Posts Tagged ‘Mychal Savage’

YSU got off to a sluggish start but recovered to take a halftime lead and defeat the Austin Peay Governors, 38-21.  With the victory, Coach Jon Heacock ran his home opener winning record to 9-0, and the Penguins won their 14th consecutive home debut.

It didn’t take Austin Peay very long to get on the scoreboard.  With 13:23 left in the first quarter and YSU in a punting situation, Austin Peay’s Ricky Thomas blocked the attempt and Adrian Mines fell on the ball in the end zone to put the Governors up 7-0.

With 8:10 left in the opening period, Stephen Blose connected on a 31-yard FG to cap a 10 play, 55 yard drive and making the score 7-3 in favor of Austin Peay.

An Austin Peay drive was single-handedly destroyed by Mychal Savage.  Savage sacked Governors QB Trent Caffee, caused a fumble on the sack, and promptly recovered the fumble giving YSU the ball on Austin Peay’s 49-yard line.  The first quarter would come to an end with YSU driving at Austin Peay’s 3-yard line and trailing 7-3.

On a third-and-goal at Austin Peay’s 1-yard line, Kevin Smith barely received the handoff before being hit by Daniel Becker for a four-yard loss.  Stephen Blose attempted a 15-yard FG but hit the right upright and YSU failed to convert the takeaway into points.

Trent Caffee increased the Austin Peay lead to 14-3 with 9:13 to go in the second quarter with a fourth-and-goal run on the Youngstown State one-yard line.

YSU finally found the end zone with exactly five minutes left in the half when Brandon Summers found TE Andy Colegrove for a 4-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 14-10. 

Another Austin Peay miscue gave YSU another chance to score as Caffee was picked off by Bryan Gaiters with 4:18 left in the half.  Kevin Smith gave YSU their first lead in 2009 as he ran seven yards on a second-and-goal with 3:39 left in the half.  The Penguins only needed two plays to go ten yards for the score making it 17-14 Penguins, which is where the scoring ended in the first half.

YSU returned an earlier favor by blocking a Governor’s punt on their first possession of the second half and taking over on the Austin Peay 30-yard line.  Summers would find Donald Jones for a 20-yard scoring hookup to increase the Penguins lead to 24-14.  The Penguins drove 30 yards in four plays on the scoring drive.  Jones showed his great concentration on the scoring reception by pulling in the pass, getting his helmet knocked off, and still holding on for six.

On their next set of plays, YSU showed their explosive scoring side as Summers again found Jones, this time for an 18-yard score making it 31-14 in favor of the host Penguins.  The Penguins went 51 yards in just six plays in under two minutes for the score. 

The third quarter ended with YSU up 31-14 but Austin Peay driving.  On the first play of the fourth quarter Caffee found Darryl Miller with a fade into the right corner of the YSU end zone to cut the lead to 31-21.  Austin Peay drove 75 yards in 14 plays to paydirt.

The YSU defense looked sharp stopping a couple of Austin Peay fourth quarter drives, and the alignment woes from the Pitt game looked to be fixed.  The Penguins defense stopped Austin Peay on a fourth-and-four yards to go play to take over on downs on the Governors 28. 

Summers found Dominique Barnes on a skinny post route for a 17-yard strike after a holding penalty backed the Penguins up to the Governors 17.  Blose nailed his fifth extra point of the game to stretch the Penguins lead to 38-21.  With the touchdown, Summers tied a YSU record for touchdowns in a game being the eighth quarterback in Penguins history to throw four in a contest.  He accomplished the fete last season against Liberty, so the four touchdowns tied a personal best.

Austin Peay would mount another drive as Caffee found Scott Thomas for a 25-yard completion.  Youngstown State helped out with a late hit, a roughing the passer call, and an illegal hands to the face series of penalties.  The Governors eventually turned the ball over on downs as Luke Matelan sacked Caffee and YSU took over on downs at their own 29.

YSU’s second team offense was able to get a couple of first downs and successfully run the clock out to preserve the 38-21 victory for the Penguins to even their 2009 record at 1-1.

After the game, Coach Heacock was very quick to praise his group of twelve seniors and their significance as leaders.  “The Seniors are playing good football.  Mychal Savage, Donnie Jones, Jabari Scott, all of the seniors are playing good football.  They have worked hard.  In the Spring when it was 28 degrees, those Seniors were leaders by example.  They make sure the younger guys are going to class, they work hard, and they truly are a very special group.”

Brandon Summers downplayed his own personal numbers by praising the defense,  “I give it to our defense.  They created the momentum switch.  We had to capitalize on that because we don’t want them to get an interception and then go three-and-out.  I would like to thank our defense.”

