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BROOKINGS, S.D. -- Youngstown State had an opportunity to make an early statement in the Missouri Valley Football Conference race, but the Penguins let it slip through their fingers.
No. 2 South Dakota State overpowered YSU in the trenches, and despite losing its starting quarterback to injury, held on to down the ninth-ranked Penguins 27-20 on Saturday evening at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings, S.D.
“There’s no consolation prize. There isn’t. We gotta learn from this. We gotta get better,” YSU head coach Doug Phillips said in his post-game press conference. “The one thing about Missouri Valley football, you gotta be ready to go on Monday and clear it, learn from it and make the adjustments. I always say you gotta learn and you gotta apply it in practice. Apply it next Saturday and continue to press forward, and I know our young men will do that.
“I thought the effort was there for four quarters tonight. Just the fundamentals and execution, we gotta get a lot better.”
YSU had no answer for Jackrabbits tailback Josiah Johnson, who carried the ball 30 times for 238 yards and two touchdowns.
SDSU starting quarterback Chase Mason went down with an injury on the Jacks’ last offensive possession of the first half. He went to the locker room early before halftime, and even though he came back out on the field in the second half, he never re-entered the game.
With backup Josh Holst in the game, SDSU turned to Johnson, who had 182 of his yards in the second half after scoring the Jacks’ first touchdown on their opening possession of the game.
“We weren’t able to get the run game going. They were able to get the run game going. We gotta figure that out because they just ran the ball,” Phillips said. “We gotta figure out how to stop the run, and we will. We’ve been in this position before.”
Offensively, YSU had to play from behind most of the night after Johnson and the Jackrabbits went right down the field to start the game.
The Penguins never got the run game going and finished with just 76 yards on the ground.
That forced YSU to take to the air to move the ball, as quarterback Beau Brungard completed 27 of his 35 passes for 292 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Lynn Wyche-El continued his strong start to the season with his second 100-yard receiving game. He finished with 114 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions.