Ship thumps sluggish WCU

Offense manages just one late touchdown

Nobody was more disappointed when the West Chester football squad threw in a listless offensive effort at Shippensburg than veteran WCU head coach Bill Zwaan. But surprised? Not really.

“In the back of my mind I always thought that this day could come,” Zwaan said. “But since we were getting better, I thought we had gotten past it -- but obviously we haven’t.”

Just one week after staging the season’s most dominant performance, the Golden Rams imploded offensively on Saturday in front of a big Homecoming crowd at Seth Grove Stadium, falling to the Red Raiders 27-11. It was the fewest points WCU’s scored against the Red Raiders in 84 years.

“It was just a bad day offensively, between the penalties on the goal line, the interceptions, the fumble, and so many dropped passes,” Zwaan said. “And we had guys open we just didn’t hit.

“When you think about all of the mistakes, it’s hard to overcome that against anybody, but (Shippensburg) is a good football team. To overcome all of that, we would have to have things fall completely our way.”

Coming off the best outing of his career in a 30-point wipeout over Kutztown, redshirt sophomore quarterback Pat Moriarty reverted to some bad habits and started turning the football over at an alarming rate. In all, he threw three picks and added a fumble before being lifted midway through the third quarter in favor of backup Alec Werner.

“When you are young, inconsistencies from week to week is always a possibility,” Zwaan said.

“This one is on me,” Moriarty added. “I didn’t start our very good and didn’t get going until later.

“There are ups and downs – that’s football. One (game) you can be throwing five touchdowns and the next you throw three picks. It’s my job to put the ball in our receiver’s hands and I didn’t do it.”

Moriarty did return later to lead the Rams to their only touchdown, but it was too late.

“It was just a bad day offensively, between the penalties on the goal line, the interceptions, the fumble, and so many dropped passes. And we had guys open we just didn’t hit.” – West Chester coach Bill Zwaan

The PSAC East setback drops West Chester (4-3 overall) into a three-way tie for second place in the division at 3-1, a game behind the next opponent: Bloomsburg (4-0). The Rams will host the Huskies on Saturday at Farrell Stadium.

“We are going to see what is inside this team now,” Zwaan said. “They are going to have to dig down deep. We have a big game coming up, Homecoming against Bloomsburg. Maybe it’s the right time to play them.”

Before sitting out three second half possessions, Moriarty had four turnovers and a trio of threeand-outs on nine total possessions. And he did it against a Shippensburg pass defense that is, statistically, one of the worst in all of Division II.

“We were worried about our young QB playing like a young QB, and he did (Saturday),” Zwaan acknowledged. “But we didn’t get enough done around him so that when he was struggling, we weren’t able to pull (Moriarty) out of it.”

The defense played better, but was still gashed for 181 yards on the ground. And a seasonlong problem with unforced, ill-timed penalties reared its ugly head once again. And dropped passes were also an issue.

“Other than a couple long passes that hurt us, our defense kept us around as long as they could,” Zwaan said.

“It’s frustrating especially the way we played last week,” added defensive end Andrew Cohen (seven tackles, one sack). “It kind of surprised me, but you have to give credit to Shippensburg.

“We did not play our best. This one will hurt for a while but it’s all about how we come back. And with our guys, I know we are going to rebound.”

The Rams committed a pair of costly penalties to aid Shippensburg’s first touchdown drive. And another key infraction – pass interference – helped set up an SU field goal to make it 10-0 after the first quarter.

The defense then settled down but WCU’s Jekyll and Hyde offense was largely gruesome. The Rams’ first foray into the red zone was a precursor that ended disastrously. On first and goal at the SU three, back-toback offside penalties by the Rams started it off, and then Moriarty was picked off in the end zone to end it.

A 24-yard field goal by Brandon Paulison helped WCU avoid a first half shutout. But another Moriarty turnover, a fumble, late in the half could have been critical if not for a big quarterback sack by the Rams’ Ralph Reeves.

Things then actually went downhill in the second half. The Raiders turned another Moriarty mistake near the West Chester end zone into a TD to make it 17-3. On the very next possession,

Shippensburg widened the deficit to 21 on a 38yard strike against busted coverage. When Moriarty was then intercepted on the first play of the ensuing series, he sat down.

“It was obvious I was struggling. So they told me they were going to let Alec take his turn,” Moriarty said.

“At that point we just thought we couldn’t let Pat just keep going down because we may never get him back,” Zwaan explained. “There are going to be days were he is just not there and when that happens we just need to get him out, let him regroup and put him back in where he could have some success and he did.

“(Moriarty) is our quarterback, but we know what Alec can do.”

By the time Moriarty returned, the margin was 24 and it was well into the final period. He promptly led West Chester down the field, capped off by a TD to Jim Hurley on an eight-yard fade pattern. The two-point conversion made it 27-11, but the onside kick failed.

In all, WCU outgained SU 402-275. But the Rams were far-less productive on the scoreboard. Afterwards, Zwaan and Moriarty mentioned some lackluster practice sessions last week that may help explain Saturday’s letdown.

“I will be honest, I thought we were a little lethargic all week in practice,” Zwaan said.

“We didn’t come out and have the best week of practice,” Moriarty echoed. “Coach was talking about how the focus wasn’t there.”

NOTES >> Starting guard Vince Lostracco suffered a concussion last week against Kutztown and did not play. It was the second game this season that Lostracco has missed … West Chester’s leading receiver Shannon Mayer caught just one pass early and then left the game after re-aggravating an ankle injury. He did not return.