By Scott Piker
PITTSBURGH, PA – After being let go last season by Nebraska, it didn’t take Bo Pellini long to find a new coaching home. In fact, Pelini returned home to take over as the new head coach of the Youngstown State Penguins.
While, Pelini wasn’t able to make his Penguins head coaching debut in front of the home fans at Stambaugh stadium, a short trip east on the turnpike to Heinz Field in Pittsburgh was the next best thing.
Plenty of Youngstown State red mixed in with the blue and gold of the Pittsburgh Panthers on the first Saturday of the college football season.
Pelini wasn’t the only head coach at Heinz Field making his debut with a new team. Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi was also hoping to leave the field a winner in game one with Pittsburgh.
Pelini had the Penguins ready to play from the opening kickoff. The Penguins forced the Panthers to go three and out on their opening possession of the game. Youngstown State would use that defensive stop as momentum and marched down the field and scored the first points of the game on a Zak Kennedy 22-yard field goal giving Youngstown State a 3-0 lead.
The rest of the first quarter belonged to Panthers outstanding running back James Conner. The junior running back rushed for all 77 yards in the the first quarter and a pair of touchdowns before leaving the game with a knee injury. Panthers lead 14-3 after the first quarter.
The second quarter was very uneventful until the final minute.
After both teams traded field goals to make the score 17-6, momentum shifted back and forth in the span of 20 seconds. The Penguins would get within four at 17-13 on a LeRoy Alexander interception of Chad Voytik that was returned 41-yards for a touchdown. The Panthers would get the momentum right back as Avonte Maddox would take the ensuing kickoff 89-yards for the touchdown after Maddox and a teammate collided into one another fielding the kickoff. Pittsburgh would take a 24-13 at the half.
The Panthers would rely on their running game to keep the Penguins from leaving Heinz Field with the upset. Pittsburgh rushed for 325 yards as a team. Qadree Ollison had 207 by himself as the replacement for the injured Conner. Ollison’s longest run and only touchdowns came in the third quarter, 71 yards to give Pittsburgh a two touchdown lead at 31-16.
Jody Webb would answer back for the Penguins with a 27-yard touchdown run in the final minute of the third quarter. Youngstown State was just down by eight at 31-23 heading to the fourth.
The Penguins just could not get a defensive stop when they needed it to give their offense a chance to tie the game. A couple of big breaks for the Panthers were back breakers for Pelini’s Penguins. The first was on the kick return late in the first half. The second came early in the fourth quarter.
Voytik would go deep for Elijah Zeise when all of a sudden tight end Scott Orndoff would end up in the same place as Zeise. It turned out to be a good thing as Orndoff would catch the ball off of Zeise and take it to the endzone for a 55-yard touchdown. Pittsburgh’s lead was back up to 15 again at 38-23 and the game was all but over.
Youngstown State didn’t quit as they scored two more touchdowns on a 77-yard pass from Hunter Wells to Andre Stubbs and a 75-yard touchdown run by Webb. It wasn’t enough as Voytik would sandwich a one yard touchdown run in between the Penguins scores and Pittsburgh spoils the debut of Pelini’s Youngstown State coaching debut 45-37.
Three Penguins turnovers and six Panthers sacks aided in the Pittsburgh victory for Narduzi in his Panthers debut. Both teams combined for 865 yards of total offense, Pittsburgh 458, Youngstown State 407. Pittsburgh played without their top wide receiver Tyler Boyd who was suspended for this game.
Pelini will make his home debut next Saturday against another team from the Pittsburgh area, the Robert Morris Colonials Pittsburgh will travel here to northeast Ohio to face the Terry Bowden and his Akron Zips at Infocision stadium.
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