Youngstown State at Missouri State
Sept. 28, 2024 | Plaster Field
Springfield, Mo. | 2 p.m. Central/3 p.m. Eastern

Broadcast Information
TV – ESPN+ (Scott Warmann, Don Patterson)
Radio Network – 570 AM WKBN (Bob Hannon, Steve Leslie)
Internet Radio – 570wbkn.iheart.com
App Audio - iHeartRadio App

Penguins
Record: 1-3, 0-0 MVFC
Last Game: Pittsburgh (L, 17-73)
Head Coach: Doug Phillips (Fifth Season)
X (Formerly Twitter): @ysufootball

Bears
Record: 2-2, 0-0 MVFC
Last Game: UT-Martin (W, 31-24)
Head Coach: Ryan Beard (Second Season)
X (Formerly Twitter): @MoStateFootball

Series History
All-Time Series: YSU leads 17-7
At Springfield: YSU leads 7-5
Win Streak: YSU, 1 game
Last Meeting: YSU 44-28 (2023)

Opponent	Date	Location	Video	Audio	Live Stats
	Saturday Sept. 28 | 3 PM Eastern/2 PM Central	Plaster Field Springfield, Mo.	ESPN+	570 WKBN	Live Stats

    The Youngstown State football team opens Missouri Valley Football Conference play on Saturday at Missouri State. Kickoff at Plaster Stadium is set for 3 p.m. Eastern time/2 p.m. Central time. The game is available on ESPN+, WKBN 570 AM and iHeartRadio.
    The Penguins (1-3 overall, 0-0 in the MVFC) dropped a 73-17 decision to Pitt at Acrisure Stadium this past Saturday. YSU got off to a slow start against the Panthers trailing 21-0. An Andrew Lastovka field goal and Beau Brungard to Cyrus Traugh TD pass cut the deficit to 28-10 late in the second quarter and YSU trailed 35-10 at halftime.
    Trailing 42-10 in the third, Brungard found a wide-open Traugh for a 44-yard scoring toss for YSU's final score of the game. Brungard completed 18-of-28 passes for a career-best 233 yards. 
    Missouri State (2-2 and 0-0) has won two straight following a 31-24 road victory at UT-Martin last Saturday. The Bears led 24-7 in the third quarter before fighting off a Skyhawks comeback bid.
    This is the 25th all-time meeting between the programs, but will be the final time the school's play as both members of the MVFC as MSU moves to Conference USA in 2025. 
    YSU leads the all-time series 17-7, but last won in Springfield in 2016. The Bears defeated the Penguins in the spring of 2021 (21-10) and in November 2022 (25-22). The Guins have won six of the past eight meetings since the 2014 campaign.
    Youngstown State beat the Bears 44-28 at Stambaugh Stadium last October. YSU trailed 7-0 before building a 38-14 lead early in the third quarter. QB Mitch Davidson passed for a career-high 390 yards and tied his career best with four touchdowns. Dra Rushton's one-yard score gave the Guins their 38-14 lead. The Bears cut the deficit to within 10 points entering the fourth quarter before Lastovka kicked a pair of field goals.
    After playing three of five on the road to start the 2024 season, the Penguins will play three of four at home starting with an Oct. 5 contest vs. Indiana State. The Homecoming game vs. the Sycamores kicks off at 2 p.m. at Stambaugh Stadium.

Zandier Shows Out

    Junior LB Preston Zandier had a memorable first start for the Penguins at Pittsburgh last Saturday.
    The Pittsburgh native registered a career-high eight tackles and had two pass breakups inside the 10-yard line vs. the Panthers. He had 35 family and friends in attendance at the game.
    A fourth-year player, Zandier was in the starting lineup for the first time in his career. It was his 24th game played for YSU. He posted 10 tackles in 13 games last year mostly on special teams.

Traugh Emerges At WR

    Redshirt freshman WR Cyrus Traugh had a breakout performance at Pitt with two touchdown receptions and four catches for 89 yards. 
    Traugh entered the game with seven receptions for 86 yards and a touchdown. He now has 11 catches for 173 yards and 3 TDs. 
    At Pitt he had scoring receptions of 44 and 25 yards accounting for both of YSU's touchdowns in the game.
    Last year against MSU caught two passes for 69 yards, including a long reception of 57 yards in his collegiate debut.

