51.8 percent from the field.  YSU last scored in the nineties when it had 92 points at Valparaiso on Jan. 31, 2008.

The Penguins led by as many as 24 points with 10-and-a-half minutes remaining, but IPFW made a late run to make the final score close. Although YSU led by double digits the entire second half, a jumper by IPFW’s Anne Boese cut the score to 73-61 with 5:46 to play. Boese then hit a trey with 2:55 left to make the score 82-72.  The Mastodons didn’t hit another field goal until the 1:09 mark, and YSU had upped its lead back to 13 by then.

Boese, who scored 20 points in the opener at Cincinnati on Friday, didn’t score her first points today until there was 18:45 left. She finished with 12 points, and Erin Murphy led the Mastodons with 21. IPFW was 23-for-26 from the free-throw line.

YSU led by 17 early in the second half, but two Hillary Moore free throws made the score 48-37 with 17:53remaining. The Penguins then went on a 19-6 run, capped by a Brown lay-up with 12:04 to play, to go up by 24.

Youngstown State built a 44-29 halftime lead behind 17-first half points from Middlebrooks. The junior guard was 6-for-9 from the field, including 4-for-6 from beyond the arc. She had nine points in less than a four-minute span as YSU went on a 10-0 run to gain separation.

IPFW’s last lead came when Rachel Mauk hit a layup to put the Mastodons up 7-4. Monica Touvelle hit a three to tie the score to spark a 7-0 run, and YSU never trailed again. A Middlebrooks try at the 9:11 mark capped a 10-0 run that gave YSU a 23-12 lead.

Moore’s free throw with 4:33 left made the score 32-23, but Liz Hornberger hit a triple on YSU’s next possession to push the score to 35-23. The margin was never single digits again.

Eleven of IPFW’s 29 points in the first half came from the free-throw line.

Five different Penguins shot better than 50 percent, and nine different Guins had at least one assist. Middlebrooks added five steals.

Youngstown State will wrap up its season-opening three-game road swing at Bucknell on Wednesday. Tipoff inLewisburg, Pa. is set for 7 p.m., and the game will be carried live on 570 WKBN.

Sophomore Kendrick Perry scored a career-high 28 points and led three other Penguins scoring in double figures to lead the Youngstown State men’s basketball team to a 76-69 victory over Samford (0-1) at the Pete Hanna Center on Saturday evening.

Junior Damian Eargle scored 17 points with eight rebounds and six blocks while junior Blake Allen had 12 points and senior Ashen Ward has 11 points and eight rebounds.

With the victory, the Penguins (1-0) won a road season opener for the first time since 2000.  The Guins  also turned in a strong second-half defensive effort limiting the Bulldogs to just 37.5 percent shooting from the floor, forcing eight turnovers and grabbing 14 defensive rebounds along with five blocks by Eargle.

For the game, the Guins forced 18 turnovers that lead to 22 points.  The Guins and Bulldogs played through 12 lead changes and seven ties until the Guins started to break away.

Tied at 49 with 8:35 left in the game, layups by Ward and sophomore Josh Chojnacki and another layup by Ward gave the Guins a 55-49 lead with 6:08 to go in the game.

The Guins built its largest lead at 12, 64-52, after a three-point play by Perry, but Samford did not go away.  The Bulldogs chipped the Guins lead down to five, 71-66, after a Raijon Kelly 3-pointer with 32 seconds left.  Two free throws by Allen and a steal and dunk by Perry pushed the lead back to nine, 75-66, with 16 seconds left to seal the game.

For the game, YSU shot 45 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range. The Guins also outscored the Bulldogs 26-16 in the paint.

A night after seeing their four-game home winning streak come to an end, the Youngstown Phantoms took the first step toward starting a new one against the defending Clark Cup champions, Dubuque.  JT Stenglein and Richard Zehnal led the way with a goal and an assist apiece and goaltender Matthew O’Connor turned away 19 of 21 shots as the Phantoms (8-4-0) came away with the 5-2 win over the Dubuque Fighting Saints Saturday night at the Covelli Centre.

