Rams deliever statement win

West Chester rolls over Slippery Rock, to face Concord in region semifinals

WEST GOSHEN >>

Despite what West Chester head coach Bill Zwaan believes of his team being ranked fourth in Super Region One of the NCAA Division II Tournament, he swore the Golden Rams weren’t making a statement to the NCAA.

Judging by how West Chester played for 60 minutes against Slippery Rock, a statement was made regardless of their seeding.

“I’m more mad about

it than they are,” Zwaan said. “I was just disappointed that the NCAA looks at us that way, so I was glad we showed them differently. It didn’t have any affect on them guys (his team). They’ll play wherever, whenever.

“We needed a win. We just happened to make a statement.”

Sean McCartney threw for 405 yards and five touchdown passes, all in the first half, as No. 15 West Chester routed Slipery Rock 46-20 in a NCAA Division II Super Region One FirstRound game at Farrell Stadium Saturday afternoon.

The Golden Rams (11-1) won a NCAA postseason game for the second consecutive year and will travel to top-seeded and undefeated Concord (11-0) of West Virginia in the Super Region One semifinals Saturday. Slippery Rock (9-3), the PSAC champions, ends its season with a first-round playoff loss for the second consecutive year.

McCartney, who recently was named Offensive Player of the Year in the PSAC East, had his best half of the season at the expense of the Slippery Rock secondary.

In addition to his five touchdowns, McCartney completed 17-of-31 passes for 328 yards in the first half as the Golden Rams built a 32-6 lead heading into halftime.

“Coming into the game, we knew (Slippery Rock) was going to play a lot of man-to-man,” McCartney said. “They’re a great ball team, but I just thought our athletes were better today. I just put the ball where it needed to be.”

Tim Brown and Mike Doty took advantage of the one-onone matchups in the middle of the field to help McCartney out. Brown finished with seven

“I’m more mad about it than they are. I was just disappointed that the NCAA looks at us that way, so I was glad we showed them differently. It didn’t have any affect on them guys (his team). They’ll play wherever, whenever.”

catches for 164 yards and three touchdowns, all of which came in the first half.

McCartney connected to Brown on a 33-yard touchdown strike to give West Chester an early 6-0 lead. After a 15-yard touchdown pass to Avon Grove graduate Brandon Monk gave the Golden Rams a 12-6 lead late in the first quarter, McCartney was just getting warmed up in the breezy air.

He found Doty on a 33yard score to put West Chester up 18-6 with 12:54 left in the second quarter for his third touchdown pass of the afternoon. Then, connected with Brown from 34 yards on the ensuing drive after Slippery Rock quarterback Zack Newsock threw an interception to make it 24-6.

Finally, McCartney found Brown in the end zone for 23 yards to put the game away with 28 seconds remaining in the first half. The Golden Rams’ final drive of the half took seven plays for 69 yards in 1:23 for that 32-6 lead.

“With the type of offense we run, it’s hard for opposing teams to match up,” Brown said. “If teams are going to try to cover me, then we got (Mike) Dody or someone else open. We can get open in so many different ways it just makes things easier for Sean (McCartney) to find us.”

Brown set a single-season record for tight ends at West Chester with 843 receiving yards. McCartney became the fourth quarterback in school history to throw for 9,000 career yards and is one touchdown (39) shy of tying the West Chester single-season record (40).

West Chester accumulated 573 yards of offense and held Slippery Rock to just 158 yards, 81 of which came when the game was out of reach in the fourth quarter.

The Golden Rams had four sacks on the afternoon, two were accumulated by Ronell Williams.

Regardless of what West Chester believes, the Golden Rams certainly made a statement in another impressive home playoff win.

The quest to repeat as Super Region champions continues in West Virginia Saturday. Playing six playoff games over the last two seasons give the Golden Rams a shot to knock Concord from the ranks of the unbeaten.

“Playing in the playoffs last year helped us a lot,” Brown said. “We know what we’re going into. It’s the time of year where you know you’re playing the best teams. We want to play the best team every week. Each time we know we’re going to give the opponent our best.”