In its first game, the Northeastern football team lost an overtime heartbreaker. In week two, well, OT wasn’t a concern.
The concern was the brand of blunder-filled ball the Huskies displayed in front of 14,893 at Youngstown State University’s (Ohio) Stambaugh Stadium Saturday. For the second time in as many games, NU failed to stop the run, giving up 267 yards. Offensively, the team managed just 70 rushing yards on 26 carries. In turn, they fell to 0-2 with a 35-16 road loss.
“We didn’t plan on being [0-2],” said coach Rocky Hager. “We did not play well on Saturday. We had mistakes on things we normally don’t do.”
A week after giving up 199 yards to Georgia Southern’s Jermaine Austin (and 474 total rushing yards), NU yielded 198 to Youngstown’s Monquantae Gibson, including a 72-yard touchdown on YSU’s third play of the game.
“It’s a concern, but it’s something we talked about on Sunday and we’re gonna work on this week at practice,” said senior cornerback Bismark Osei. “It’s something we’ve always been kind of known for, having good defense and stopping the run. Ever since I’ve been here we haven’t had a problem with it, but in two weeks, two running backs have put up some pretty big numbers on us.”
Youngstown took a 14-0 lead when Tom Zetts connected with Kyle Smith for a two-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter. NU sophomore Maurice Murray and Gibson then traded second-quarter rushing touchdowns before Husky kicker Miro Kesic cut the deficit to 21-10 early in the third quarter. Gibson’s third score, a one-yard plunge, made it 28-10 with four minutes left in the third.
The closest thing to a bright spot for Northeastern came from freshman quarterback Anthony Orio, who was 21 for 37 in passing for 247 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown to sophomore tight end Kendrick Ballantyne.
“His day was decent, not outstanding,” Hager said. “Very consistent. He missed a couple of reads here and there, but I think in the future those lessons will be put to good use.”