The loss was the second in a row for the Fighting Saints (8-3-1), who came into the night allowing an average of just 1.81 goals a game. Brent Norris, Sam Anas and Dylan Margonari (empty net) also scored as the Phantoms improved to 5-1 at home this season.

“The difference tonight was instead of worrying about who we were playing, we played to our expectations,” Head Coach Anthony Noreen. “And we did it for 60 minutes.”

Zehnal (above) opened the scoring 8:18 into the first period with a slap shot from the point that made it past Dubuque goaltender Gabe Antoni, thanks in part to a screen from Pat Conte. Dubuque, however, came back to tie it a little more than six and a half minutes later when Max Gardiner punched the puck past O’Connor in a scrum in front of the Phantoms net.

It appeared both teams were destined to enter the first intermission tied, but with 1:35 remaining in the period, Dubuque turned it over just inside the blue line. Stenglein nabbed the puck, cut to the middle and let loose a snap shot to give the Phantoms the lead 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.

Norris, who was moved from center on the top line to wing on the fourth, put the Phantoms up two at the 15:14 mark in the second. The Ottawa, Ontario native refused to give up on a play, winning a battle in front of the net and muscling the puck into the goal.

“It wasn’t a demotion – more of a balancing of the lines,” Noreen said. “We knew against a very good, very deep Dubuque team we going to need four lines. He brought some offense that we needed. That was not a fourth line tonight.”

But Ray Siro was able to cut into the lead later in the second, scoring with 2:03 left to make it a one-goal game heading into the final period.

With a little more than five minutes remaining in regulation Anas got the puck at center ice and moved it to Zehnal on the left wing. The Czech Republic native toe-dragged around Dubuque defenseman Matthew Caito and let loose a quick shot. Antoni made the save but did not control the rebound, which kicked out into the slot, and a trailing Anas scooped it up and wristed it high to put the Phantoms up 4-2.

“It was just a little toe drag – a little lucky,” Zehanl said. “I just tried to get the shot off and Sam was there.”

With less than 10 seconds remaining and Dubuque’s net empty, Eric Sweetman knocked the puck off Mike Matheson’s stick at the point and it floated to center ice. It came down to a foot race for the puck that Margonari was not going to lose.

Youngstown State, playing their biggest game in years, finally came out on the right end of a close one.  Going into a hostile environment to face the #1 North Dakota State Bison, not many gave the Penguins a chance.  Happy to report, however, I predicted a four point win for the Penguins.  The end result was a tremendous 27-24 upset, boosting the Penguins playoff hopes, but more importantly, assuring everyone that Eric Wolford was not just saying that he had a good team that had to learn how to win – he actually does have a good team.  Lessons well taught.  In this game, it could easily be said that three is greater than zero.  The second field goal was actually the difference.

YSU marched into the red zone with the opening drive but had to settle for a David Brown 33-yard field goal.  When the Bison got the ball back, Sam Ojuri capped a three-play, 52 yard drive with a one yard touchdown run.  The Bison held a 7-3 lead at the end of the first quarter and YSU’s defense looked very ineffective in the entire first quarter.

Following a Kurt Hess interception, the Bison went up 14-3 as Ojuri again scored, this time from two yards away.  This scoring drive took only six plays and covered 40 yards in just under three minutes.  YSU took the next drive in for a touchdown to cut the lead to 14-10 in favor of NDSU.  Hess connected with Jelani Berassa from twelve yards out.

With just under two minutes left in the half, D J McNorton popped in another Bison touchdown on a two-yard run.  YSU did not finish out the half without getting back on the board.  Jordan Thompson broke a nice 38-yard run to get to the Bison two before Hess snuck in from a yard out to make the halftime score 21-17 in favor of the Bison.

Things got interesting in second half.  McNorton broke off a big run but fumbled the ball.  The opportunistic Penguins jumped on the ball for a big momentum swing.  The Penguins drove into the red zone and Hess found Jamaine Cook on a swing pass.  Cook caught the ball at around the nine and practically jumped over a would-be tackler to get in the end zone.

