YSU hosts volleyball

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State’s volleyball team will open its 51st season by hosting the YSU Invitational this weekend.

YSU’s roster includes freshman Presley Stokes from Wellsville, freshman Layne Graffice from Marlington and senior Abbie Householder from Canfield.

The four-team round robin tournament will be held today and Saturday at the Beeghly Center.

Today’s schedule includes Duquesne vs. Canisius at 11 a.m., YSU vs. Mercyhurst at 1 p.m., Canisius vs. Mercyhurst at 4 p.m. and YSU vs. Duquesne at 7 p.m.

Saturday’s schedule is Mercyhurst vs. Duquesne at noon and YSU vs. Canisius at 3 p.m.

There is free admission for all matches.

Brungard leads Youngstown State

By NEEL MADHAVAN

Special to the Journal

YOUNGSTOWN — Throughout the offseason, Youngstown State felt like it had found some answers after its struggles last season.

Following Thursday’s season-opening 24-15 victory over Mercyhurst at Stambaugh Stadium, the Penguins may still have some lingering questions on both sides of the ball.

“It’s a win. I don’t think we’re all satisfied, but it’s the first time we got to play,” head coach Doug Phillips said. “We gotta dig into the film and see areas where we can get improvement. … We’re going to learn a lot about our guys. For a lot of them, it’s the first time under the lights, not at night, but under the lights for Youngstown State University. We get back to work tomorrow and we get ready to move onto Week 2, and I want to see drastic increases in how we play next week.”

YSU gave up 374 total yards to the Lakers’ offense, including 311 yards through the air to Mercyhurst quarterback Adam Urena.

However, the Penguins offset that by forcing four turnovers, each coming in timely fashion.

Still, YSU only came away with three points off the turnovers. Those came after Justin Wimpye picked off Urena on the opening drive of the third quarter, and Andrew Lastovka kicked a 37-yard field goal for YSU’s only points of the second half.

“We had opportunities in the two-minute (before halftime). But we had two penalty flags where we didn’t get lined up,” Phillips said. “We had some veteran guys who didn’t get lined up. All of a sudden, you’re taking a first down away, which you could go down and drive before half and extend the lead. … So a lot of mistakes that you can’t make. The attention to detail is what we’ve been stressing at times.”

Senior defensive back Dathan Hickey, who was making his first start for YSU after missing all of last season with an injury after transferring from Yale, had two of those turnovers and led the defense with 13 tackles.

Hickey fell on a fumble in the second quarter, which put a stop to a Mercyhurst drive, and he snagged an interception in the final minutes of the fourth quarter with the Lakers threatening to score again to make it a one-possession game.

“I just think I made the plays when they came to me,” Hickey said. “I don’t like to be too high or too low, so I really made sure of that all day long. Waiting for a 6:00 game was pretty hard, but really I was just staying in that even mindset, and when the plays came, they came. But I was just trying to do my job.”

Mercyhurst had plenty of success moving the ball on YSU’s defense, as Urena and the Lakers’ receivers found gaps in the Penguins’ secondary.

They had to lean on the passing game because YSU was able to take away the run, giving up just 63 rushing yards on 24 carries.

“I thought our kids were playing hard,” Phillips said. “They’re keeping the ball in front of them, knowing that they’re going to dink the ball. We were able to stop their run. The game was close and we found a way to win there at the end.”

The Lakers had several scoring opportunities fall by the wayside.

All but one of their turnovers came in YSU territory and they missed a short 28-yard field goal right before halftime.

Offensively, after a sizzling start with touchdowns on each of its first three possessions, the Penguins cooled off considerably in their first game with new offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich.

After jumping out to a 21-7 lead in the first half, YSU’s offense scored just three points the rest of the night. Quarterback Beau Brungard was 14-for-21 for 114 yards and he also ran for 145 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries.

“We just didn’t get into any type of rhythm there in the second half,” Phillips said. “We still feel we have some great players on offense that we gotta find ways to get the ball. It can’t be just Beau. We feel we got good receivers, good running backs. … We’re figuring each other out, and that’s what gets me excited because we’re able to do it with a win. We’ve been part of losses where you maybe played as well, and it’s a loss. We’re going to learn from this and go and try to work on being 2-0 next week.”

Oak Glen captures football opener

By ANDREW GRIMM

Special to the Journal

WEIRTON, W.Va. — New Oak Glen head coach TJ Miller has said all summer he felt like his Golden Bears had the potential to surprise people this season.

They certainly looked capable of doing so as they started out their season Thursday night in the battle for the Carl Hamill Trophy.