The King Penguin

    Tailback Tyshon King has three rushing touchdowns through four games in 2024. He had a season-high two scores against Duquesne.
    This season he has rushed for 136 yards on a team-leading 45 carries, including a season-high 67-yard outing against Duquesne.
    In his first season at YSU last year, King rushed for 1,011 yards on 187 carries and scored nine touchdowns en route to earning second-team All-MVFC honors. He also caught 18 passes for 149 yards.
    Six times last year he has eclipsed the 100-yard mark. Five times last year he had 18-or-more carries in a game. He has a season-high 15 vs. Duquesne.
    King had a career-high 152 yards at Murray State in the 2023 regular-season finale.

Brungard's Big Day

    QB Beau Brungard rushed for 194 yards on just 10 carries and had three touchdowns against Valparaiso on Sept. 7. For his efforts he was named the MVFC's Offensive Player of the Week. He also completed 11-of-14 passes for 125 and a pair of touchdowns.
    He was just one yard shy of the school record for rushing yards in a game by a quarterback. Demeatric Crenshaw had 195 yards against Missouri State during the 2021 campaign.
    Through four games he has a team-leading 320 yards rushing on 42 carries while scoring four touchdowns. He has completed 66-of-96 passes for five TDs and 703 yards.

Top 5 QB Rushing Performances
195, Crenshaw vs. Missouri State, 2021
194, Brungard vs. Valparaiso, 2024
152, Matt Rycraft vs. WIU, 2003
134, Crenshaw vs. WIU, 2021
125, Jeff Ryan vs. Hofstra, 2000

The Wright Stuff

    TB Ethan Wright picked up the first touchdown of his YSU career on a 64-yard run against Valparaiso. It was his first collegiate touchdown since the 2021 campaign when he was a running back at Cincinnati.
    Against Valpo, he had seven carries for 77 yards. He opened the season with 63 yards rushing on 12 carries and added 27 yards on three receptions at Villanova.  He picked up 61 yards on 12 carries vs. Duquesne.
    In 32 career games played at UC from 2020-23, he had 215 yards on 44 attempts and caught five passes for 44 yards. After four games at YSU, he has 39 carries for 236 yards.

Tomczak Stepping Up

    WR Max Tomczak is off to a great start to the 2024 season. Through four games he has 20 receptions for 246 yards and two touchdowns.
    In the win over Valpo, he had a career-high two touchdown receptions, hauling in four catches for 98 yards. Against Duquesne he caught five passes for 62 yards. At Pitt he had a season-high six catches for 48 yards. 
    Tomczak caught 47 passes for 564 yards and a touchdown last year. He led the Penguins during MVFC play with 41 receptions. In 2022, he had 26 catches for 430 yards and two TDs.
    For his career, he has 93 receptions for 1,240 yards and five scores.

Father-Son QB Starters

    QB Beau Brungard joined his father, Mark, as starting quarterbacks for the Guins. 
    Beau Brungard, a third-year sophomore, started for the first time in his career at Villanova. He has started all four games for YSU so far this season.
    Mark made his starting debut on Sept. 2, 1993, at Western Michigan. Ironically both of those were season-opening Thursday night road games.
    Against the Wildcats, Beau rushed for 82 yards on 16 attempts while completing 18-of-25 passes for 152 yards and his first career TD pass.

Time Of Possession Solid

    The Guins, who ranked first in the FCS in time of possession averaging 35:06 per game in 2023, are currently first in the country again with a TOP average of 37:21.
    YSU held the ball for an eye-popping 42:17 against Duquesne after maintaining possession for 36:12 in the season-opening game at Villanova and 33:25 vs. Valparaiso. At Pittsburgh the Guins amassed 37:29 in possession time.
    Against the Dukes, the Guins had four drives that last 6:52 or longer while five featured 10-or-more plays. 
    At Villanova, all of YSU's three scoring drives were all 10 plays or longer - 15, 15 and 10. The Penguins had two scoring drives of longer than nine minutes in the game - 9:47 and 9:14. 

