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Nov. 13, 2004
Frantic YSU Comeback Bid Falls Short, 34-28
Springfield, Mo. -- The Youngstown
State football team ran out of time
in a comeback bid at SMS on Saturday
afternoon losing 34-28 at Plaster
Field.
YSU trailed 34-21 with 3:36 remaining, but a quick touchdown
and a defensive stand gave the
Penguins one final shot with 1:36
remaining, 71 yards from the SMS end
zone and no timeouts left. The
Penguins (4-7 overall and 2-4 in the
Gateway) moved the ball into SMS
territory but Josh Cayson was
tackled inbounds at the 39 by SMS
strong safety Derrick Byrd after
catching a Tom Zetts pass and time
expired.
Behind by 13, Youngstown State was down, but not out when
Matt Rycraft returned a kickoff 75
yards back to the SMS 17 with just
3:36 remaining. Zetts hooked up with
Rycraft for a seven-yard score just
33 seconds later to pull within six.
The Penguins defense stopped SMS on its last offensive
possession, added by a 15-yard
illegal participation penalty to get
the ball back with 96 seconds
remaining.
On the final drive, YSU was able to pick up three first
downs, but could not get any closer.
Zetts completed 18-of-25 passes for 258 yards and a
career-best three touchdowns. His
performance was overshadowed by
SMS's Cody Pratt who had a
school-record 43 carries for 176
yards and scored two touchdowns.
In the fourth, SMS took a 31-21 lead when Preston Portee
scored a one-yard leap
with 6:20 left in the game on a
fourth-down-and-goal play. Portee's
score ended a 20-play drive that
evaporated 10 minutes and 14 seconds
off the clock.
YSU had the ball just 19:38 of the game, while SMS had an
amazing 40:22 time of possession.
Tim Meyer intercepted Zetts in YSU territory, but the
Penguins were able to hold for a
field goal with 3:47 remaining in
the game and set up a frantic
finish.
For the game, Youngstown State had 348 yards of total
offense, 258 of which came through
the air. SMS recorded 395 yards of
total offense, 283 of which came via
the ground.
In the third quarter, SMS came out of the locker room with
continued momentum adding its third
consecutive score to pull ahead
24-14. Pratt capped off an
impressive drive that took 6:05 with
a three-yard score.
Youngstown State struck back with another big passing play as
Zetts throw to a wide open Shawn
Carlson who raced 69 yards for a
touchdown with 1:39 remaining in the
period. On the point-after kick by
Nick Terracina, he eclipsed Jeff
Wilkins' school mark of 46 straight
kicks with his 47th consecutive
conversion. Terracina's kick in the
fourth extended his mark to 48.
In the first half, both teams combined for 31 points and 395
yards of total offense as SMS twice
overcame touchdown deficits to take
a 17-14 lead at halftime.
YSU took the games initial drive 80 yards in just four plays
to jump out to a 7-0 lead on a
Gibson one-yard score. The big play
came on third down when Zetts beat a
blitz by dumping the ball over the
line to Mike Roberts who took the
pass 73 yards to the SMS one. On the
next play Gibson put the Penguins
ahead 7-0.
SMS tied the score early in the second quarter when Porter
hit Jay Steinbroner in the back of
the end zone from five yards out.
The Bears moved the ball 64 yards on
12 plays as 5:35 elapsed from the
clock.
The Penguins drove right back down the field to answer the
score. On a second-down play at the
SMS one, Zetts found a wide open
Roberts in the corner of the end
zone to put YSU back on top 14-7
with 8:52 remaining.
But SMS came on strong scoring the final 10 points of the
quarter. Pratt scored on an
eight-yard run with 2:27 left tying
the contest. YSU went three-and-out
on the series following Pratt's
score and SMS set up shop at its own
40 with 1:23 remaining.
The Bears' drive stalled inside at the Penguins' six-yard
line and Jon Scifres made a 23-yard
field with four seconds remaining
before the intermission. |
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