Golden Ram Football Club: Game Report - Bloomsburg 23

West Chester (0-4, 0-1) mounted a massive fourth quarter rally only to follow it with yet another fourth quarter collapse in falling to the Bloomsburg Huskies (3-1, 1-0) to remain winless on the season.

Robby Longo had a team-high six catches for 95 yards (Photo Chuck Greco)

The Huskies took a 14-0 lead into the final quarter and maintained a ten-point lead midway through the period. But with just four minutes remaining, the Golden Rams closed to 17-14 and forced a Bloomsburg three-and-out. Despite a Cooper Jordan interception, the WCU defense denied another first down and returned the ball to the offense with less than 90 seconds left. That's when things got wild. Jordan ran for a 43-yard touchdown to give West Chester a 21-17 lead with just a minute left to play. But Bloomsburg responded with a 63-yard touchdown drive of their own in just 36 seconds to regain the lead 23-21. Unfortunately, The Golden Rams weren't able to tap any further magic in the final 24 seconds and the score went final.

Kaleb Brown upends the Bloomsburg ball carrier (Photo Chuck Greco)

The two sides of the ball played this game completely differently for West Chester. The Golden Ram defense surrendered a touchdown on Bloomsburg's opening drive of 80 yards. But on the Huskies' second possession, West Chester allowed a lot of yards but no points as they made stops on third-and-goal and fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line. The defensive improvement continued in the first half as Bloomsburg was forced to punt on their next two possessions. The second half was quite similar. An opening long drive touchdown for Bloomsburg was followed by two three-and-outs. Unfortunately, the cycle repeated and the Huskies used four consecutive completions to traverse the 63 yards in their final possession for the game-winning score.

The Golden Ram defense makes a goal line stand (Photo Chuck Greco)

The offense was signicantly different, not scoring a point and not moving the ball particularly well for three quarters. Then in the final stanza, West Chester scored touchdowns on back-to-back possessions and despite an interception, punched it into the end zone again to take a 21-17 lead. West Chester's first touchdown came on a 18-yard pass to D'Shaun Seals. Their second scoring drive went 71 yards, overcame a 15-yard penalty and a sack, and used three completions for 67 yards to Robby Longo to set up Jordan's one-yard "tush push" score. The final touchdown was a 43-yard run by Jordan who left most of the Husky defense grasping at air.

Bill Martelon and Cole Evans open a hole (Photo Chuck Greco)

Other observations:

The West Chester defense opened with a four-man front with Debrick Johnson getting the start. In the secondary, Kaleb Brown started in place of the injured Zaire McLaurin. On offense at tight end, Mike Darcy replaced the injured Thatcher Miller who was not dressed and right knee was in a brace.
Left tackle Patrick Methlie was not dressed for the game and was replaced by Cam McQueen on the offensive line. On the first play of the second quarter, left guard Caelan Krasley go rolled up on and left the game on a cart. As a result, McQueen shufted to left tackle and Cole Evans played left guard.
Daniel Hicks joined Connor Noble, Shane Mosley and Methlie as captains for the game.
Center Dylan Nichols received his second and the team's sixth unsportsmanlike penalty of the season.
For the third time in four games, the defense failed to register a sack. They rank last in the PSAC with just two sacks this season.
Although Zack Liberatore averaged only 38 yards on his two punts, he dropped one at the Bloomsburg 16 and the other at their 9-yard line.
It was West Chester's best offensive output of the season as they rolled up 426 yards. While Jordan ran for 81 yards with 43 coming on the TD run, Juke Peaker tallied 50 yards on 11 carries and 25 yards on three catches. Longo (6 catches, 95 yards) and Seals (9 catches, 61 yards) were the primary passing targets.
Defensively, linebacker Connor Noble once again led the way with seven tackles including a tackle for loss and a pass breakup. Cornerback Abdul Stewart had two pass breakups including one in the end zone.