The Bison and the Penguins exchanged field goals.  Ryan Jastram kicked a 27-yarder to tie the game for the Bison.  Not to be outdone, Brown doubled his production for the entire season with a 30-yard field goal to give the Penguins a 27-24 lead that would last the entire game.

From that point, the YSU defense took over.  NDSU QB Brock Jensen faced huge pressure from YSU’s young defense.  Daniel Stewart brought serious heat more than once in the final three Bison possessions.  Aronde Stanton batted a ball down, Jimmy May played big, breaking up passes in the final drives, and the entire unit played awesome down the stretch.

Before this game, the Bison did not give up more than 24 points.  They never gave up more than 396 yards.  Youngstown State (6-4, 4-3) got by both of those marks.  Cook had 33 big carries for 147 yards.  Hess was 20-24 for 237 yards and more importantly, was able to lead the team by making great decisions at crucial times.  Berassa had 5 catches for 97 yards.

The Bison (9-1, 6-1) got 133 yards of passing from Jensen on 11-22 passing.  Ojuri, who had big success in the first half with long runs finished with 14 carries for 104 yards.

The Penguins wrap up the regular season at home next week against Missouri State.  If they will have any shot at a playoff spot, they will need to win convincingly.

** Photos courtesy of YSU Athletics / Trevor Parks

The Youngstown State women’s basketball team played well enough defensively but shot just 19.6 percent in a 69-37 loss at West Virginia in the 2011-12 season opener on Friday at the WVU Coliseum.

The Penguins trailed 26-15 at halftime because of a strong defensive effort that held the Mountaineers to 30-percent shooting. WVU shot 59.3 percent in the second half in outscoring the Guins 43-22 in the final 20 minutes.

WVU, which held a big size advantage, posted 12 blocks. Sophomore guard Taylor Palmer had 33 points on 12-of-23 shooting, including 8-for-16 from beyond the arc. The rest of the Mountaineers combined to go 0-for-10 from 3-point range.

Brandi Brown had 12 points and eight rebounds for Youngstown State but was just 3-for-15 from the field. Monica Touvelle, Heidi Schlegel and Melissa Thompson had five points apiece.

YSU dug itself a 13-0 hole until Touvelle’s 3-pointer with 12:50 remaining broke the scoreless stretch. WVU led by double digits until Macey Nortey scored on YSU’s first possession of the second half. That made the score 26-17, but WVU scored the next 10 points and held the Penguins scoreless until the 15:45 mark.

Youngstown State will stay in Morgantown tonight before heading to Fort Wayne, Ind., to play IPFW on Sunday.

The Youngstown Phantoms and Muskegon Lumberjacks do not like each other much.  In a very physical hockey game, the Phantoms battled hard, but came out on the wrong end of a 2-1 score.  Guy Fieri dropped the puck, but the Phantoms were unable to get much cooking offensively for most of the game.

Nobody scored in the first period and the Lumberjacks had the majority of the chances putting 15 shots on net compared to the Phantoms ten.  The Phantoms could not capitalize on a two-man advantage.  During the two-man advantage, the Phantoms hit the post, but the puck caromed the wrong way.

The Lumberjacks put a goal up with 16:43 to go in the second period.  Ryan Lomberg got his fourth goal of the season for the Lumberjacks.  Max Shuart was given an assist as Lomberg beat Matt O’Connor from close range.  The Phantoms had their fourth unsuccessful powerplay chance late in the second period, but came up empty.  With a man advantage, the Phantoms extended a drought of twenty-one straight penalty chances without a score.

“Our penalty killing units did well, but our powerplay was not very good tonight.  The powerplay should be a momentum swing and goals are a bonus.  We could not hold the momentum tonight”, said Coach Anthony Noreen.

