Widener And Del Val Battle For Keystone Cup And More Saturday
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – It is arguably the game of the day in Division III college football on Saturday as Widener and Delaware Valley College meet up in Chester.
The Keystone Cup is up for grabs in this one. That's given to the winner of annual meeting between the two rivals. But thats just the start of what is at stake. If Widener wins, they capture the MAC title outright and the automatic berth in the playoffs that goes along with it. An Aggie win would give them a piece of the conference crown, and possibly that automatic playoff berth.
Widener is 8-0 on the season while Delaware Valley College has won seven straight after an 0-2 start. Pride head coach Isaac Collins says the Aggies have hit their stride.
"We're seeing the four-time defending MAC champs," Collins says. "It's unfortuante they had a couple of tough ballgames early on where I think they were kind of getting some young guys broken in. But right now they are clicking on all cylinders. Defensively, they look every bit as sharp as they've looked in the previous two years. Look faster in some cases."
Listen To Podcast With Isaac Collins:
Delaware Valley head coach Jim Clements talks about what has allowed them to run off the seven straight victories.
"We've been respecting the football. We haven't turned the football over," Clements says. "And I think defensively we started to take away the ball and set up our offense with field position and score on defense."
Clements says that defense has to come up big against a Widener offense that scored more than 52 points a game.
"They hurry up, so they don't give you a real lot of time to substitute personnel in there," Clements says. "They spread it around. You'd think that they're just throwing the ball all over the yard, but they are very balanced. They mix up the run and pass very well, they've got capable running backs. They're good up front. They've only given up three sacks. So that tells you a lot about their offensive line and it tells you a lot about their quarterback (senior Chris Haupt) who has got a lot of experience, gets rid of the ball quick, makes his reads, knows where to go with the football."
LISTEN: Matt Leon interviews Jim Clements
Collins says his defense also will have its hands full trying to slow down the Aggie offense.
"We've got to find a way to contain their quarterback (Aaron Wilmer). He hurt us last year on some key scrambles, on a couple quarterback runs. I think it starts with him. If we can keep him contained and make him throw from the pocket and try to find ways to disrupt him even when he is in the pocket, I think that'll help. Then second on the list, we have to stop their run game."
Last year Del Val won the Keystone Cup with a 56-28 win in Doylestown.
Saturday's game in Chester kicks-off at 1:00pm.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
