Undefeated West Chester Set To Battle East Stroudsburg
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Division II West Chester Golden Rams now sit at 5-0 on the season as they get ready for a key match-up with East Stroudsburg on Saturday at John A. Farrell Stadium.
The Golden Rams held off California University of Pennsylvania this past Saturday, 38-31, to remain undefeated.
"We did a really nice job, especially on our offensive line," West Chester head coach Bill Zwaan tells KYW Newsradio. "I thought those guys really carried the day for us. We were able to run the ball against a team that hasn't given up a whole lot of yardage on the ground. And especially in the fourth quarter, we pretty much ate 12 minutes of clock in the fourth quarter by being able to put two drives together to finish the game off for us. It was a really hot day, and it was really tough on those offensive lineman, but they did a great job for us down the stretch."
Once again, the Golden Rams got a big performance in a big game from senior running back Rondell White. Against Cal, White carried the football 34 times for 145 yards and two touchdowns. He also caught a team high four passes for 36 yards. For the season, White has rushed for 764 yards and ten touchdowns and caught a team high 26 passes for 292 yards and two more scores.
Bill Zwaan Interview
"You can just keep going back to him, going back to him, and eventually he's going to crack something and get us a first down or get us into the end zone," Zwaan says. "And the fact that he catches the ball so well coming out of the backfield, he runs great routes, our quarterback feels really comfortable, Sean (McCartney) loves throwing to him. He'll get himself open and go get a first down for us. He just keeps those chains moving."
East Stroudsburg is 4-1 this season and last week they beat Clarion 48-28. The Warriors are averaging 42 points a game.
"Good quarterback (Matt Soltes) who has done a nice job of running their offense," Zwaan says. "They've got good quality players at all the skill positions. They have a good tight end (Steven Jones) this year. They haven't really played with a tight end much (in previous seasons) but this year they are. So they've got a lot of skill on offense and they can move the ball and score points. They're averaging more yardage than we are and we have a pretty good offensive group. So we're going to have to find a way to corral them, at least slow them down to a certain extent."
West Chester also averages 42 points per game, so Zwaan expects a pretty high-scoring affair.
"We're going to have to put enough points on the board to win the game because there's no way were going to keep these guys out of the end zone," Zwaan says. They're just too good of a football team. So we've got to make sure that we hit on all cylinders offensively, as far as penalties and no turnovers and that kind of thing, so we can get enough points to get this job done."
Last season West Chester lost to East Stroudsburg on the road 35-28 as the Warriors scored the winning touchdown with five seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Saturday's match-up will kick-off at 2:00pm.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
