Terre Haute, Ind. – The Youngstown State football team grinded to a 19-7 Missouri Valley Football Conference road win at Indiana State on a sun-splashed Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.
YSU improves to 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the MVFC while Indiana State falls to 0-9 and 0-5.
In a tightly-contested game, Mitch Davidson and Beau Brungard had rushing scores, Andrew Lastovka connected on a pair of field goals and the defense held the Sycamores to 191 total yards, 66 yards rushing and 0-of-10 on third downs.
Indiana State jumped out a 7-0 lead when Cade Chambers hit Justin Dinka on a 56-yard touchdown toss with 3:28 left in the first quarter. That would be the only points of the afternoon for ISU.
The Guins responded tying the contest on an 18-yard run by Davidson with just four seconds remaining in the opening quarter. Davidson's keep around the left side capped off a seven-play, 75-yard march.
For the first half, YSU had 188 yards of total offense with 158 coming through the air. Indiana State had 149 yards of offense in the opening half with 87 coming via the air and 62 coming on the ground. Davidson was sacked three times while Chambers was sacked twice.
In the third quarter, the Guins took their first possession of the half 79 yards in 14 plays and when the drive stalled, Lastokva came on to kick a 35-yard field goal. YSU never trailed again after taking 7:19 off the clock during the drive.
Later in the quarter, Lastovka drilled a career-long 45-yard field goal to extend the YSU lead to 13-7.
On the second play of the fourth quarter, Troy Jakubec's fourth interception of the season gave the Guins possession and ended a Sycamore drive at the YSU 18-yard line.
The Penguins played perfect complimentary football as the offense turned the interception into points when Brungard scored on a 37-yard run with 7:04 left in the game to push the YSU lead to 19-7.
The Sycamores made one final push, but Greg Benton Jr. sacked Chambers forcing a fumble that was recovered by Anthony Johnson to seal the victory.
The Penguins play their final regular-season home game of the campaign next Saturday against No. 1 South Dakota State. Kickoff for the contest at Stambaugh Stadium is set for Noon.
