The Youngstown State Penguins started their season off not the best and continued as they lost to Illinois State Redbirds 23-16 on November 2 and now are 3-7.
Youngstown State has many stars on this team, and they have yet to execute with them. They need to switch up the game plan for next week and need to bring the energy in these next couple of games.
The Penguins now drop to 8th in their conference, whilst some of these teams are stacked they are now possibly dropping out of playoff contention. This team has fought for a lot this season and has a lot going on behind closed doors so they have to fight for the next couple of games.
Head Coach Doug Phillips knows that his team has to battle certain things and need to execute.
“I felt our kids, the effort is gonna always be there, but you dig yourself into a little bit of a hole and you battle a lot of different things, and you’ll travel to a different place, and you’ll battle bad official calls,then you throw in where we did not execute because ultimately we control if we win or lose,” says the coach.
The Guins’ started the game off the way it should have started by getting a safety early in the game, and then the Redbirds struck back with a field goal with 2 minutes left in the first quarter. As the second quarter began, Louisville State QB, Tommy Rittenhouse, threw a touchdown to Wenkers Wright but missed the extra point to start off the quarter. The rest of this quarter was quiet and went into the locker room losing 9-2.
Senior Offensive Lineman, Jaison Williams reflects on the game and about the team to get better for next week.
“One day at a time, going out to practice and trying to figure out just getting better working on the little things and leaving the results and the outcomes up to Saturday when we go out there,” said the lineman.
As the 3rd quarter began, only within 2 minutes, Redbirds QB Tommy Rittenhouse took a 11 yard run into score and Ian Wagner made the kick to go up another score on the Penguins. As the game went on into the late 3rd quarter, YSU runningback Tyshon King took in a 1 yard score to go down only 1 score now, but it wasn’t enough. The Redbirds take another score in from a pass from Rittenhouse going up 23-9. Then the 4th quarter started and there was no noise from either teams until late and YSU QB Beau Brungard threw a pass to Max Tomzcak and the kick was good to put another score on the board to make it 23-16. This wasn’t enough for the Penguins.
Senior Linebacker, Devin Johnson, is aware about the upcoming game and how to prepare.
