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Sept. 24 2005
Penguins Fall to Panthers, 41-0
    Pittsburgh -- Pittsburgh’s Tyler Palko completed 14-of-22 passes for 290 yards and three touchdowns while Raymond Kirkley rushed for 83 yards and scored twice (one rushing and one receiving) to lead the Panthers (1-3) past Youngstown State (3-1), 41-0, in front of 43,135 on Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field.
    The Panthers set the tone early, scoring on their first two possessions. After forcing the Penguins to a three-and-out on their first possession and a 19-yard punt by Joe Bishop, the Panthers struck quickly on two-play, 41-second scoring drive capped by a 39-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Palko to Raymond Kirkley to take a 6-0 lead. David Abdul missed the point after attempt.
    Pittsburgh took advantage of another short Bishop punt and drove 43 yards in six plays to set up a David Abdul 22-yard field goal to give the Panthers a 9-0 cushion.
    Youngstown State, however, denied the Panthers on their next two possessions when Jason Perry picked off Palko in the end zone and Dorian Chenault forced Pittsburgh’s Eric Gill to cough up the ball through the end zone for a touchback.
    On their first possession of the second quarter, the Panthers utilized a 12-play, 67-yard drive to extend their advantage to 16-0 over the Penguins. On the drive, Kirkley rushed five times for 24 yards.
    To start the second half, Kirkley’s 12-yard touchdown dash, his second of the game, capped a three-play, 75 yard drive that used just one minute and 20-seconds of clock and pushed the Panther lead to 24-0.
    The Panthers then added 10 points in 16 seconds to increase their lead to 34-0.
    Abdul added a 40-yard field goal at the 10:55 mark of the third quarter following a six-play, 25-yard scoring drive to give Pittsburgh a 27-0 lead.
    Following a Darrell Revis interception of a Tom Zetts pass, Palko connected on a 25-yard touchdown pass to Greg Lee with 10:39 to go in the third quarter.
     Pittsburgh's final score came with 10:02 left in the final stanza on Tim Murphy's 43-yard scamper.
     Youngstown State netted just 152 total yards on offense while the Panthers accumulated 528 total yards, including 307 through the air and 221 on the ground.

Record Crowd
Today's attendance of 43,135 was the largest crowd ever at a Youngstown State game. The previous record was 35,874 at Western Michigan on Sept. 11, 1999.

Record Against I-A Opponents
With the loss, Youngstown State dropped to 19-19-1 against I-A opponents as a member of the Division I-AA ranks. YSU's last victory over a I-A opponent was at Kent State in 2000.

Penguins Played Without Weapon Smith
Part of Youngstown State's offensive struggles were in part to the injury to wide receiver Kyle Smith. Smith came into the game leading the team in receptions (13), receiving yards (135) and receiving touchdowns (two). Smith also came into the game recording a catch in a pass in 25 straight games.

Mason Records Career-Highs
Tailback Marcus Mason recorded a career-high 64 yards today against the Panthers. Mason made his season debut last week against Liberty and rushed for 18 yards on four carries.

Third Down Struggles
The Penguins came into the game converting on 60 percent (28-of-47) of its third-down attempts, but they managed to only convert on one of its 13 opportunities today.

Bishop Second-Longest Punt in Career
Junior punter Joe Bishop's 67-yard punt in the third quarter was the second longest of his career. The Canton, Ohio native recorded a 70-yard punt last season at Southern Illinois. Bishop also put two punts inside the Pitt 5-yardline.

Quick Notes

  • The last time the Penguins were held scoreless was on Oct. 19, 2002, when they lost 19-0 at Western Illinois
  • Pittsburgh's 41 points were the most scored against YSU since Northern Iowa posted 47 on Nov. 1, 2003.
  • Pittsburgh's 528 yards of total offense was the most given up by Youngstown State since Northern Iowa racked up 618 on Nov. 1, 2003.

    Youngstown State vs. Pittsburgh
    Postgame Quotes

    Head Coach Jon Heacock
    Q. The defense was put in some bad situations. Talk about that

    A. It was uncharacteristic of us and we had a lot of forced errors. They hung in there 16-0 at the half. We really didn’t set the world on fire, but at least we were going to come out there and play.

    Q: We saw a lot of Mason but no Q.

    A: We tried to get something going. Q was in there and didn’t get anything going and we had Mason in there for a couple drives. Justin was in there. You got to give them credit on defense.

    Q: What did you gain?

    A: We didn’t play perfect. They came out and played. As I said on Tuesday, the game had to last. We made them drive and kick a field goal in the first half and in the second we didn’t make

    Q: Was this a learning experience?

    A: We have work to do and it’s good. The crew will fire up for next week. We played like crazy for three weeks and we need to keep working.

    Q. Did the crowd affect the team?

    A: I don’t think so our guys just came out there and played. We just couldn’t get that extra bounce. We could not get any momentum.

    Q: What did you expect to gain?

    A: Reality. We have to get ready for the Gateway conference. This game is closer to that conference than any other game we played so far. We have to rally up and work like crazy.

    Junior Linebacker Marty Hutchinson

    Q: What did you learn from the game?

    A: Learn from each situation and push forward to Gateway games.

    Q: What can you take from the defense?

    A: We made played hard and we made errors. We gave up some big plays.

    Q: How does this team compare to those teams you’ve played before?

    A: Physically they have some big guys on their team. But we still played hard.

    Q: Did you get any sense of confidence for the upcoming Gateway Games?

    A: We did some good. We are going to do better next week.
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