Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State tailback Tyshon King takes off for a 62-yard touchdown against Valparaiso on Thursday. King rushed for 111 yards and two scores in his first game as a Penguin.

YOUNGSTOWN — It was a debut fit for a king. Tyshon King, that is.

With Dra Rushton held out of Thursday’s season opener against Valparaiso, Youngstown State turned to its newest addition to the backfield, the Division II Northern Michigan transfer, to lead the Penguins’ ground attack.

The senior made the most of his opportunity. In his first game donning the red and white, King piled up 111 yards and two touchdowns on just 11 carries, galvanizing YSU’s offense en route to a 52-10 victory over the visiting Beacons.

King was mostly pleased with the outing, but, ever the self-critic, demands more of himself.

“I had, by my standards, a pretty solid game. I could have had a cleaner game; it’s never as good or as bad as you think it is,” King assessed Tuesday morning. “Then you see it on the film. I had some stuff I could clean up that in our room, we take pride in, one being ball security. I was kind of loose, but I felt like with the flow of the game and the way that I was hitting holes and was playing physical, that’s something I pride myself on. So I felt like I had a solid game.”

It didn’t take long for King to make his presence known. On YSU’s second drive of the evening, King hit a hole up the middle and erupted for a 62-yard touchdown, his first as a Penguin, that put the Penguins in front 7-0. They never trailed the rest of the way.

He added his second score of the night in the second half at the goal line.

With 5:56 to go in the third quarter, the Penguins handed the ball off to King, who broke through a pair of would-be tackles before plunging into the end zone for the score.

The performance came as no surprise for King, but the Kankakee, Ill., native said he was happy to show his new teammates and program what he’s capable of doing.

“I know what I’m capable of on the football field,” King said. “I feel like I really showed YSU and the guys on the team that I’m more than a practice player, because everybody looks good at practice. When the lights come on, some people don’t show up, and I wanted to show that I came to this team to produce and help win games.

“That was the biggest thing — just show the coaching staff that taking a chance on me was the right decision. The guys who trusted me to go out there and start the game, that was the right decision. I just really want to build on that.”

It certainly was a welcome sight to YSU head coach Doug Phillips and his staff, though the fourth-year coach also didn’t seem to be surprised.

“We knew what he could do,” Phillips said. “He had enough film against very good competition in the GLIAC in Division II. They have very good football players. … We knew he was playing against good competition, and we knew he would have a good fit when he came in.”

Attracting him to Youngstown proved to be a task in its own right. Phillips noted that in addition to YSU, several FBS and Missouri Valley programs also were recruiting King. The fit was ideal, however, and the Penguins landed their prized back.

“We felt good when he came on a visit that being from Chicago, the Midwest, that he’d fit well with our players,” Phillips said. “For us, getting an older guy in that room besides Dra (Rushton) was what we needed, and I think he’s been a big help to those young guys. … The transition was pretty smooth.”

Still, there was a small learning curve according to King. In Youngstown State’s spread offense, huddles are a rarity and the run scheme is based on zone reads. King, meanwhile, played in under-center offenses his entire career up until YSU and worked in gap schemes and man blocks.

So when he arrived, King said it was an adjustment to pick up signals and calls from the sidelines as well as the motions and tempo of his runs.

“I really tried to focus on shifting from the way I’ve been playing, because it’s been more gap schemes and downhill (running), ISO, pullers, stuff like that. It’s more zone here, and I really took the time to watch the film. When you’re watching a guy like Jaleel (McLaughlin), or watching Dra get reps, they make it easy to show what you’re supposed to do,” King said.

“It took a while,” he also admitted. “The coaches would tell you it took a while for me to really start clicking with the zone reads.”

And, once Rushton is fully healthy, King says the backfield will only improve from here.

“It’s only going to be that much better,” he said. “Having me, Dra, (Da’Shaun Whatley), Cephus (Harris), Caleb (Mitchell), all those guys, I feel like we have the best room in the country. Our guys, we know we have big shoes to fill — that’s obvious — but we feel confident in the guys we have in the room and we feel like we can make up for that production.”