Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Golden Rams continue torrid start
Golden Rams continue their torrid pace to start season
WEST GOSHEN » If you show up late for a West Chester football game these days, be prepared to miss a lot.
For those who happened to miss the first quarter of Saturday’s PSAC East opener at jampacked Farrell Stadium, they might as well have turned around and headed home. The Millersville deficit was already at 28, which included a pick-six, two touchdowns in a frenzied 10-second span, and five WCU sacks.
The 13th ranked Golden Rams were unable to keep up that crazy pace the rest of the way, of course, but still cruised to a 42-16 victory that was never in doubt. Now 4-0, WCU will begin defense of its division title next week when Shippensburg visits. That will be followed by a road trip to Bloomsburg.
“You do what we did in that first quarter and the sideline starts talking about when the backups are going to get in, and stuff like that,” head coach Bill Zwaan said.
“We are going to see some real teams going forward. We’ve done what we are supposed to do against the competition we’ve played, and now we’ve got to do it against good teams.” – West Chester University defensive coordinator Mike Furlong..
“And we just lost our edge. But got it back, but that’s something we have to be careful of.”
In the first month of the campaign, however, West Chester has outscored its first four opponents 176-43. This is surely the most dominant start to a season during the 16-year Zwaan Era.
“Statistically, it probably is,” Zwaan said. “But we haven’t played the best talent that’s coming.”
And the potential historical comparisons don’t end there. West Chester’s boasted plenty of potent offensive attacks since 2003, and this fall is no different. But now -- nearly half way through the regular season -- we can realistically say that the defense is shaping up as, perhaps, WCU’s best under Zwaan and well beyond.
“I think it is,” said longtime defensive coordinator Mike Furlong. “We are good at all three levels and in certain years, we’ve been good up front and not at the back end, or whatever. We are balanced, experienced, and we make adjustments very quick.
“We are going to see some real teams going forward. We’ve done what we are supposed to do against the competition we’ve played, and now we’ve got to do it against good teams.”
Despite the outcome, Saturday’s contest was concerning to Zwaan because after the great start, his team followed it with a noticeable lull. Most of what Millersville (0-4 overall) was able to do offensively was the result of some selfinflicted miscues by the Rams. The good news is that most were mental mistakes during a blowout that should be corrected.
“It’s disappointing because we let up,” Zwaan explained. “I really thought after the first quarter that we were doing exactly what we wanted to do, and then we were just flat in the second quarter.
“Give Millersville all of the credit in the world. They battled back but we made some bad plays that gave them opportunities. I’m a little disappointed we didn’t keep our foot on the throttle, but hopefully that’s a lesson we’ll learn.”
The Marauders first touchdown came after WCU turned it over deep in its own end. And a late Millersville field goal cut it to 28-10 at the half, but it only happened because of an ill-advised WCU penalty. Jaishon Thornton actually blocked an earlier field goal attempt but the Rams were whistled for a personal foul to hand Millersville a new set of downs.
In the meantime, the Rams were plenty productive on the offensive side. West Chester scored early TDs on a 40-yard run by Mark Dukes and an in-traffic grab by Rasheem James on a pass from quarterback A.J. Long.
“Long runs like that definitely get me going, but there is a lot that goes into a play like that, everybody from the offensive linemen to the wideouts,” said Dukes, who finished with a career-high 120 rushing yards. “It wasn’t just me.”
At 14-0, the defense then weighed in big-time. An interception by Jordan Burnley set up a 64-yard strike from quarterback Long to Bloomsburg transfer Ethan Price. And then 10 second later, safety Nydair Rouse came up with another pick and returned it 35 yards to make it 28-0.
“They never get old,” Rouse said of the fourth pick-six of his college career. “This one felt like my first one.”
The Rams then wrapped up the scoring in the third quarter on a scoring run by Mike Class, and another Long-to-James hookup. The final TD came after WCU’s Sterlen Barr recovered a loose ball on a pooch kickoff.
“We did some nice things at times,” Zwaan acknowledged. “We still need to get to the point we are doing it all of the time.
“We have to keep getting better each week. It looked like we were early, but then we flattened out. In order to win the PSAC East, we have to keep getting better. And we really didn’t do that this week.”
In all, the defense forced three turnovers, allowed just 17 yards on the ground and equaled the school record with 10 sacks, including two each by Ch’aim Smith, Tyler Morrissey and Diquan Gilbert.
“With the guys we have on defense, we shouldn’t be giving up anything,” said Rouse, a senior. “We’re ready for anything coming our way. It’s just an obstacle that we have to get over.”
The run game accounted for 218 of WCU’s 353 of total offense. Long was a pedestrian 8 of 18 for 135 yards, three TDs and an interception.
“There is no such thing as a bad win, but it was kind of ugly,” Rouse admitted. “We got a little tentative. We’ve been dominating teams, but we have to figure out how to take that next step in order to be great.”
Dukes added: “A lot of teams have made things uncomfortable for us, but every time we’ve responded.”