The UNI football team suffered a tough loss to Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) foe Youngstown State on Nov. 10  with blowout score of 31-10 in Stambaugh Stadium in Youngstown, Oh. This comes after a hard-fought victory against the thirteenth ranked Illinois State Redbirds a week earlier at home.

In this match, the Panther defense let very few big plays break loose, but still were unable to stop Youngstown State from scoring.  UNI most certainly needed more assistance on the defensive side of the ball as they allowed Penguins quarterback Montgomery VanGorder to complete 13 of 22 passes for 209 yards and a touchdown. The Panthers also struggled to contain the running game as they allowed running back Tevin McCaster to break free for 142 yards on the ground. UNI would end the game having given up 401 total yards of offense to the Penguins.

Williams picked the ball out of the air, recording an interception and a return midway through the fourth quarter. This effort soon backfired as the Panther offense came out and fumbled the ball on a high snap from the center. Youngstown State recovered the ball at the UNI 36 yard-line and the defense was back on the field following Williams’ interception. 

The Panther offense struggled as well, only putting up 192 yards of total offense in this matchup in the frigid mid-November weather. On the ground, UNI ran the ball 35 times for 119 yards of their 192 total yards.

Quarterback Eli Dunne completed only eight of 22 pass attempts for 73 yards and one touchdown in the loss. Running back Marcus Weymiller tallied the majority of the team’s rushing yards with 89 yards on 19 carries. 

Tyler Hoosman also had an impactful game recording 71 yards on 10 carries against the Penguins. UNI first got on the board with a four-yard pass from Dunne to Briley Moore in the corner of the end zone. This amounted to be the only touchdown of the day scored by UNI, with Austin Errthum adding three points to the scoreboard with a 34-yard field goal. 

The fate of the 2018 season now rests in the final game of the regular season for the Panthers (5-5) on Saturday, Nov. 17, against the Missouri State Bears at 4 p.m. in the UNI-Dome.

With the football championship subdivision (FCS) playoffs set to begin in two weeks and the MVFC crown in the hands of the North Dakota State Bison, the Panthers will need to play a strong game to convince the FCS playoff selection committee to put them into the 24-team field.