Logan Murray racked up 217 yards, scoring early touchdowns on his second and fourth carries of the game, leading the way as the Golden Bears jumped ahead early, built a big lead and headed back up Route 2 with a 32-14 victory over the Red Riders.

“We wanted to hit the ground running, we were focused,” Miller said. “My two keys to the game were to win the line of scrimmage, which I felt like we did, and stay within ourselves. These guys did a phenomenal job of that. I can’t say enough about how everybody contributed.

“We knew this was a big one coming into Weir’s house in the rivalry game. This is a good start, but we’re got a lot of games left and we’re not done. Our whole team got better tonight.

“We’ve got the trophy back where it belongs.”

Murray broke a 67-yard run to the end zone on Oak Glen’s second play from scrimmage, adding a 39-yard scoring run on the next drive. A safety on a back snap on a Weir punt sandwiched between Murray’s runs made it a 16-0 Oak Glen lead after one.

Maddox Bowen, who also had an interception in the first half, capped a long scoring drive late in the second quarter with a 1-yard QB sneak, a conversion pass making it a 24-0 game at halftime.

Bowen, who threw for more than 1,700 yards at Madonna last year, completed just one pass that counted – multiple others were called back on penalties – but he didn’t need to throw much as the Golden Bears racked up 275 yards and all four of its touchdowns on the ground, led by Murray’s big night. Jacob Everett also had a 1-yard scoring run in the third quarter, which made it 32-0 Oak Glen.

“I’ve said all summer that Logan is a stud and he can break it to the house at any time,” Miller said. “We didn’t even get to showcase Maddox’s arm because we were running the ball so well. Anytime we can come out and run the ball like that, we’re going to keep rolling with it. Hat’s off to Logan, and more importantly, our O-line, those guys never get the credit the other guys do in the papers but they opened the holes and did a great job.”

The Red Riders showed some fight in the fourth quarter as QB Nick DiMatteis fired a 38-yard scoring toss to Landon Haught in the fourth quarter, then Daniel Howland intercepted a pass and scored on a 4-yard run as time expired.

DiMatteis, who had a 39-yard pass to set up the last score, finished with 152 yards passing, 132 of which were in the second half. Howland led the Red Riders on the ground with 75 yards on 11 carries.

“We were in our way, it was a lot of correctable mistakes,” Weir High head coach Quincy Wilson said. “As a coach, I love that it was stuff we can fix. We didn’t get physically dominated or anything like that. We’re a young team, the most important thing is we stay together. Our biggest improvement is going to be from

Week 1 to Week 2.

“Our guys kept playing hard, we’ve got guys. We just have to find our recipe for success.”

Schwarber blasts four home runs

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kyle Schwarber hit four home runs in Philadelphia’s 19-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night to become the fourth Phillies player and 21st major leaguer to accomplish the feat.

Schwarber was 4 for 6 with a Phillies-record nine RBIs. He took the outright National League homer lead with a career-high 49 and moved within one of Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the major league lead. Schwarber leads the majors with a career-high 119 RBIs.

Mike Schmidt was the last Philadelphia player to hit four homers in a game, doing at the Chicago Cubs in April 1976. Schwarber had the third four-homer game of the season, following Eugenio Su’rez and Nick Kurtz.

The Philadelphia star started the power surge with a solo shot in the first off Cal Quantrill (4-12), sending a 2-1, curveball into the seats in right field. Schwarber hit a flyout to center in the second.

After Quantrill was lifted with one out and two runners on base in the fourth, Schwarber greeted lefty Austin Cox by sending a 3-2 curveball over the wall in right for his fourth multi-homer game of the season.

With “M-V-P! M-V-P!” chants ringing down from Phillies fans in the fifth, Schwarber launched a three-run, opposite-field drive off Cox to put Philadelphia ahead 15-3. In the seventh, Schwarber hit a three-run shot to right off Wander Suero to make it 18-4.

Schwarber popped out in the eighth to short left field with third baseman Vidal Brujan on the mound.

After Philadelphia starter Aaron Nola (3-7) labored through a three-run, 37-pitch first inning, Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto and Max Kepler homered in the bottom of the inning. Bryce Harper also went deep for Philadelphia, which had 20 hits.

Key moment

After Nola’s shaky first inning, Schwarber, batting second, brought the Phillies to life with his one-out solo shot.

Key stat

Schwarber has 333 homers in 11 seasons in the majors with the Cubs and the Phillies. His previous career high was 47 in 2023 for Philadelphia.

Up next

Phillies LHP Ranger Su’rez (10-6, 3.07) was set to face Atlanta RHP Bryce Elder (5-9, 6.12) on Friday night.