Specialists Keep Excelling

    The Penguins specialists are two of the most talented at the FCS level.
    PK Andrew Lastovka, who was 17-of-20 on field-goal attempts in 2023, has made all four of his attempts this season, including a season-long 46-yard boot at Pittsburgh.
    P Brendon Kilpatrick boomed a career-long punt of 65 yards in the opener at Villanova and added a punt of 63 yards at Pitt. He has 12 punts on the year and is averaging 42.7 per kick. As a team, YSU ranks third in the FCS in net punting at 44.3. Last year, Kilpatrick averaged 43.4 yards per punt which ranked second in a season in school history.

O-Line Features Experience

    YSU's offensive line has a plethora of experience with three players starting more than 30 games.
    That group features right guard Jaison Williams (43 starts), center Aidan Parker (41 starts), left guard David Metzler (32 starts) and left tackle Desmeal Leigh (17).
    New to the lineup this year is Shane Keenan who has started four times at right guard. Van Keen, who started twice at center in 2023, started at left guard the past two contests.

First-time Score

    WR Cyrus Traugh caught his first career touchdown pass on what was QB Beau Brungard's first career touchdown throw at Villanova.
    In the third quarter, and on a fourth down, Brungard found Traugh for an 18-yard score. Traugh finished the game with three catches for 42 yards.

New Look Defense

    Through four games, 11 different players have made their first career starts on defense for the Penguins. 
    Most recently, LB Preston Zandier started at Pitt. The week before, DT Tyler Bukur, DT Nehemiah Dukes and CB Jordan Rudolph were in the starting lineup against Duquesne.
    Against Villanova in the season opener, first-time starters were SS Stephon Hall, FS Makai Shahid, DB Kerion Martin and CB Isaiah Hackett, LBs Mike Wells and Devin Johnson and DTs Joe Brown and Jaelen Crider.
    Previous starters were CB Jaylen Castleberry, DE Dawan Martin and DE Hunter Allen.

Williams Garners Multiple Preseason Accolades

    Veteran OL Jaison Williams was named to multiple preseason FCS All-American teams.
    Williams was tabbed a preseason Second-Team All-American by FCS Football Central/SI.com and a third-team All-American by Stats Perform.
    In 2023, he earned second-team all-conference honors after being named Honorable-Mention All-MVFC in 2021 and 2022.

Five Earn All-MVFC Honors

    YSU had five preseason All-MVFC selections.  Garnering first-team accolades were OL Jaison Williams and TB Tyshon King. 
    Additionally, WR Max Tomczak was a second-team pick while long snapper Sam Merryman and placekicker Andrew Lastovka were honorable-mention selections.

2024 Team Captains

    YSU has elected five team captains for the 2024 season. The five players voted captains for the upcoming year are Jaison Williams (54), Tyshon King (10), Michael Voitus (42), Devin Johnson (45) and Logan Pasco (34). Williams and King are the offensive captains, Voitus and Johnson are the defensive captains and Pasco is the special teams captain.

Memorable Performance

    The performance against Valparaiso was one of the top all-around efforts in program history.
    YSU's 59 points tied for the seventh most in a game in school history. The 429 rushing yards were the eighth-most in a contest while the 554 total yards ranked as the 19th-best in program history.

Numbers of Note

• Turnover Margin: Since 1996, YSU is 158-48 when they win or tie the turnover margin. When committing more turnovers, YSU is just 30-92.
Since 1990 YSU is:
• 178-22-2 when holding opponents to fewer than 21 points in a game.
• 158-23 when rushing for 200-plus yards.
• 182-33 when scoring 28-or-more points.
• 97-14-1 when holding opponents to fewer than 100 yards rushing in a game.
• 211-23 when leading entering the fourth.
• 95-3-2 holding opponents to 10 points-or-less.
• YSU is 21-6 when a back rushes for more than 200 yards in a game.

Up Next:

    YSU plays its Homecoming contest against Indiana State on Oct. 5. Kickoff at Stambaugh Stadium for the contest is set for 2 p.m. It will be the Guins' first home game since Sept. 14.