Fighting through adversity. After last season, West Chester lost a few players that were significant contributors and still had playing eligibility left, most notably wide receiver A.J. DePietro who started his working career and defensive end Byron Cooper who transferred to Widener where he was an AFCA All-American and a finalist for the Cliff Harris Award. While such losses are typical, they're still not easy.
Then just before camp opened in early August, defensive end Sean Boylan tragically took his own life. It was an event that made everyone associated with the program look beyond football and reflect on the things that matter in life. Ten days later, defensive tackle Dominic Toney and defensive back/wide receiver Russhon Phillips were removed from the roster due to legal issues.
The season opened at Bentley in Massachusetts,a state where West Chester had not played since 1991. A late-game pick six led West Chester to a narrow win, but the game was costly as starting defensive end George Shipp would miss the next seven games and senior wide receiver Jim Hurley would miss four games and be limited when he did play.
The Golden Rams returned home and took an 8-point loss to #12 ranked Slippery Rock. A long road trip to the northwest corner of the state saw West Chester return home 1-2 after a 54-51 double overtime loss to Edinboro. Injured in the contest was linebacker and team captain Ralph Reeves. Although the injury didn't appear serious, it would end Reeves' football career.
An expected throttling of Lock Haven had injuries that would cause starting quarterback Andrew Derr and senior wider receiver Shannon Mayer to both miss the next four games. A depleted roster couldn't keep pace with the Golden Bears on a rainy night in Kutztown and West Chester's record stood at 2-3, 0-1 in the the PSAC East.
Winning out wasn't enough as the Golden Rams would also need help to advance to the postseason. A convincing win against Shippensburg was followed by a dominating defensive performance at Bloomsburg. West Chester would win their remaining four games over Cheyney, East Stroudsburg, Millersville and Clarion by an average score of 44-9, but it was not enough for postseason play as the Golden Rams finished 8-3 and in second place in the PSAC East.
West Chester was troubled by penalties all season long. For the season, they were flagged 96 times for 881 yards. Their 8.7 penalties per game ranked 141st and 80.1 penalty yards per game ranked 140th out of 170 teams in the country. In five games, they were flagged at least ten times. Ironically, the two teams that played for the Super Region 1 championship - Shepherd and California - were even worse.
West Chester was 4-1 on the new turf in Farrell Stadium (Photo R&R Photography)
Captains Kevin Malone, Doug Gilbert and Ralph Reeves (Photo Ron Hockman)
Coach Zwaan went 8-3 in a challenging season (Photo Ron Hockman)
Penalties were a problem all season (Photo Ron Hockman)
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