Penguins get elusive 1st road win, top Indiana State 19-7
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In pursuit of its first postseason bid since 2016, Youngstown State kept its playoff hopes alive on Saturday.
It wasn't pretty, but the Penguins did what they needed to do in order to earn their first road win of the season, defeating winless Indiana State 19-7.
"I felt our guys stayed in the fight knowing it was going to be a tough, difficult game," head coach Doug Phillips said. "But just proud of our kids for a November road win, our first win on the road (this season). We knew it would be tough, especially when we make mistakes and have pre-snap penalties and that rears its head every time we're on the road. So we've gotta continue to do a better job coaching and making sure we eliminate that."
Save for the Sycamores' first-quarter touchdown and a couple of other chunk plays by Indiana State's offense, the Penguins defense kept ISU in check offensively.
YSU held the Sycamores to 191 total yards, while also holding them 0-for-10 on third downs throughout the game. Indiana State mustered just 66 rushing yards to go with 125 passing yards from quarterback Cade Chambers.
"They weren't running the ball in the second half and they're a team that really has explosive runs, which we saw in the first half," Phillips said. "When you take that out and they're trying to catch up and (throw the ball), we believe in our pass rush and we believe in our coverage. We took the run away and they're throwing the football, now we can pin our ears back and go put pressure on the quarterback.
Both teams struggled to get into a rhythm offensively early on, but the Sycamores struck first. Justin Dinka hauled in a screen pass from Chambers and scampered for a 56-yard touchdown.
Giving up the big play woke the Penguins up as YSU marched 75 yards in seven plays on its ensuing drive to tie the game with an 18-yard touchdown run by Mitch Davidson. The senior finished 25-for-37 for 254 passing yards.
Neither team was able to get much going throughout the rest of the half, as they went into halftime tied 7-7.
On its opening drive of the second half, YSU went 79 yards in 14 plays before stalling out. The Penguins settled for a 35-yard Andrew Lastovka field goal to take their first lead of the game. The drive ate up almost half of the third quarter clock.
Near the end of the quarter, YSU added to its lead with another field goal from Lastovka, this time from 45 yards out.
"In the second half, when we really started to control the football, I'd like to see those three points turn into touchdowns," Phillips said.
On the ensuing drive, a Troy Jakubec interception, his fourth of the season, helped quell any momentum the Sycamores' offensehad built up after it converted a fourth down near midfield.
The Penguins turned the interception into points by following it up with their longest drive of the game, going 82 yards and culminating it with a 37-yard touchdown run by Beau Brungard midway through the fourth quarter.
"Most games when we put the ball up, we're making those plays," Phillips said. "But our two rushing touchdowns were with the quarterback, so you've still gotta have a guy that accounts for the quarterback. Fortunately for us, Mitch hit that one in the first half and Beau hit that one in the fourth quarter."
The score helped the Penguins finally put away the Sycamores.
With Indiana State driving in the waning minutes, YSU blitzed and sacked Chambers, who fumbled the ball and the Penguins recovered.
YSU then forced a turnover on downs with 2:42 to go and secured the 12-point victory.
"We don't want to put our defense back on the field there with four minutes to go. We have to do a better job of finding ways to get first downs," Phillips said. "That's something we gotta go back to the drawing board and figure out this week so that when we're in a game like this, we don't need to put our defense back on that field."