Summers finished the game 17-24 for 232 yards and four touchdowns.  Donald Jones led the Penguins receiving statistics with 6 catches for 82 yards and a pair of scores.  Kevin Smith had 20 rushes for 116 yards and a score, he also caught a pass for 15 yards.  The Penguins were penalized 10 times for 110 yards.  Coach Heacock said the penalties may have been a result of lazy play with a big lead, and that the 110 yards were ‘too many, way too many’.

Austin Peay QB Trent Caffee finished 13-31 for 158 yards , a TD, and an INT.  Ryan White had 52 yards in 15 carries to lead the Governors ground game.  Adrian Mines had 49 yards on two catches, one a 43-yarder to lead the receivers. 

YSU  gets ready to travel to Northeastern next Saturday, a place where the Penguins have had very little success.

Youngstown State is dealing with plenty coming off of the 38-3 loss to Pitt last week.  The flu bug has spread pretty rapidly and Coach Heacock hopes a day off will help the ill heal up to prepare for the home opener against Austin Peay this week.  Austin Peay (1-0)  is coming off of a 33-24 victory over Newberry last week.  This will be Youngstown State’s 69th home opener with kickoff scheduled for 4 o’clock.

At the weekly press conference, Coach Heacock commented on the Penguins performance against Pitt.  “Our guys played pretty hard, I think we have a team of young people who want to do well.  They [Pitt] caught us a couple of times out of alignment.  We need to work on that this week and we’ll know right away whether we are improved as a team or not.  We had some guys that played pretty solid in that game.  Winning performances?  Probably not, but solid performances.  We prepared very hard for that game, I think everyone is a little bit salty.  Deep down, I think it [the loss] really bothers them.”

Heacock was impressed by what he saw of Austin Peay on film.  “They have 16 starters back, their tailback is outstanding.  [Terrence] Holt is a tremendous back.  He is about five foot eight and 160 pounds.  he is a hard guy to see, find, and tackle and is also a great return guy.  They are very methodical in what they do, they test you, and you have to be very fundamentally sound.  The more we have studied them this afternoon, the more impressive they have become.” 

Freshman Taylor Hill spoke about the defense and what to expect in the future.  “I think we have a real good defense despite the outcome.  I think our biggest problem was alignment.  We could have made plays if we were just aligned right.  The speed of the game is something we are not used to.  We have to better prepare for the speed of the game.  Everything is correctible.”

Austin Peay features a couple of real exciting running backs.  Ryan White had 23 carries for 218 yards for the Governors last weekend.  Terrence Holt also had 156 rushing yards on 15 carries and a pair of touchdowns.  Both backs averaged over 9 yards per carry and can pose problems for the Penguins.  The Governors disguise their plays and rely on misdirection to keep a defense honest.

Look for YSU QB Brandon Summers to have a good week.  Summers was constantly pressured against Pitt’s front seven and should get more time to make his reads and get good passes away.  Kevin Smith looked good against Pitt and earned every yard he gained.  He and Jabari Scott should both have better numbers this week.

Side Notes

• YSU is 44-22-2 all-time in home openers, 20-6-1 at Stambaugh Stadium.
• Since 1989, YSU is 17-1-1 in home openers and have won 13 straight.
• The last meeting between these two teams was on 10/10/87 with YSU prevailing 20-18.
• YSU kicker Stephen Blose had a 48-yard field goal against Pitt, longest at YSU since 2003.
• Crispin Fernandez ended up only playing about a dozen snaps against Pitt because he was feeling flu-like symptoms.

Youngstown State Football enjoyed a wealth of success under Jim Tressel in the 1990’s.  Jon Heacock has had the toughest task ever assigned on Wick Avenue, to keep what Tressel started rolling.  Heacock has had his ups and downs as the head guy and I feel he is headed toward greener pastures in the next couple of seasons.

If you sit back and think of what Tressel started at YSU, you can understand the enormous pressure Heacock has had to perform under.  Also, figure in Tressel only a few hours away recruiting the prime local talent to play for The Buckeyes.  Heacock is a good recruiter and people should be suprised with the talent he pulled this offseason.  The annual Spring game is Friday and Heacock is anxious to see some of those recruits in action.  Mychal Savage, sidelined all of last year after being injured in the Ohio State opener will be a force to be reckoned with on defense this year.  He will not be participating in Spring activities as he is still recovering from surgery but he should be ready for the season.

YSU suffered a bunch of season-ending surgeries last year, and all of the returning Penguins hope to stay healthy.  Playing Ohio State in the first week can make that a difficult task.

I am really pulling for Coach Heacock to succeed and prove to skeptics in the valley that YSU football is going to be just fine.  Tressel remains one of Heacock’s biggest fans and supporters.  I really like the local flavor Heacock has added to the coaching staff with Jerry Olsavsky and Michael Zordich.  Having coaches who know what it takes gives the players the right frame of mind to perform better.