Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
WCU dominates Bentley in opener
West Chester University dominates Bentley on the road to kick off promising season in style
WALTHAM, MASS. » The season opener was everything Bill Zwaan hoped it would be, and he is expecting big things for 2018. But West Chester’s longtime head football coach was certainly happy to see it.
His Golden Rams overwhelmed Bentley, 44-6, on Thursday evening, and they did it on the road in truly dominating fashion. The WCU defense was stout, the offense was multi-faceted and the final score was no fluke.
“We’ve talked a lot about the things we can do this season, so it felt good to put it into action,” said sophomore Nate Barnes, who had a big debut as a linebacker.
“You don’t really know until it gets on the field, and we had some young guys we are counting on who did a nice job for us,” Zwaan added.
“I’ve been saying it since the spring, I really thought our front defensively was going to be good, but you want to see it happen. Well, they were really good.”
Thanks largely to the front seven, West Chester held the Falcons to just 63 yards of total offense, sacked Bentley quarterback Stephen Sturm six times and forced three turnovers.
“There was a ton of positives to this game, for sure,” Zwaan said.
“That’s the way we are going to have to be. We’ll be good on offense, but we are going to need some help from out defense, and they helped us tonight.”
The lopsided outcome is sure to raise eyebrows across the NCAA Super Region 1. The Rams entered the clash unranked nationally (that will almost certainly change) but are favored to successfully defend the PSAC East title from 2017. And WCU can’t afford many slip-ups due to its 10-game schedule.
“People probably underestimate us right now, and that’s OK,” Zwaan said. “I hope everybody keeps underestimating us.”
For the third time in as many years, West Chester debuted its season with a win over the Falcons from the Northeast 10 Conference. This was arguably the most impressive, however. And keep in mind that the Rams prevailed at home a year ago by 42.
“We did this to (Bentley) last year, so you don’t quite know what it means, but I feel like we did a good job against a good opponent,” Zwaan said.
“We’ve been itching to hit a different color jersey and we finally got the opportunity and made the most of it,” Barnes added.
The Rams raced to an early lead and never looked back by taking advantage of two turnovers and eventually turning them into touchdowns. Overall, the offense averaged nearly six yards per play and rolled up 433 yards. The defense had eight tackles for loss.
“It was a good performance for sure, especially for an opener,” Zwaan said. “There were a few mistakes here and there, but things we can correct.
“I was really impressed with how physical we played up front on both sides, and how hard our running backs ran the football. And then we made plays when we needed them.”
Incumbent starting quarterback, Paul Dooley, was suspended for half the regular season by the NCAA after testing positive for a recreational banned substance at the end of last season. But his replacement, junior A.J. Long, was a dangerous duel threat throughout, accounting for four touchdowns and 238 yards of total offense.
“Besides one play, we executed incredibly well as an offense tonight,” said Long, who threw a first half interception.
“It doesn’t matter how many games we have or who is our opponent, if we come in and everybody does their one-eleventh, we are going to win the game.”
Senior runner Mark Dukes ran for 101 yards and speedy sophomore wideout Rasheem James grabbed six passes, including a pair from Long. The final rushing numbers told the story as WCU had a commanding 249-13 yard edge.
“I heard that two years ago we came here (to Bentley) and came out flat,” said Long, who transferred from Syracuse in 2017. “As a leader on the team, I wanted to make sure everybody was ready to go. We came out and we brought it. Now we have to make sure we keep building on this.”
Back from an injury that cost him the 2017 season, defensive end Ch’Aim Smith forced and early fumble, and five plays later, Dukes opened the scoring. Not long after that, Long found the end zone on one of his two TDs on a quarterback keeper. West Chester then made it 20-3 on the first of two TD tosses from Long to James. It was set up by a Jordan Burnley interception.
The Rams added two more scores late in the second quarter on a 29-yard strike from Long to James and a short run by Mike Class to make it 34-6 at the half.
“A.J. made one bad throw, but that’s going to happen,” Zwaan said. “But he made a lot of other good throws and he ran it well. He’s a real weapon.”
After the intermission, West Chester added 10 more points before pulling its starters. The Rams out-gained the Falcons 295-25 in the second half.
“Our D-line tore their offensive front up,” Barnes explained. “They got good penetration, we were able to flush their quarterback out of the pocket and then wrap him up.”
In his first game after moving from the safety position, Barnes notched 3.5 sacks, had a fumble recovery and led the defensive with seven stops.
“Having my first game at linebacker is definitely something to build off of,” Barnes said.
“(Barnes) is so quick and he just knows football,” Zwaan added. “He finds his way to the quarterback. Seeing him next to (middle linebacker) Tyler (Morrissey) is going to be pretty impressive.”
With a solid 6-4 record a year ago, Bentley managed just two field goals. One came on a career-long boot of 46-yards and the other was after Long threw the pick, which was his only big mistake on the day.
NOTES » Bloomsburg transfer Ethan Price came up with a 53-yarder for his first catch in a WCU uniform. The play by the junior wideout set up the Rams’ second TD … West Chester unveiled its first new football helmet since the 2001 season. The new design incorporates a strip, which is the first time for WCU since 1965.