WEST CHESTER – For a football program that appeared to be on an upward trajectory, West Chester’s overall showing on Saturday was a shocker – not only for those wearing the purple and gold, but also a standing room only Homecoming crowd at Farrell Stadium.
Other than a few bright moments in the second quarter, the Golden Rams put forth a listless performance, on their way to a 45-14 PSAC East showdown against visiting East Stroudsburg. West Chester turned the ball over five times and allowed the Warriors to score the game’s final 38 points.
“Yeah, that’s terrible – there is no other way to put it,” said senior linebacker Connor Noble who, like most of the Rams, looked a bit stunned when it was over.
“We took one on the chin today,” added WCU head coach Duke Greco. “We need to be resilient and come back to work Monday and come together. Knowing this group, they will.”
Despite turning it over three times in the first quarter, the Rams (1-1, 3-2 overall) managed to escape relatively unscathed. The third was a fumble by tight end Thatcher Miller after WCU had marched 60-plus yards into the red zone. It led to a 13-play, 83-yard response by ESU (2-0, 4-1) to make it 7-0 early in the second period.
The Rams bounced right back to tie it on a thrilling improvised scramble by quarterback Cooper Jordan (Bishop Shanahan) that covered 52 yards. And then soon thereafter an interception by sophomore safety Jamir Reyes led directly to a 20-yard TD toss from Jordan to sophomore receiver Matt Iuvara with 57 seconds on the clock.
The Warriors, however, got a 43-yard field goal as time expired and it was 14-10 at the half.
On its first two possessions of the second half, West Chester went for it on fourth down in ESU territory and both failed. On the first Iuvara, dropped a pass near the goal line. On the second, Iuvara caught a pass that was short of the line to gain. Both led to East Stroudsburg touchdowns and a 24-14 deficit. It was a big turning point, and WCU never recovered.
“At the half we were in good shape,” Greco said. “We came out and you have to make a couple plays and we didn’t. And then the game turned.
“(On fourth down) we had a drop on one, and the other I should put our guys in a better spot.”
At this point, things began to snowball. Late in the third, Jordan hobbled off the field to give way to veteran backup Ethan Kohler. True freshman safety Peaky Roseborough ended an ESU threat in the fourth with an interception, but on the ensuing series, there was another dropped pass, a sack of Kohler and a penalty.
“It’s an ankle,” said Jordan, who did not return. “I couldn’t really do what I normally do, and that would have hurt the team. We have a good backup in Ethan, so it was decided that I should sit out.”
The Warriors then broke it open with another long drive that ended with a 31-yard TD catch by ESU’s Evan Roche against blown coverage on a fourth-and-six situation. Moments later, East Stroudsburg’s Ajani Walker notched his second rushing TD of the day to make it 38-14 with 4:10 on the clock.
And then, following a strip-sack of Kohler, ESU’s backup quarterback, sophomore Harrison Susi (Coatesville), ran it in on a 45-yard jaunt. Walker finished with 129 yards on the ground, leading the Warriors to 267 for the game.
“The turnovers early left our defense on the field a lot. They were just on the field way too much,” Greco said.
“We did not expect the second half to go the way it did,” Noble said.
“In the first half we held up for a while and limited (ESU) to 10 points. The second half we gave up a lot of yards – too many to be happy with. We have to fix that up.”
In all, the Rams were outgained 511-247, lost the turnover battle 5-3 and were a troubling 5-for-15 on third and fourth down conversions.
“In the second half, once we got into primarily pass situations – that is not our strength. We need to be balanced on offense,” Greco said.
“(ESU) has a good defense and they switched it up a lot, doing things that didn’t show up on tape,” added Jordan, who ran for 68 yards and threw for 98. “We had to adjust and didn’t do the best with it.
“It surprises me. We have a lot of talent on this team. It’s just really tough.”
After the game, both Jordan and Noble met with Greco and the team’s coordinators on the field. It’s quite clear that the leaders of the this team will have to find a way to learn from the biggest home clunker of Greco’s two seasons at WCU, and put it aside for the final six regular season outings.
“I definitely did not see this coming – we practiced well this week. I thought we were ready,” Greco said.
“There will be a lot of emotions in our locker room, but we are two older leaders so we have to steer the ship in a positive way,” Jordan added.
The Rams have a road trip to West Virginia for a PSAC East clash with Shepherd next weekend. Shepherd is 1-4 but coming off a victory against Millersville.
“Losing like this isn’t who we’ve been this season.” Noble said. “We have to get back to practice, keep getting better and work on things.
“This one stings but it’s a long season. There is always hope. We have all the faith in the world in our coaches. From a player perspective, we have to step up as older guys and keep the team going in the right direction.
“Last season we started 0-4 and we won four of the last six. This will hurt tonight but we will watch some film, have a good week of practice and get it rolling again.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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