#5 Ranked NCAA I-AA YSU DEFEATS CLARION 44-0

(Youngstown, Ohio): Fifth rated NCAA Division I-AA power Youngstown State (2-0) used an explosive running game and six Clarion (0-2) turnovers to roll to a 44-0 win over the Golden Eagles on Saturday night.

Held at Stambaugh Stadium, better known as the "Ice Castle", the partisan Penguin crowd of 16,019 had hardly settled in their seats when talented tailback P. J. Mays rambled for 77 yards and a touchdown on the opening play from scrimmage. Jake Stewart's PAT made it 7-0 at the 14:37 mark.

After the Eagles made two fist downs on a 14-yard pass from Adam Almashy to Justin Sickeri and a Demetric Gardner 16 yard run to the YSU 49, Almashy was intercepted by Levar Greene at the YSU 41.

Moving the ball to the Clarion 48 on a Jeff Ryan run, Ryan tossed a perfect out route to Jerald Burley who broke a tackle and raced down the far sideline for a td and a 14-0 lead at 12:44.

Clarion tried to rebound again. The Eagles took possession at their own 17, and on 2^nd and 8 at the 19, halfback Robert Walker darted 22 yards to the Clarion 41, but the drive stalled.

After a 69-yard punt by Clarion's Ken Crawford had pinned the Penguins at their own 12, things were looking promising. But on second and 5 at the 17, Mays took another deep handoff and exploded up the middle, veered to the left sideline and scampered 83 yards to paydirt. The Penguins had a 20-0 first quarter lead.

Clarion all-conference guard Ryan Duchon left the game early in the second quarter with a foot injury, which brought changes to the Eagle line. On the next possession Clarion qb Almashy never received the snap, and as the ball rolled loose on the turf, Youngstown defensive lineman Bruce Hightower scooped up the pigskin at the Clarion 6 and rumbled into the endzone for another YSU score. The Penguins also scored on Darius Peterson's 27 yard run, and Jake Stewart's 24-yard field goal before intermission to make it 37-0 at halftime.

YSU rounded out the scoring with a Peterson 41 yard run at 9:08 of the third quarter.

Clarion entered YSU territory twice in the second half but was unable to score.

"Youngstown is an extremely talented team and they will win a lot of games this year," echoed Clarion head coach Malen Luke at the post-game press conference. "Their skill speed was just too much for us," he continued. "We had a lot of guys out (injured) tonight and that hurt us defensively. I think our defense would have made an even better showing with those guys in the lineup. We were very thin in spots."

"Our offense moved the ball, especially in the first half. But losing Ryan Duchon (Clarion's all conference guard) early in the second quarter changed what we could eally do against their defense."

"With YSU scoring on the first play, and on the second drive too, that also took a little out of us early. I did feel we played hard to the final play and I was proud of our team's overall effort. We'll use this as a learning experience to sharpen us up for the weeks to come. No matter how far we might advance this season, there's no chance, even in the NCAA Playoffs, that we could play a team that's better than the one we played tonight."

Clarion had 234 yards of total offense, including 167 rushing and 67 passing. Robert Walker gained 57 yards on 4 carries, while Glen Lovelace had 42 yards on 5 carries and QB Almashy had 24 carries for 47 yards. Almashy also clicked on 5 of 15 passes for 65 yards. Wideout Mike McCullum grabbed 3 passes for 37 yards.

YSU had Mays carrying 9 times for 180 yards and 2 td's, while Darius Peterson had 12 rushes for 111 yards and 2 td's. Ryn completed 2 of 4 passes for 61 yards and 1 td. The Penguins gained 541 yards of total offense, including 451 on the ground.

Top defensive efforts were turned in by Clarion's George O'Brien and Chris Janson. O'Brien posted 11 tackles and 3 tfl's, while Janson had 11 stops. Safety Korey Eppinette had 9 stops, while Dennis yu, Kevin Platz, Doug Diegelman and Tom Gaydosz all had tfl's.

Clarion returns home to the friendly confines of Memorial Stadium next Saturday to host Tiffin University. Kickoff for the "Family Day" game is set for 2pm.

The Penguins, who have a 98-30-1 record at Stambaugh Stadium since opening the facility in 1982, travel to Div. I Toledo next Saturday. YSU, under first year coach Jon Heacock, is 2-0. The Penguins, under former coach Jim Tressell, won I-AA National Titles in 1991, 93, 94 and 1997. Tressell is now the head coach at Ohio State.

CLARION NOTES: On the shelf going into tonight's game on the defensive front were Dusty Washell, Travis Dock and Mike Valenti... Guard Duchon and halfback Justin Sickeri sat out the second, third and fourth quarters for precautionary measures and should be fine.

1st

• 14:37 - YSU - P.J. Mays 77 yard run (Jake Stewart kick)
• 12:44 - YSU - Jerald Burley 48 yard pass from Jeff Ryan (Stewart kick)
• 04:39 - YSU - P.J. Mays 83 yard run (run failed)

2nd

• 09:26 - YSU - Bruce Hightower 6 yard fumble recovery (Stewart kick)
• 05:52 - YSU - Darius Peterson 27 yard run (Stewart kick)
• 00:10 - YSU - Stewart 24 yard field goal

3rd

• 09:08     YSU       Darius Peterson 41 yard run (Stewart kick)

Game Statistics:

Total Offense:
Clarion: 167 -67 - 234; 
YSU 451 - 90 - 541

Individual Rushing: 
CLARION: Robert Walker 4- 57; A. Almashy 24- 47; Glenn Lovelace 5- 42; Demetric Gardner 8- 31; Alan Miller 1- 4; Chris Roberts 1- 0; Justin Sickeri 1- (-1); Monty Duke 1- (-1):
YSU: Mays 9- 188- 2; Peterson 12- 111- 2; Colby Street 7- 61; Mike Burns 14- 55; Greg Giannios 4- 30; Jeff Ryan 5- 13; Marcum 3- 2; Bair 1- (-1):

Passing:
CLARION: Adam Almashy 15- 5- 2 (65 yards), Monty Duke 1- 1- 0 (2 yards):
YSU: Ryan 4 - 2 - 0 (69 yards), Street 6 - 2 - 0 (29 yards), Bair 1 - 0 - 0:

Receiving:
CLARION Mike McCullum 3- 37; Chris Roberts 1- 14; Justin Sickeri 1- 14; Alan Miller 1- 2:
YSU: Jerald Burley 2- 76- 1; Sean Gueerriero 1- 13; Greg Giannios 1- 1.