Player News - Andrew Cohen a Cliff Harris Award Nominee

Senior defensive end Andrew Cohen has been named a nominee for the Cliff Harris Award which is presented to the small college defensive player of the year. The award was created by the Little Rock Touchdown Club and is presented to the top defensive player among NCAA Division II, Division III and NAIA schools as chosen by head coaches and a committee of college and professional football greats.

Andrew Cohen with one of his sacks against Bloomsburg (Photo Bert Garbutt)

Cohen was All-PSAC East first team as a junior and senior and second team as a sophomore. Last season, when the Golden Rams advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs and finished 11-2, he was named third team Don Hansen Football Gazette All-Super Region One, All-ECAC, and Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area. Prior to this season, Cohen was named preseason first team USA Football Network All-American. After leading the entire PSAC with 13.5 sacks for 91 yards and 20.0 tackles for loss this season, he was also named PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Year. His 1.23 sacks/game is good for fifth in the country and he set the career PSAC sack record with 33.5.

This season, Cohen had 39 solo tackles and 18 assists for 57 total tackles. He registered at least one sack in every game this season and was credited with two forced fumbles at Mercyhurst. Cohen is also a finalist for the Gene Upshaw Award and a nominee for the Harlon Hill Trophy.

Andrew Cohen has been nominated for three major awards this season
(Photo Bert Garbutt)

Among the 104 nominees, 48 are from Division II, 33 are from Division III and 23 are from NAIA schools. Finalists will be announced in the next two weeks and the overall winner will be announced on December 24. The trophy will be presented to the recipient at the Little Rock Touchdown Club’s annual awards banquet in February 2016.

The four nominees from the PSAC are:

• DB Jordan Bowman - California
  
• DE Andrew Cohen - West Chester
  
• DE Marcus Martin - Slippery Rock
  
• S Mike Zanders - Gannon
  

Cliff Harris Award - 2015 Cliff Harris Award Nominees Announced

Cliff Harris Award - Andrew Cohen Profile

Alumni News - Rondell White Commits to Bluebirds

Former Golden Ram running back Rondell White has committed to play with the West Chester Bluebirds. This is the inaugural season for the Bluebirds in the East Coast Football Association, a spring minor league football league. The Bluebirds will play their home games at nearby Cheyney's O'Shields - Stevenson Stadium with their home opener set for Saturday, February 21 at 1:00 pm when they host the Hanover Rhinos of the Atlantic Football Association. The Bluebirds' ECFA ten-game season is scheduled to start on March 12. The ECFA Bowl IX is scheduled for June 25 in Washington D.C.

Rondell White had a tremendous career at WCU (Photo Bert Garbutt)

West Chester Bluebirds - Rondell White Signs to Play for West Chester Bluebirds

Player News - Andrew Cohen Nominated for Harlon Hill Award

Senior defensive end Andrew Cohen has been named one of 38 candidates for the Harlon Hill Trophy. The Harlon Hill Trophy is presented to NCAA Division II's College Football Player of the Year.

Andrew Cohen (Photo Bert Garbutt)

Cohen was All-PSAC East first team as a junior and senior and second team as a sophomore. Last season, when the Golden Rams advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs and finished 11-2, he was named third team Don Hansen Football Gazette All-Super Region One, All-ECAC, and Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area. Prior to this season, Cohen was named preseason first team USA Football Network All-American. After leading the entire PSAC with 13.5 sacks for 91 yards and 20.0 tackles for loss this season, he was also named PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Year. His 1.23 sacks/game is good for fifth in the country and he set the career PSAC sack record with 33.5. Cohen is also a finalist for the Gene Upshaw Award which is presented to the top lineman in Division II football.

Andrew Cohen with one of his 13.5 sacks this season. (Photo Bert Garbutt)

The country is divided into four regions and the sports information directors from each region voted to get to the current field. Regional voting, which ends November 30, narrows the field to two players from each region. Those eight players are then placed on the national ballot. The winner will be announced via a webcast on December 18 and the Harlon Hill Trophy Presentation will take place at a luncheon on January 8 in Florence, AL.

The eight candidates from Super Region I are:

• RB Andre Anderson - New Haven
  
• DE Andrew Cohen - West Chester
  
• RB Shamar Greene - Slippery Rock
  
• QB Jeremy Johnson - Charleston
  
• QB Connor Simmons - Clarion
  
• QB Matt Soltes - East Stroudsburg
  
• QB Lenny Williams - Indiana
  
• QB Jeff Ziemba - Shepherd
  

Harlon Hill Trophy - Thirty-eight Players Nominated for 2015 Harlon Hill Trophy as Division II Football Player of the Year

Player News - Andrew Cohen a Finalist For Gene Upshaw Award

Senior defensive end Andrew Cohen has been named a finalist for the Gene Upshaw Award which is presented to the top lineman in Division II football. The award was created in 2004 by the Manheim Touchdown Club and is presented to the top junior or senior offensive or defensive lineman in Division II as selected by the sports information directors.

Andrew Cohen (Photo Bert Garbutt)

Cohen was All-PSAC East first team as a junior and senior and second team as a sophomore. Last season, when the Golden Rams advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs and finished 11-2, he was named third team Don Hansen Football Gazette All-Super Region One, All-ECAC, and Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area. Prior to this season, Cohen was named preseason first team USA Football Network All-American. After leading the entire PSAC with 13.5 sacks for 91 yards and 20.0 tackles for loss this season, he was also named PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Year. His 1.23 sacks/game is good for fifth in the country and he set the career PSAC sack record with 33.5.

