YOUNGSTOWN — Last season, Beau Brungard set a litany of records for Youngstown State en route to a record-breaking Walter Payton Award-winning campaign.
On Saturday, Brungard added two more to the list, throwing six touchdown passes and tallying eight total touchdowns to set both Penguins’ single-game records, as he helped lead YSU to a 70-13 demolition of Duquesne at Stambaugh Stadium.
While the records are one thing, the only thing that mattered to Brungard is getting the victory.
“The whole crux of why I came back was to win a championship for this city, for this team and that’s what the Lord’s called me to do,” Brungard said. “These individual things are cool. But I have players around me who help me do this. My whole purpose here is to win a championship. So a win’s a win, and whatever comes with it. But I’m here to win as a team.”
Brungard broke the previous record of five touchdown passes, which was set by Kurt Hess in 2011 against Missouri State and tied by Demeatric Crenshaw against Dayton in 2022.
All of Brungard’s touchdown passes came in the first half, as the Penguins built a 49-10 lead by halftime. He threw touchdowns to five different receivers, with Lynn Wyche-El leading the way with two.
All seven YSU possessions ended in a touchdown when Brungard was on the field. His last drive came on the opening possession of the second half, which ended with his final touchdown of the day.
He finished 20-for-23 for 290 yards and six touchdowns through the air, while also carrying the ball 14 times for 111 yards and two rushing touchdowns.
“We got the best QB in FCS right now, so whatever we do, we’re trying to get the ball back right back to him as fast as we can,” nose tackle Thomas Jolly said. “Get off the field and give him the ball because we know we got our best chance with him on the field.
“Beau is a different type of person. Getting here last year, being able to go and practice against Beau, it was almost like a wake-up call from my last school. It’s almost like a different speed of game to adjust to with how fast Beau is. So when you get to a game, it’s almost like it slows life down a little bit and makes things a little bit easier.”
Even after Brungard came out of the game early in the third quarter, YSU kept its foot on the throttle with Malachi “Bubba” Lewis in at quarterback.
Lewis completed his first-career touchdown pass at the start of the fourth quarter, hitting tight end Max Welter on a 54-yard seam route up the middle. Lewis also had his first-career rushing touchdown midway through the period on a 15-yard keeper.
His performance — 8-for-9 for 117 yards and the two touchdowns — earned him the game ball from head coach Doug Phillips in the locker room after the game.
“You have to look at the big picture and with what we have coming down the road here in the next couple weeks, you gotta have faith in your backups,” Phillips said. “To see Bubba go in and be able to run the offense — I didn’t like the first three-and-out, but to work through those and see him get into a flow. To see Bubba go in and have some success running the ball and throwing the football, we gotta get him ready.”
YSU’s 70 points are the second-most in program history and the most since the Penguins scored 77 against Valparaiso in 2011.
With the memory of their second-half collapse against Duquesne in 2024 in the back of their minds, the older Penguins wanted to make sure they didn’t leave any doubt about the result this time around.
“It was redemption for us. Two years ago, thinking back to playing them here and letting that one slip away, we still had that on our minds coming into today,” Brungard said. “That certainly motivated us all week. Then just coming out at half, just learning from last year, not letting up coming out of half, I thought the team did a great job. The mindset coming out at halftime, taking what we learned and applying it, seeing it come out on the field, it was awesome.”
After some miscues a couple weeks ago in the season opener, special teams really set the tone early for the Penguins.
Donald Barksdale had a long kickoff return after Duquesne kicked a field goal on its opening drive, which set up Jaden Gilbert’s 3-yard touchdown reception from Brungard.
YSU then had its first punt block since 2023 in the first quarter by Raleigh Collins III, which set up Brungard’s first touchdown run.
Finally, Wyche-El returned a punt 44 yards inside the 10, which allowed Brungard to hit Dorian Williams for a 6-yard touchdown on the next play.
“We wanted to go get momentum, create it, and how do you do that? So I think our special teams came out early and really created that momentum with the punt block and with the return game,” Phillips said. “You look at areas you can gain momentum, and I thought our special teams giving us great field position got everything rolling, especially our offense.”
Defensively, the Penguins bounced back from a rough performance last week against Kentucky.
The pass rush harassed Duquesne quarterback Carson Camp for most of the game, and YSU gave up 4.2 yards per play to the Dukes and held them to 3-of-14 on third downs.
“They did a nice job of getting the run game for them going. [Ness Davis] had 94 yards rushing, so the learning process, we’re going to learn each and every week, but then we gotta apply it the next week,” Phillips said. “Defensively, we knew we had to communicate better. After that first drive settling in, we got better in communication and leveraging the football.”
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