YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University didn’t get off to the expected start in its season opener against Villanova University.
The Penguins couldn’t capitalize on early opportunities, losing the ball at key times, their offense struggled to move the ball initially and their defense was unable to slow the Wildcats’ run game for much of the game.
As a result, practice this week has focused on fundamentals and fixing the issues that plagued the team last week as YSU prepares for its home opener against Valparaiso at 2 p.m. Saturday (ESPN+/570 WKBN).
“Coming into this week, the focus is on us,” head coach Doug Phillips said. “We’ve been preparing for Valpo, we’ve been preparing, we’ve been studying film and we’ve been doing all that stuff, but we’ve got to make a leap. I always say when you go from Week 1 to Week 2, this has to be the biggest leap.”
“Where we made mistakes were probably in the fundamentals, which we work on every day. So we’ve got to work on the fundamentals. We’ve got to get better at tackling, play with our pads lower, play safe on the ball. Those are the fundamentals for the Penguins. Those are three of the five, and we’ve got to focus on those this week and go into Week 2 and make some big leaps in those areas.”
But despite its shortcomings last week, Phillips noted how YSU was able to respond to the adversity it faced, especially in the second half.
After a slow start, the defense got some stops and the Penguins offense put together two long touchdown drives and had a chance to tie the game in the final minutes of the game.
“I’m proud of how we responded,” Coach Phillips said. “We talk about how we respond to adversity. … You watch them compete in the third and fourth round, they had 40 rookies, so you never know until you play a game. You can talk about the little things and the fundamentals, but how young guys handle adversity and success, that’s what we’re learning right now. The good thing about this team is they fought. We were out of time, but we had a chance to catch up and tie it. We probably would have gone for two, but it’s a learning experience that our kids have to learn from.”
Like last week’s win over Villanova, YSU didn’t get off to an ideal start last season in a 52-10 victory over the Beacons.
In last year’s matchup, the Penguins trailed just 17-10 at halftime but scored five second-half touchdowns to beat Valparaiso.
According to running back Ethan Wright, who was named MVFC Freshman of the Week for his performance against Villanova, YSU wants to do everything it can to avoid another slow start this week.
“What we’ve been preaching, and what Coach Phillips was preaching this morning, is we’ve got to go out there and start fast,” Wright said. “If you watch tape from last year, we didn’t get as far as we should have in the first half and didn’t do as much as we should have. It could have gone a little further at that point, but it was a close game. So we’ve been preaching that a lot in practice is we’ve got to start fast.”
The Beacons will face an MVFC powerhouse for the second straight week after losing 35-7 to Northern Iowa last week.
The Panthers had a big game on the ground against Valpo, rushing for 365 yards, and with YSU looking to establish a running attack with a pair of veteran tailbacks behind an experienced offensive line, the Penguins are looking to dominate on the ground as well.
“We’re going to have a lot of opportunities to run the ball,” Wright said. “I think our offensive line can really realign the line of scrimmage, which is good for us. Just like our running backs, we’re going to have to be patient and take what’s available to us.”
Rowan Keefe, who started for the Beacons late in last season and started last week against UNI, returns as the quarterback for Valpo University, while Tyler Caron also appeared against the Panthers, but Michael Appel Jr., who started five games in 2023, including the game against YSU, before suffering a season-ending injury, is also on the roster.
The Beacons have a solid group of running backs in Barrett Lavas, Mike Mansaray, Ryan Mann and Brian Thomas, each of whom had big time plays throughout last season at Valpo.
“They’ve got some good running backs,” cornerback Jalen Castleberry said. “[Mansaray]is a pretty good, pretty agile special teams player. As far as the catch and yards after contact, when he catches the ball well on the return, he gets vertical right away. They do a lot of tricky things underneath, switching routes between the second and third (receivers), so we’re going to do a lot of check-downs and checks and get going with that.”
Defensively, the Beacons have a veteran bunch, led by redshirt senior defensive lineman Sam Hafner, senior linebacker Jimmy Pooba and senior defensive back Collin Graves. Pooba and Graves led Valpo with nine tackles each against UNI.
Kickoff is at 2pm on Saturday at Stambaugh Stadium.
Have an interesting story to share? Contact Neel Madhavan at nmadhavan@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter): @NeelMadhavan.
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