Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU sophomore tailback Jaden Gilbert gains yards while breaking a tackle during the Penguins' first scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday.

YOUNGSTOWN — With less than three weeks till its season opener against Mercyhurst, Youngstown State continues to work through its preseason preparation.

On Saturday, the Penguins got a taste of their progress, as YSU held its first intersquad scrimmage of fall camp.

“I saw some good stuff. I saw guys making plays. We had some explosive plays,” head coach Doug Phillips said. “I saw the defense athletically being able to run around. We got a lot in offensively, defensively, blocking a variety of looks. Defensively, our guys got to defend a lot, so we got to see our guys play with tremendous effort and attitude, which is what we look at now. Are we a lot better than we were at the beginning? We’ve made huge strides.”

The Penguins operated the scrimmage in a similar format to the spring game, playing two 15-minute quarters to go with a 20-minute running clock second half after a brief intermission. Throughout the scrimmage, YSU’s coaches also simulated several game-like situations to test all three units.

The first team got 35 reps, the second unit got 37 reps and the younger players on the team received about 24 reps, according to Phillips. On the scoreboard, the offense came away with a 28-18 “victory” in the scrimmage, but the defense still made a handful of key plays throughout.

The defense held strong to begin the scrimmage by getting stops on the offense’s first two possessions.

But the offense finally struck on the third possession with a 36-yard touchdown run by quarterback Beau Brungard.

After another stop on the fourth possession, the defense got a turnover, as Justin Wimpye picked off Colin Seibert deep downfield on the drive’s first play.

Brungard then returned to lead another scoring drive that was capped off by a 5-yard touchdown run from Tahir Mills, as he and Justin Gilbert traded snaps in the backfield with the first-team offense throughout the possession. The drive also featured a fourth-down conversion in the red zone.

On the first possession of the second quarter, Devin Sherwood started the drive at quarterback, but Seibert finished it off with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Kylon Wilson in the corner of the end zone.

After a three-and-out by the defense, Brungard led his third touchdown drive of the morning. Antuan Gardner piled in from two yards out after a 43-yard catch-and-run completion from Brungard to Gilbert out in the flat.

To end the first half, the coaches set the clock at 0:41 and placed the ball just shy of midfield with the goal of driving into field goal range. Brungard led the Penguins to the 35-yard line and Andrew Lastovka came in and kicked a 52-yard field goal as time expired.

“I want to set our guys up so I can see how they handle adversity,” Phillips said. “Sometimes you gotta manufacture those things, whether it’s the heat, whether it’s a flag and bringing the ball back for a hold, to see how they handle that adversity. So when we get to game one, we know how they’re going to handle those tough situations.”

Since opening camp on July 28, YSU went through the first week in spiders and shorts, before finally moving to full pads last weekend.

But in that time the Penguins haven’t worried too much about personnel or the depth chart. However, with the scrimmage now in the rearview mirror, that changes going into this week.

“I told the kids in the team meeting this morning, I haven’t talked personnel one bit until we got done with this scrimmage,” Phillips said. “I wanted to see the guys live today. Now we go into the week leading up to that second scrimmage finding out what the depth chart looks like. Who can we trust? Who can we put on the field? We made growth — it’s the first time I didn’t see guys losing their heads in a long time, and I’m proud of our young men for that. We’re going to come back Monday and get ready to work.”