Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU quarterback Beau Brungard evades a Wildcats defender during the second half of the Penguins' season-opening loss at Villanova on Thursday night in Philadelphia.

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — Taking advantage of opportunities when they present themselves is something that YSU head coach Doug Phillips stressed coming into the Penguins’ opener against Villanova.

YSU missed on a handful of chances to build momentum against the Wildcats, particularly in the first half, and the woes just continued, as the Penguins dropped their season opener 24-17 to Villanova on Thursday night.

“You don’t get those opportunities back, and they made the most of their opportunities,” Phillips said. “We’re going to put the film on, and you are what you put on film. There’s going to be some positives and some things that I think we can correct. They didn’t do anything we didn’t prepare for or think we were going to get.”

YSU had its first chance of the game early on after the defense forced a quick three-and-out on Villanova’s opening drive. But the Penguins fumbled the ball in plus-territory after going for it on 4th-and-1.

Then on its next offensive possession, a 60-yard catch-and-run touchdown from Beau Brungard to Max Tomczak was negated by an ineligible receiver downfield penalty. The Penguins would end up punting on the drive.

After going down by two scores, on a must-score drive for the Penguins, YSU was forced to settle for a 27-yard field goal by Andrew Lastovka for its first points of the 2024 season.

With YSU set to receive the second-half kickoff, the Penguins had a chance to go two-for-one after getting the ball with 2:14 left in the first half. But instead, YSU quarterback Beau Brungard threw an interception on the drive before halftime and then the Penguins went three-and-out on the opening drive of the second half.

“We went against a great team, and we just made some mistakes and we didn’t capitalize on some opportunities that we had,” Brungard said. “That wasn’t pinned on one person, it’s just us as a whole team. We gotta play together, and we gotta capitalize on the opportunities that we get. But it’s a great opportunity to learn from this and go forward in the next game.”

After a solid start, YSU’s new-look defense struggled to keep the Wildcats from moving the ball.

Villanova went 42 yards on nine plays and scored three points on its first two drives. Then from there, the Wildcats’ offense scored back-to-back touchdowns with the two drives tallying 124 yards on 14 plays.

“All week we had a scheme, working on ways to stop them,” defensive tackle Jaelen Crider said. “At first, we got that first three-and-out, but then we kind of got away from what we were trying to do. Then we came out of halftime, and didn’t really change much. But we just executed the way we needed to, and stuck to the scheme and it ended up working for us.”

The Wildcats finished with 336 total yards, with 246 coming on the ground. Due to Villanova’s efficiency with the run game — the Wildcats averaged 8.2 yards per carry — they didn’t need to throw the ball much.

Instead, Villanova quarterback Connor Watkins was able to keep the Penguins’ defense on its heels with his legs. Watkins had just 90 passing yards, but he ran 10 times for 107 yards and two touchdowns.

“You gotta at least put maybe a linebacker spying on him, knowing he can break out,” Phillips said. “The one where he broke free, we’re in coverage, and he takes off on a draw. If you don’t spy him, or you don’t put somebody on him, that’s what happens. So those are things we gotta go back and correct. Game one, we learned a lot about ourselves, and now we gotta make a huge jump this week from week one to week two.”

YSU finally found some consistency on offense during the second half, as the Penguins went 72 yards in 15 plays during a drive that lasted more than nine minutes in the third quarter.

On fourth down, Brungard scrambled all the way to the right sideline and lofted a jump ball into the endzone, which was hauled in by Cyrus Traugh for an 18-yard touchdown.

Then, after Villanova missed a field goal, Brungard led the Penguins on an 80-yard drive in 10 plays that culminated in a one-yard touchdown run by Tyshon King to make it a one-score game with a little over four minutes left.

“We needed to find a little bit of rhythm, and I thought in the second half we were able to do that,” Phillips said. “Those long drives — those are hard drives when you don’t have a lot of explosive (plays). We gotta continue to work on pushing the ball downfield, and that’ll come.”

After a three-and-out by the Wildcats, YSU got the ball back with 2:27 to go — needing to go 93 yards for the game-tying touchdown.

But after picking up a couple first downs, Brungard dropped back looking for Max Tomczak over the middle of the field and threw his second interception of the game with 1:01 left.

“I had a ball to Max going up the middle, and he was open, I just threw it a little bit behind him,” Brungard said. “There was a window there for him to catch it, but I just threw it a little behind. It’s unfortunate. The guy made a good play, got his hands on it and was able to intercept it. Max ran a great route, O-line protected very well. I just gotta get the ball into the right spot at the right time, and that’ll be a big-time play.”

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. Villanova’s Richie Kimmel hauls in the game-sealing interception on a pass intended for YSU’s Max Tomczak during the Penguins’ final drive on Thursday night in Philadelphia.

In his first career start, Brungard finished 18-for-25 for 152 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. He added 82 yards on 16 carries on the ground.

“I certainly don’t think I played my best game in the first half,” Brungard said. “But my teammates, they believed in me and they got me going. We just played together as a unit that second half and we got everybody going. We just had confidence that we could do that, but it was too little too late.”

Villanova’s offense found success in the first half, while YSU was able to move the ball and score in the second half.

But it was YSU’s three turnovers, compared to Villanova’s zero, that was perhaps the biggest difference on the night between the two teams.

“We said we had to minimize mistakes, and we had way too many, whether it was fundamentals defensively, missed tackles or turnovers,” Phillips said. “On offense, it’s hard to come here and play the No. 6 ranked team and make those types of mistakes and try to get the win. So we’re going to learn from it.”

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