By ED PUSKAS , Tribune Chronicle Sports Editor
YOUNGSTOWN - Things got offensive early and stayed that way Saturday during Youngstown State's second major scrimmage of spring practice.
Big plays were a recurring theme and former Warren G. Harding High School standout Pat White provided more than a few himself. The 6-foot-6, 225-pound senior wide receiver caught 10 passes for 206 yards and five touchdowns.
"We took a step forward today," White said. "But we have to be more consistent."
White caught touchdown passes of 70, 49, 8, 21 and 20 yards. Three of YSU's four quarterbacks threw scoring passes to the Warren native. White had a glaring size advantage against sophomore cornerback Matt Romeo, a 5-foot-9 Boardman product, who often drew the difficult assignment of covering the Penguins' tallest receiver.
"This is what I'm expected to do," White said. "One day at a time, be consistent, watch film and get my routes together and I'll be good."
YSU coach Eric Wolford also stressed consistency when asked about White's big day.
"Pat White made some nice plays today," Wolford said. "Pat White's situation is that he's tremendously talented and we have to find some consistency with him. That's why we're out here doing it and putting him in situations where Pat White can be a threat. But Pat's got to learn to be consistent. It's just day-to-day focus."
The rest of the Penguins accounted for nine more touchdowns. Junior tailback Jamaine Cook scored four touchdowns on runs of 37, 2, 6 and 76 yards.
"The offense stayed consistent," Cook said. "We didn't come out and score then get lax. We came out, started pounding on the defense and gave them everything we had."
Cook's final touchdown came at the end of the workout, as YSU replayed the final four minutes of its loss to Western Illinois last season. It was a game in which the Penguins were unable to maintain a late lead by working the clock and picking up a critical first down.
This time, the Penguins' offense got the necessary yards, a first down and more when Cook broke through the line of scrimmage and won a footrace to the end zone.
It was a fitting end to the scrimmage.
"You have an opportunity there with four minutes left on the clock," Wolford said. "As an offense, you have the lead and you want to try to eat up the clock, stay in bounds, take care of the ball and not turn it over. We ended up popping a big run there for a touchdown to give us a 10-point lead, and hopefully win the football game."
While the offense seemed to have the upper hand, senior defensive end Daniel Stewart was a force with four sacks. All the quarterbacks sported YSU's black "no contact" jerseys, so the sacks came when defenders were able to simply get a hand on the passer.
Even so, Wolford wasn't thrilled that the front four was able to get there.
"We're probably getting a little too much of a pass rush for my liking," the second-year coach said. "That means we're getting better on the defensive line and that's a positive thing. We have to get better on offense to protect (the quarterback)."
Stewart - with a low center of gravity at 6-foot and 250 pounds - was often able to beat his man and get to the quarterback several times.
Just not often enough to prevent the nine scoring passes.
"Yeah, we take that personally," said Stewart, a senior who came to YSU a year ago as a junior-college transfer. "We like our offense to score touchdowns, but not against us in practice."
ON THE MARC: Senior quarterback Marc Kanetsky was sharp. The Hubbard product was 15-of-17 for 241 yards and four touchdowns - three of them to White.
Kanetsky threw scoring passes of 70, 8 and 20 yards to White and 6 yards to Andre Barboza.
Sophomore Kurt Hess, the Penguins' returning starter, was 13-of-26 for 164 yards. He threw a 54-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Juilian Harrell. Sophomore Najee Tyler was 5-of-6 for 80 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown pass to Barboza.
Redshirt freshman Patrick Angle completed just three of his eight attempts, but two of them went for touchdowns. The first was a 62-yard pass to redshirt freshman wideout Jacob Dragovich. The other was a 21-yard strike to White.
RUNNING MEN: No other running back approached Cook's 170 yards. Sophomore Torrian Pace had 47 yards on 13 carries. Sophomore Allen Jones had 35 yards on 13 carries before suffering an injury to his left knee midway through the workout.
YSU trainers examined Jones on the field briefly, but the Ursuline graduate made his way to the bench on his own, albeit with a pronounced limp. Trainers were later seen examining Jones' left knee, which soon sported an ice pack as practice continued.
Jones did not return to the field.
GETTING SOME KICKS: All the touchdowns left few opportunities for junior David Brown, the lone placekicker currently on the Penguins' roster. Sophomore Nick Liste, a Niles native, is YSU's punter.
"We've got to keep working on our kicking situation," Wolford said. "We've got to get Mr. Brown to settle down a little bit and get the rhythm down. The snaps were off quite a few times, which is uncharacteristic of us. We've got to keep working on that and get that part of the game down."
Brown's only field goal of the day was a 37-yarder.
epuskas@tribtoday.com
