The Youngstown State football team was denied of its chance to take control of the Gateway Conference by falling to league rival Northern Iowa 22-7 as a crowd of 18,699 fans watched on Saturday evening at Stambaugh Stadium.

The visiting Panthers (4-3 overall and 1-2 in the Gateway) outrushed the Penguins (4-3 and 2-2) 220-104 and kept the YSU defense on the field by running 21 more offensive plays for the game. For the game, UNI had 342 total offensive yards on 78 plays and YSU netted 241 on 57.

For YSU, redshirt freshman quarterback Aaron Marshall ran for a team-high 49 yards and passed for a career-best 137 completing 10-of-23 passes.

But the Penguins fell behind and had to play catch-up the entire contest.

On YSU's second drive, senior tailback P.J. Mays fumbled for the first time of the season. After Matt Mitchell recovered Northern Iowa drove 26 yards on 10 plays for a 25-yard field goal, the first of five by Mackenzie Hoambrecker.

The YSU defense held the Panthers scoreless for the remainder of the first period, but the Penguins defense was scored upon in each of Northern Iowa's second-quarter possessions.

To start the second period, YSU fell victim to a 12-play 63-yard drive that ate up 5:10, ending with a 27-yard field goal by Hoambrecker.

Northern Iowa took control of the game after holding the Penguins to just a six-play drive on their second quarter offensive debut. Ben Sanderson took a 34-yard Kosta Karapetsas punt from his own 14-yard line and returned it 36 yards to give the Panthers good field position.

The Panthers continued their equal distribution of rushing and passing plays down to the YSU 7-yardline where quarterback Tom Petrie connected with Ryan Walter for the first touchdown of the game to put UNI in front 13-0. A Hoambrecker field goal from 44 yards ended the first half and gave the Panthers a 16-0 advantage.

In the third quarter, YSU closed the gap to 16-7 when Marshall improvised and tossed a 37-yard touchdown pass to Mays with 5:08 left.

Hoambrecker added a 21-yard field goal, which was set up by a 46-yard kickoff return by Ben Sanderson.

In the fourth, UNI chewed 5:54 off the clock that ended with 2:25 left in the game on a 23-yard field goal by Hoambrecker.

Head Coach Jon Heacock said the Panthers were solid up front and were better at the overall fundamentals than the Penguins.

"They came in and blocked us and ran the ball and we didn't"

YSU will try to regroup by traveling to Macomb, Ill., to play at Western Illinois (6-1 and 3-1). The Leathernecks defeated Indiana State 52-21 on Saturday.