Penguins prepare for No. 1 ranked team in country

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — The YSU football team will travel to South Dakota State on Saturday to take on the two-time reigning national champions, a team they haven’t beaten in seven years.

Watch the video above to hear from the team as they prepare for the Jackrabbits.

“Obviously, they’re the number one team for a reason,” said Penguin’s defensive back Kerion Martin. “So we can’t go out there and play the way that we’ve been playing the past couple of weeks, not playing a full game. That will never give us a chance. We’ve got to give ourselves a chance by playing a full 60 minutes.”

“It’d be huge for us,” said Penguin’s punter Brendon Kilpatrick. “Coming off last week, I think we’ve got some momentum. So we’re going to go into this week, give everything we got and yeah, it’d be huge.”

“Is there an opportunity this week? Yeah, we’re playing the number one team in the country and they’re in our league. You’re always going to have the number one team in the country in our league,” said YSU head coach Doug Phillips. “So for us, it’s still about us. And can we get the Penguins to be able to play for 60 minutes? If you do those things, and you can execute, you give yourself a chance in every football game that you play.”

The Penguins and Jackrabbits kick off this Saturday at 3 p.m. in Brookings, South Dakota.

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