When West Chester sent redshirt freshman Dayshawn Jacobs, redshirt sophomore Daquan Robinson, and true freshman Darrell Brown to return the opening kickoff, the gravity of how young this team is could be felt. The Golden Ram defense allowed two 80-yard, 6-minute drives that gave the Falcons a 14-0 lead midway through the second quarter. Meanwhile the West Chester offense primarily consisted of Cooper Jordan scampers. The Golden Rams got into the end zone on a 8-yard shovel pass from Cooper to tight end Thatcher Miller to narrow the score to 14-7 at halftime.
Daniel Hicks jars the ball loose from the Falcon QB (Photo Joan Gillen)A Sterlen Barr interception thwarted Bentley's first possession of the second half and the Golden Ram offense took advantage of the favorable field position. Jordan connected with Rahiem Bowens for a 45-yard pickup that moved West Chester into the red zone. Unfortunatley, this only resulted in three points on Sean Henry's 29-yard field goal.
Thatcher Miller takes the shovel pass for the first score of 2023 (Photo Joan Gillen)Bentley answered with a field goal of their own to return the Falcons' lead to seven points, 17-10. And then the biggest gaffe of the game was made. Bentley's ensuing kickoff went just into the end zone where Robinson made the catch. After a brief pause, he stepped out, then thought better of it, stepped back into the end zone and took a knee. The resulting safety would extend Bentley's lead to 19-10, meaning WCU would need two scores. Fortunately, those would be the last points the Falcons would score on the afternoon.
Rahiem Bowens makes a leaping catch and turns upfield (Photo Joan Gillen)The Golden Ram passing game got going. Jordan connected with Julian Jordan for 14 yards, Jonathan Haynes for 9, and Jordan again for 25 yards. Although the drive stalled at the Falcon 32, it showed that the Golden Rams could move the ball, and quickly, if given another chance. And the Golden Ram defense did just that, forcing a three-and-out to start the fourth quarter.
Khalib Slaughter applies pressure to the Bentley QB (Photo Joan Gillen)Starting at their own 21, Jordan connected with Miller for 30 yards, and 36 and 14 yards to D'Shaun Seals to get to the Bentley 5. But two running plays didn't advance the ball any further. Needing two scores, the Golden Rams elected for the 23-yard field goal which Henry delivered.
Nursing a 19-13 lead, Bentley drained nearly eight minutes off the clock, but their 46-yard field goal attempt failed. So the Golden Ram offense, which scuffled most of the game but started finding their footing recently, had the ball at their own 29 with 1:37 remaining. Of course, the first thing West Chester did was commit a false start to push the ball back to the 24-yard line and followed that with a Jordan keeper for no gain. On second-and-15, Jordan scrambled to buy time and launched a 45-yard strike to Seals to the Bentley 31.
Julian Jordan had a game-high five catches (Photo Joan Gillen)That was followed by a 24-yard pass to Haynes, who redeemed himself from a couple of drops earlier in the game. Then with just 58 second remaining, Jayden Williams went untouched around the right side from 7 yards for the game tying touchdown. Henry's PAT would give West Chester its first lead of 2023, 20-19.
D'Shaun Seals hauls in a 45-yard bomb (Photo Joan Gillen)On Bentley's final desperation drive, Shane Mosley had two pass breakups and Izaiah McPherson had one to end any of Bentley's hopes.
Jayden Williams waltzes into the end zone for the game tying touchdownOther observations:
- WCU newcomers made an impact on defense. Linebacker Connor Noble made a game-high 14 tackles while Mosley made 13 tackles on top of his two pass breakups.
- Captains were Ayyub Dail, Sterlen Barr, Jr., Obi Anyatonwu, Khalib Slaughter and Mason Griffiths.
- It was announced that the only senior on the offensive line, Quinton Derr, is out for the season. He was replaced at right tackle by Trey Wells who did a fine job. In fact, the offense had no holding penalties and Jordan was sacked only twice in the game. The only downside was a couple of false start penalties.
- Brody McAndrew (4 solo tackles) got the start at the one safety position, but DeJuan Dandridge (4 total tackles) saw time there as well.
- Daniel Hicks forced a fumble that was recovered by Kaleb Brown and Sterlen Barr, Jr. ripped the ball out of the tight end's hands for an interception.
- WCU faced a fourth and one from their own 45 on their first possession of the second half and employed the "tush push" to get the first down.
- Obi Anyatonwu left the game right before halftime and did not return to the game, although he was on the sidelines. He was replaced by Izaiah McPherson and Victor Pena.
- Our first look at the Golden Rams 3-3-5 showed that it worked as expected. It held Bentley to just 136 yards passing, but Bentley's big quarterback picked up 98 yards on the ground.
- Third down efficiency heavily favored Bentley - West Chester was just 2 of 8 while the Falcons were 10 of 16. This led to the time of possession to be heavily skewed in favor of Bentley as well.
- With Bentley leading for 59 minutes, some of their players expressed their confidence vocally. This boiled over in a mild mele near the post-game handshake line.
West Chester Athletic Site - West Chester Escapes Bentley With Last-Minute Touchdown, 20-19
Bentley Athletic Site - Late TD Gives West Chester 20-19 Win over Bentley
WCU Football Family - Photo Album - Bentley
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