Ruiz Shines, Defense Stifles Robert Morris in 38-6 Victory

by YSU

Monday, Sep 19, 2016 10:22 am

Senior Martin Ruiz ran for 165 yards and scored three touchdowns to lead the 20th-ranked Youngstown State football team to a 38-6 victory over Robert Morris on Saturday afternoon at Stambaugh Stadium.

With the win, the Penguins improve to 2-1 while the Colonials fall to 0-3. The game was delayed one hour and six minutes with 1:52 left in the first quarter due to rain and lightning in the area.

The Penguins' defense, which recorded seven sacks for minus-66 yards, was stellar allowing just 103 total yards, including minus-13 yards on the ground. Of those 103 yards, 75 of them occurred on two plays. The Colonials recorded just six first downs and punted 12 times for 455 yards.

The YSU offense accumulated 431 yards in total offense, including 303 on the ground.

Ruiz carried 16 times for 165 yards and scored on a 21-yard pass from Trent Hosick and runs of 21 and a career-long 80 yards. Ruiz now has 33 career rushing touchdowns and ranks sixth all-time.

Hosick, who made his first career start, completed 6-of-12 passing for 112 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 31 yards on 11 carries.

His first career touchdown pass was the 21-yarder to Ruiz on the game's opening drive. He also hit Kevin Rader, who had two catches for 62 yards, for a 27-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter. It marked Rader's first career touchdown reception.

Leading the defense was Armand Dellovade with five tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack. Senior Derek Rivers posted the 28th sack of his career and fijnished two tackles and two quarterback hurries. Also credited with sacks were Avery Moss, Savon Smith, Cody Squiric, Donald Mesier and Curtis Parks.

The Penguins scored the first 24 points of the game on Hosick's 21-yard pass to Ruiz, a Ruiz 14-yard run, a Zak Kennedy 37-yard field goal and Hosick's 27-yard pass to Rader on fourth-and-three.

RMU got on the board after a 52-yard half-back pass from Sam Woods to Eldin Anu with 3:11 left in the third quarter.

On the next YSU play, Ruiz busted his career-long 80-yard touchdown run to put YSU up 31-6 with just 2:53 remaining in the quarter.

Tevin McCaster, who rushed for 87 yards on 11 carries, extended the Penguins' lead to 38-6 with a 19-yard touchdown run with 10:13 left in the fourth quarter.

The Penguins are idle next week and open Missouri Valley Football Conference action against South Dakota, Saturday, Oct. 1. Kickoff for the annual Hall of Fame Game is slated for 4 p.m. at Stambaugh Stadium.