YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Missouri State's 2017 season came to an end with a 38-10 setback to Youngstown State on a cold and rainy afternoon Saturday at Stambaugh Stadium. The Penguins scored the first 24 points of the contest and never looked back, using a 284-yard rushing performance to secure their sixth win of the season.

Tevin McCaster rushed for a game-high 181 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries, and the Youngstown State defense held the Bears to 223 yards of offense—and just 5-of-21 passing for 45 yards. The Penguins also limited MSU to just 2-of-14 third-down conversions, while YSU's offense was successful on 7-of-13 third-down tries.

Youngstown State utilized its punishing ground game, a pair of long offensive drives and a special teams touchdown to build its 24-0 advantage. After Zak Kennedy capped an 11-play opening drive for YSU by booting a 30-yard field goal, an errant snap on a Bears' punt led to the game's first touchdown. Punting from his own 31-yard line, Brendan Withrow couldn't come down with a high snap that ultimately ended up in the end zone, where Penguins Samuel St. Surin fell on it for a 10-0 YSU lead.

McCaster carried a heavy load on a 10-play, 80-yard drive that chewed 5:42 off the clock. The junior accounted for 45 of the Penguins final 59 yards, including a six-yard scoring run with 11:52 to play in the half. The Penguins would need just five plays to add to their cushion, using runs of six and seven yards by McCaster, an eight-yard completion to Alvin Bailey and a 34-yard touchdown run by Joe Alessi to make it a 24-0 advantage for the home team.

The Penguin defense sparked the early surge with a shutdown performance of its own, limiting the Bears to 81 yards of offense over the first 30 minutes of play. MSU quarterback Peyton Huslig and freshman tailback Myron Mason provided most of that production, combining for 86 rushing yards. But Huslig completed just 2-of-8 passes—both to Malik Earl—for 14 yards in the half, as the Bears failed to convert any of their first five third-down attempts and finished the half a combined 1-for-8 on third and fourth downs.

Missouri State turned in an inspired third quarter effort, holding the Penguins to 37 total yards while doubling its first-half offensive output. Held to four first downs in the opening half, the Bears moved the chains six times during a 15-play, 80-yard drive, highlighted by Huslig's 48 rushing yards on nine carries. His 11-yard run moved the Bears into the red zone for just the second time on the day, and Zach Drake would drill a 28-yard field goal to put the Bears on the board with just over three minutes to play in the period.

But that would be as close as the Bears got down the stretch, with McCaster putting the finishing touches on his fourth 100-yard rushing performance of the season with a game-sealing 28-yard scoring run with 10:01 to play. Mason gave the Bears their lone touchdown of the afternoon with a four-yard run that punctuated a 13-play drive, before Ricky Davis scored from 10 yards out for YSU with just 0:50 left on the clock.

Huslig, who rushed for 124 yards on 24 carries, turned in his third 100-yard rushing effort of the season, capping a standout debut season that saw the sophomore rack up 2,599 yards of total offense to finish among the top five single-season totals by a Bear. Mason logged a career-best 67 rushing yards on 11 carries, while Earl caught four passes for 37 yards.

Postgame Notes:  With four catches for 37 yards, Malik Earl capped his Missouri State career with 147 receptions, moving past Julian Burton into second place on the Bears' all-time list, just three behind record-holder Clay Harbor (150)…Earl also finished fourth on MSU's career receiving yardage list (1,962) and his 56 receptions for the year handed him the seventh-best single-season total in program history…Peyton Huslig passed DeAndre Smith's 1989 season total of 2,530 total yards on MSU's list of single-season total offense, good for fifth in program history…Huslig's total of three 100-yard rushing games is second only to Smith's four in 1989 for a Missouri State quarterback…Zach Drake booted a 28-yard field goal to put the Bears on the board, extending his streak of at least one successful field goal try to eight straight games, dating back to Sept. 23; that string matches Danny Gasser's streak spanning the 1984 and 1985 seasons as the third-longest in school history…MSU's 15-play scoring drive in the third quarter represented their second-longest of the season, trailing only a 20-play drive vs. Illinois State on Sept. 23; the possession extended 7:51, which also marked MSU's second-lengthiest of the year.