In the final 20 minutes, the Phantoms scored with 7:57 left in the game to tie the game at 1-1.  Ryan Belonger found the twine on a very hard angled shot.  For Belonger, the goal was his fifth.  Jordan Young and Mike Ambrosia were credited with assists.  Exactly one minute later, Muskegon reclaimed the lead when Joseph Cox picked the puck out near the blue line and skated the length of the ice letting a shot fly from the top of the right faceoff circle that went over O’Connor’s right shoulder and into the net.

The Phantoms biggest scoring weapon, Austin Cangelosi, was not in uniform and participating with the US National Junior Select Team for the entire three-game home stand.  Defenseman Chris Bradley is also in British Columbia with Cangelosi playing in the World Junior Challenge.

“We missed Bradley and Cangelosi tonight”, said Noreen after the game.  “They are on our first powerplay and Bradley runs it.  This is a team sport though and we should be able to do more from a team standpoint, and we just weren’t able to convert tonight.”

The difference in this one was the Phantoms inability to capitalize on powerplays and untimely penalties.  Even Guy Fieri’s presence and a loud crowd, by far the biggest this season at the Covelli Centre, were not enough to propel the home team to a victory.

The Phantoms were outshot 35-26 and looked out of sync on offense for a good part of this game.

Dubuque, the defending champions, will face the Phantoms Saturday and Sunday at the Covelli Centre.

If you wanted a statement win, what better time than now to make a statement? Youngstown State hits the road one last time in 2011 to face off against the undefeated and #1-ranked North Dakota State Bison.  The Penguins have matured each week, played better each week, and have already made a statement – win or lose.  That statement is pretty obvious.  It would read something like, ‘We are young, we are gaining experience, and you don’t want to play us right now.’

North Dakota State has every reason to be nervous about this game on Saturday.  The last three times these two teams have faced off, the game hung in the balance until the final minute, YSU won two of those contests.  All five conference meetings have been decided by a total of 25 points.  Youngstown State won in their only appearance at the Fargodome two years ago, rallying from an eleven point deficit to win, 39-35.   Disagreement on the Bison nerves?

“They [North Dakota State] are really good at all phases of the game”, said Penguins Coach Eric Wolford.  “Reviewing the films, you can tell that they do a great job developing their players physically.  They have more weight, more size, and they do not turn the ball over.  Coach Bohl and his staff really do a great job recruiting big guys.  They work hard and lift weights and their secondary hits.  I expect them to try to keep possession, they had the ball 38 minutes in their win last week, and that will keep an offense off of the field.”

Youngstown State has not lost focus of their biggest goal, making the playoffs.  By knocking off the #1 team in the FCS polls, the Penguins will surely get a huge boost in class and at least be ranked next week.  They may need a few dominos to fall in the right direction to make the playoffs, but do not rule them out yet.  For Wolford and his youthful Penguins, winning is the goal.  Last year competing against an undefeated team may have been satisfactory, but Wolford has stated all year that the standard is to win championships and be in the playoffs.

To dissect the four losses that YSU has, a two-point loss at Indiana State, a seven point loss to South Dakota State, a four point loss to Northern Iowa last week, and a 28-6 defeat at Michigan State – the Penguins have gained respect.  They have exceeded the expectations of their predicted seventh-place MVFC finish and more importantly, have been in every game that they have lost with a chance to win.  Three conference losses by a total of 13 points is pretty damn good when nobody is giving you a chance.

Kurt Hess and Jamaine Cook have delivered all season.  Two of the four captains have really made the offense of Shane Montgomery lethal.  The skeptics were critical of the receivers all Spring and into the start of the season, but Christian Bryan and the crew have shut them up in that department.  The defense was then the next unit to be dissected and blamed by the critics.  Start seven freshman at any level and lose to a team that is ranked and see how ‘bad’ you looked, really.

YSU Center Mark Pratt was not around until this season, but is looking forward to taking on the Bison with so much on the line.  “They are the number one ranked defense for a reason, they must be doing something right.  They are as good as advertised and the biggest challenge is that they do not make mistakes.  We need to play like this is a playoff game.”

