Youngstown State Ends Duquesne’s Season 40-7
Tagged under: Gameday Hub, News, Non-PIAA, pfn, Playoffs
Shane Lux | November 26, 2023
Youngstown – Duquesne falls 40-7 to Youngstown State in the opening round of the FCS playoffs.
Duquesne had plenty to be proud of during their 2023 campaign. The Dukes finished their best record since 2021 and enjoyed their first postseason appearance since 2018.
But in the end, Youngstown State proved too much, ending Duquesne’s season Saturday night at Stambaugh Stadium.
“Congrats to Youngstown State on an outstanding game, and I wish them nothing but the best moving on,” said Duquesne head coach Jerry Schmitt. “We would’ve liked to have played a better football game. Some of it was forced, but we didn’t play as well as we could have. There were some great efforts on our football team. We just collectively, across the board, could have played better.”
The Penguins started the scoring on their initial drive when C.J. Charleston caught a 9-yard touchdown from Mitch Davidson – the drive’s big play was Davidson’s 45-yard completion to Bryce Oliver.
Andrew Lastovka connected on a 34-yard field goal to extend the lead to 10-0 following a 7-play 33-yard drive. It would be the first of four field goals by Lastovka.
Duquesne then put together their best drive of the night, marching 80 yards in nine plays, scoring on Edward Robinson’s 24-yard run with 1:06 remaining in the first quarter.
Robinson rushed for 31 yards on four carries, while Taj Butts led the Dukes, running for a game-high 44 yards on seven attempts.
Despite gaining 80 yards on their touchdown drive, Duquesne only managed 68 yards the rest of the contest as they rushed and passed for 74 yards, gaining 148 total yards of offense.
“As good as they were upfront, we knew it would be a strain to try and run the ball consistently the whole game,” Schmitt said. “We’ve made a living this year running the ball consistently. That’s what we did on that drive. We put ourselves in situations in the other series where we were in long yardage downs. We didn’t stay ahead of the chains. When you miss a block or a read against these guys, they will make you pay with a loss of yardage or no gain.”
The Penguins added a pair of second-quarter touchdowns as Dra Rushton scored on a 2-yard run, while Bryce Oliver set the Youngstown State school record for touchdown receptions in a career with 26 on his 21-yard pass from Davidson with 35 seconds to play in the half.
“We planned to get after them on third down,” said Duquesne linebacker Gianni Rizzo. “We blitzed them, and their guys made plays. When you play cover 1, that kind of stuff happens. They could throw the ball deep to Bryce, and their backs made some plays too. That’s a credit to them.”
A Kentucky transfer, Oliver caught a game-high eight passes for 181 yards and a touchdown. Davidson threw for 316 yards with a pair of scores. Tyshon King added a game-high 101 yards rushing.
In the second half, Andrew Lastovka made field goals of 25, 40, and 50 yards before backup quarterback Beau Brungard closed the scoring with a 3-yard run late in the fourth quarter following a 16-68-yard drive that ate up nearly 11 minutes.
Duquesne closes their season at 7-5.
“There’s lots of great people with this program,” said Duquesne graduate student and offensive lineman Michael Dorundo. “I’m happy with how the season went; it’s not the outcome we wanted. But there will be 23 teams disappointed that they didn’t win the championship. Congrats to Youngstown State. They played a great game. I’m proud of everyone with this program and the accomplishment of a conference title.”
Youngstown State improves to 8-4 on the season and will travel to take on Villanova in the FCS second round next Saturday at noon. The Wildcats sport a 9-2 record.
“We wanted to get a playoff win, not only for our seniors but our program and community,” said Youngstown State head coach Doug Phillips. “We haven’t been perfect this year, but we knew coming into the season that we needed to learn from our previous mistakes. Our defense played outstanding tonight. We had the ball for 42 minutes, which is a long time in a football game. When our defense was out there, we had some three-and-outs, returning the ball to our offense. We made some explosive plays on offense, which helped.”
Game Highlights:
Box Score – https://goduquesne.com/sports/football/stats/2023/youngstown-state/boxscore/19346
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