Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes YSU tailback Ethan Wright (2) carries the ball during last week’s season-opening loss at Villanova. Wright was named MVFC Newcomer of the Week for his performance against the Wildcats.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State didn’t get off to the start it wanted to in its season opener at Villanova.

The Penguins weren’t able to take advantage of early opportunities when they presented themselves, they turned the ball over in critical moments, the offense struggled to move the ball at first and the defense wasn’t able to slow down the Wildcats’ run game for most of the game.

As a result, the focus this week in practice for YSU heading into its home opener on Saturday at 2 p.m. against Valparaiso (ESPN+/570 WKBN) has been fundamentals and correcting the issues that plagued it last week.

“Going into this week, the focus has been on us,” head coach Doug Phillips said. “We’re going to get ready for Valpo, we’re going to prepare, we studied film and all these things, but we gotta make a jump. Going from week one to week two, I always say this has to be the biggest jump.

“Where we did have mishaps was probably fundamentals that we work on each and every day, so we gotta be better fundamentally. We gotta be better tacklers, we gotta play with lower pad level, we gotta play with ball security — those are Penguin fundamentals. That’s three of the five, and those are the areas we gotta focus in on this week and really go into week two and make a huge jump in those areas.”

But even though there were shortcomings last week, Phillips noted how YSU was able to respond to the adversity it faced, particularly in the second half.

After a sluggish start, the defense was able to get a couple of stops and the Penguins’ offense strung together a pair of long touchdown drives that eventually gave them a chance to tie things up at the end of the game.

“I was proud of how we responded,” Phillips said. “We do talk about how you respond to adversity. … To see them fight in the third and fourth — because we got 40 new faces — so you don’t know until you play games. You can talk X’s and O’s and fundamentals, but how a young man faces adversity or faces success, that’s what we’re learning right now. What I like about this team is they fought, ran out of time though, but had the opportunity to drive down and probably tie the game. We probably would have went for two. But those are learning experiences that our kids have to learn.”

Much like last week against Villanova, YSU didn’t get off to an ideal start in last season’s 52-10 victory against the Beacons.

The Penguins led just 17-10 at halftime in last year’s meeting, but scored five unanswered touchdowns in the second half to put Valparaiso away.

YSU wants to do whatever it can to avoid a slow start again this week, according to running back Ethan Wright, who was named MVFC Newcomer of the Week for his performance against Villanova.

“What we’ve been preaching and what Coach Phillips was preaching this morning is that we gotta come out and start fast,” Wright said. “If you watch the film from last year, we didn’t come out and get where we needed to be or do what we needed to do so much in the first half. It was a closer game when it could have been a little bit more lopsided at that point. So we’ve really just been nailing it on the head that we need to come out fast, even in practice.”

The Beacons will be playing their second straight MVFC foe in as many weeks after falling to Northern Iowa 35-7 last week.

The Panthers had a huge day on the ground, running for 365 yards against Valpo. With YSU’s desire to establish its run game with two veteran tailbacks behind an experienced offensive line, the Penguins will look to take advantage on the ground as well.

“We’re going to have a lot of opportunities to run the ball,” Wright said. “I think our offensive line can really readjust the line of scrimmage, and that’ll be good for us. Just as running backs, we’re going to have to be patient and take what’s there for us.”

After starting the second half of the season last year for the Beacons, Rowan Keefe returns as Valpo’s quarterback after starting last week against UNI. Tyler Caron also saw time against the Panthers. But Michael Appel Jr., who started five games in 2023, including against YSU, until he sustained a season-ending injury, is also on the depth chart.

The Beacons have a deep stable of running backs to lean on that includes Barret Labus, Mike Mansaray, Ryan Mann and Brian Thomas. Each of them had breakout games throughout the season last year for Valpo.

“They got a couple of good running backs,” cornerback Jaylen Castleberry said. “(Mansaray), he’s pretty good — he’s a pretty shifty special teams guy. As far as catching and yards after contact, as soon as he gets it right off the return, boom, he gets vertical immediately. They do a lot of tricky stuff underneath, like switch routes between the two and three (receivers). So we’re going to be looking to make a lot of check downs, a lot of checks and move forward with that.”

On defense, the Beacons are a veteran group, led by redshirt senior defensive lineman Sam Hafner, senior linebacker Jimmy Pouba and senior defensive back Collin Graves. Pouba and Graves led Valpo with nine tackles apiece against UNI.

Kickoff is 2 p.m. on Saturday at Stambaugh Stadium.

Have an interesting story? Contact Neel Madhavan by email at nmadhavan@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @NeelMadhavan.