YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio-It was Austin Peay State University's football that struck first but it was Youngstown State who shook off the Governors early licks to reel off 28 straight points to claim a 38-21 victory, Saturday, at Stambaugh Stadium.

Youngstown State, a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference, improved to 1-1 overall while Austin Peay, an Ohio Valley Conference member, fell also to 1-1. It was the first time the two teams met since Oct. 17, 1987 when both teams were members of the OVC.  YSU now leads the series 7-2.

Austin Peay jumped out to a 14-3 lead in the contest, but could not maintain its momentum. After the Govs held Youngstown State on its first possession, the Penguins were forced to punt. The Govs' Ricky Thomas came flying in to block the punt and by the time Adrian Mines was able to track it down inside the one-yard line he fell into the end zone for the touchdown.

YSU came right back to drive 55 yards but had to settle for a 31-yard field goal.

A fumble by APSU's quarterback Trent Caffee near the end of the first quarter set up another potential YSU drive at APSU's 49. But the drive ended when Daniel Becker stuffed Kevin Smith for a three-yard loss at the APSU four-yard line. Then Stephen Blose missed the chip-shot field goal, giving APSU the ball at its own 20. The Govs didn't stay there long.

After a Ryan White 11-yard run and subsequent personal foul penalty moved the ball near midfield, Caffee connected with Mines on a 43-yard pass to the three-yard line. Four plays later Caffee rolled right and dove into the end zone for the TD and a 14-3 Governors lead.

But Youngstown State, a four-time 1-AA/FCS champion, came roaring back. It took a fourth-down pass from Brandon Summers to the lanky 6-3 Aaron Pitts to gain the first down at the APSU 19-a pass barely out of the reach of the 6-0 Kit Hartsfield.

From there YSU literally took over the game. Summers finished off that drive by hitting Andy Cosgrove on a four-yard TD pass.

On the ensuing series, APSU had consecutive penalties from its own 20-yard line. The Caffee saw his pass to Jeff Lyle bounce off the fullback's hands right into Bryan Gaiters, who return the ball to the 10. Two Kevin Smith runs resulted in another Penguin TD and a 17-14 halftime advantage.

YSU continued that momentum to open the second half. After APSU was unable move the ball on its first series, the Penguins returned the punt block favor, recovering at the APSU 30. After a YSU first down, Summers then connected on a 20-yard TD pass to 20-yard TD pass to give YSU a 24-14 lead.

After another unproductive possession, the Govs gave the ball to YSU on a punt. This time the Penguins drove 51 yards, culminating with another Summers to Jones pass, this one for 18 yards. Summers finished the day 17 of 24 passing for 232 yards and four TDs.

APSU trailed 31-14 before finally stemming the momentum. The Govs drove from their own 25 down to the YSU four, largely on a 30-yard Darryl Miller pass catch and subsequent run to the four. Caffee and  What chance the Governors had to mount a comeback ended when APSU saw a fourth-and-four pass dropped inside its own 30. YSU then turned it into more points as it became a 38-21 contest.

Ntes: APSU finished with just 222 yards in total offense compared to 437 by Youngstown State...After rushing for more than 300 yards a week ago, the Governors had just 64 yards rushing on 41 carries... Quarterback Trent Caffee was sacked four times during the game while completing 13 of 23 passes for 156 yards...After rolling up 288 all-purpose yards offense against Newberry to lead the nation in that category, Terrence Holt was bottled up for the most part by Youngstown State. Although he had 156 in kickoff returns, He only had eight yards rushing and 11 in receiving in finishing with 184. He only averaged 22.3 yards per kickoff return... Austin Peay was led in tackles by senior linebackers Kit Hartsfield and Daniel Becker, each with 10...Becker also has 1.5 tackles for loss...APSU saw its string of games recovering a fumble end at four.

Rick Christophel post-game comments:

"They (Penguins) put people in the box and we knew they were going to do that. They did a lot with zone blitz. We needed to execute on short pass to take some pressure off the run game. They did a lot of good things and I don't want to take anything away from that."

"We missed a couple of passes early, but they did some nice things off the edge. You have to be able to run the ball in order to take pressure off the edge. Trent (Caffee) played well at times, but he got beat up in the fourth quarter. He's got to learn to get rid of the ball when pressure is coming. It will take a lot off his body if he can. He throws a deep ball very well. We can't keep putting him in situations where he's being chased. We also have to better our play action."

"I don't think we improved in tackling like we needed to. We've got to learn to eliminate certain routes. We know we have to give up some things, but I'd rather give up the little things. Against some offensive sets, we have to take away the crease and the slant. I told our kids after the game that I can live with a lot of things. But you can't play undisciplined football. If you do, you don't know how well you play. Our defensive line played well today. Chris Newell was very active; Rocky Peeler did a good job also. We have to do a better job at the line of scrimmage and we have to stop giving up the big play."

"This (YSU) game is not going to be any different than what we're going to be playing in the next two weeks. We have to play disciplined football, hard-nosed football. Defensively, we have to pick it up and offensively we have to get better. We have a lot to work on. We made some strides; we just have to keep going."