The Bison have committed zero turnovers in six of their games this season.  Efficient is a word best used to describe their offense and their quarterback, Brock Jensen, is a clock management genius.  If the Penguins can neutralize the line of scrimmage and create obvious passing situations, they must respect play-action passes as the Bison are probably the best in the conference at fooling defenses with their run-disguised aerial attack.

“They have 27 sacks and put tremendous pressure on the quarterback”, said Wolford.  They are smart and defensively, they keep everything in front.  Their pressure creates turnovers.  I think they are going to test our defense with the run.”

Wolford talked about the Bison taking it to Big-10 Minnesota this season.  “In the Minnesota – North Dakota State game, you would have thought that North Dakota State was the Big-10 team the way they dominated.  Minnesota has a few wins this season and it says a lot about this conference to dominate a Big-10 opponent the way they did.”

North Dakota State would not let me talk to any players, saying that they were done doing interviews for the week already.  When I asked Sports Information Director Jeff Schwartz for a coach he said that was not something we could do either. I vowed to supply bulletin board material at some point this season.  Here ya go.  YSU 28 – NDSU 24.  Thanks Jeff!

Kickoff is set for 4:07 Saturday and the game will be televised on the WBCB networks.  You can also catch the radio coverage on AM-570 with Bob Hannon, Ed Muransky, and Zach Humphries.

Alejandro “Popo” Salinas is someone that Jack Loew has been hyping for two years.  Salinas lived up to the hype a little when he captured the prestigious PAL Championship.  The tournament win has a nice reward in the sense that when 2012 rolls around, Popo is automatically the top-rated amateur for the Open Division in the country at his weight class.  He wants to compete for the United States in the Olympics, and the 16-year old has some big footsteps to follow in Kelly Pavlik and Dannie Williams, both PAL Champions, both Loew students of the game.

“The last time I had a fighter win this tournament”, reflected Loew, “he went on to become the middleweight champion of the world.  That ought to tell you how prestigious the tournament is.”

To win the tournament, young Salinas defeated fighters from Florida, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania.  Salinas will now headline the November 23rd Bob Roth Boxing Show at St. Lucy’s in Campbell.  Loew will promote the amateur card which is named after the great Bob Roth who Loew says ‘loved boxing like nobody I have ever met’.

Salinas is still a little timid around a camera or a microphone because the exposure to the public is relatively new.  However, in the ring, he looks like a polished veteran.  Loew even called him ‘a thirty year-old man’ because of the snap on his punches and the ring presence he exhibits at such a young age.

“It is to my advantage to spar against older fighters”, said Salinas.  “You learn a lot while you are in there with a fighter who is experienced.  Winning the tournament was great because all of the fighters I faced were really well-trained and ready.  Now, I have to get more serious with my training and win a few fights to get to the Olympics.”

“I want to graduate from school”, commented Salinas.  “I don’t want to be one of those guys in the background who never graduated.  I will not go to college until after I try my hand at the pro level.”

Salinas also talked about things he does when he has time.  Much to my surprise, video games and television did not crack the top 10.  He said he would much rather play baseball or do something outside.  As I expanded on his baseball knowledge, he won me over some more by telling me that his favorite player of all-times is Roberto Clemente.

“I do some crazy workouts with my spare time.  I respect a lot of students and most of them do not even know I am a boxer, I like to stay quiet.  I never start trouble with anyone because they might go out of their way to make my life harder if they learn I am a boxer.  I want to stay straight, compete in the Olympics, go pro, and then let God do what he has to do.”

Wait until you see this kid.  He is special, and that isn’t hype, that’s fact.

Tickets and details for the Bob Roth Show can be obtained by contacting Jack Loew at 330-501-5713. There are a couple of reserved tables left and St. Lucy’s is a nice venue with no bad seating.  Being the night before Thanksgiving, Loew will expect a good crowd with nobody allowed to use the, ‘I have to work tomorrow’ excuse.  It’s annually a great show, Salinas is the icing on the cake this year.