Andrew Cohen with one of his 13.5 sacks this season. (Photo Bert Garbutt)

The initial field of 47 nominees was narrowed to two finalists from each of four regions. Those eight names now comprise the national ballot. The overall winner will be announced on December 2. The annual winner has a standing invitation to the East/West Shrine Game, which gives the winner an opportunity to play in front of NFL coaches and scouts prior to the NFL Draft.

The eight finalists are:

• Super Region 1 - DE Andrew Cohen - West Chester
  
• Super Region 1 - RT Cory Tucker - Slippery Rock
  
• Super Region 2 - DE Dylan Donahue - West Georgia
  
• Super Region 2 - OT Joey Ray - Lenoir-Rhyne
  
• Super Region 3 - DT Collin Bevins - Northwest Missouri State
  
• Super Region 3 - DE Joshua Gordon - Minnesota State Mankato
  
• Super Region 4 - DE Matt Judon - Grand Valley State
  
• Super Region 4 - DE Morgan Fox - Colorado State-Pueblo
  

Manheim Touchdown Club - Finalists Named for Gene Upshaw Division II Lineman of the Year Award

West Chester Athletic Site - Cohen Named A National Finalist For Gene Upshaw Award

Player News - Golden Rams Named All PSAC East

Headlined by defensive end Andrew Cohen who was named PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Year, 12 West Chester Golden Rams were named to the 2015 PSAC East first and second teams. Six members of the offense and six players from the defense were recognized by the conference's coaches. Only four of the twelve are seniors. In addition, head coach Bill Zwaan was named PSAC East Coach of the Year.

Along with Cohen, named to the first team defense were sophomore defensive tackle Josh Ganzelli, junior safety Kevin Malone, and junior cornerback Ted Patton. Named to the second team defense was junior linebacker Ralph Reeves and sophomore cornerback Shaquil James.

Named to the first team offense were senior running back Brandon Monk, junior offensive tackle Doug Gilbert, and senior tight end Tim Brown. All three are appearing on the first team for the second consecutive year. Also appearing on the first team offense is sophomore guard Tyler Drob. Named to the second team offense were senior wide receiver Eddie Elliott and redshirt freshman placekicker Brendan Paulison.

Andrew Cohen with one of his 13.5 sacks this season. (Photo Bert Garbutt)

PSAC Football Site - Soltes and Cohen Headline All-PSAC East

West Chester Athletic Site - West Chester Lands 12 On All-PSAC Squad; Cohen And Zwaan Major Winners

Team News - PSAC East Championship Gear Available

The Killinger Foundation is sponsoring a "PSAC East Championship Gear" fundraiser. There are two choices, with each having the ability to be customized with name and number ($6). The first is a Sport Tek Repel Unisex 1/4 Zip Pullover ($55) which is designed for all-weather training. The second is Badger Hooded Fleece Sweatshirt ($49). All proceeds go to the Killinger Scholarship Fund. More information and orders can be placed at Weikel Sportswear. Orders must be placed by November 29, 2015 with delivery expected before Christmas. Orders for players and family can be picked up at West Chester University football office during the week of December 14th. For special delivery needs or other questions, please e-mail the Killinger Foundation.

Celebrate the Golden Rams 2015 season and help support the team in the future by participating.

Club News - November 19 Meeting

It's not clear if the Golden Ram Football Club will be meeting on Thursday at 7:45pm at Timothy's in the Parkway Shopping Center in West Chester. If there is a meeting, it will begin immediately following the Bill Zwaan Football Show which is also held at Timothy's starting at 7:00pm. Golden Ram fans unable to attend the show can listen to it live on WCHE1520AM.COM.

According to the Bill Zwaan Football Show, junior safety Kevin Malone and sophomore defensive tackle Josh Ganzelli, and senior defensive end Andrew Cohen will be the special guests on Coach Zwaan's show. In Saturday's game against Slippery Rock, Malone had three tackles and a fumble recovery while Ganzelli notched 9 tackles including 1.5 tackles for loss. Cohen had nine total tackles and 2.0 sacks to set the West Chester single season sack record of 13.5 and the PSAC career sack record of 33.5.

Come out to Timothy's at 7:00pm to participate in the show live.

Game Report - Slippery Rock 61 - West Chester 12

Slippery Rock dominated every phase of the game from beginning to end as they manhandled the Golden Rams en route to a 61-12 win to capture the PSAC Championship in front of 3,000 fans on a blustery day at Farrell Stadium.

It started out well enough. Slippery Rock opened the game on their own 23 yard line. Aided by an illegal procedure penalty and an Andrew Cohen sack, the Golden Ram defense forced a quick three-and-out. And a short 21-yard punt gave West Chester great field position at the Rock 40. A 29-yard screen pass from Pat Moriarty to Brandon Monk gave the Golden Rams a first down at the 11 yard line. But West Chester would not get a first down or a touchdown on this possession. And when Brendan Paulison’s field goal sailed wide right, West Chester’s chances for any points were dashed…as was the team’s confidence.

Slippery Rock made quick work of the 80 yards ahead of them, scoring in just seven plays and two minutes. For most of the game, West Chester’s defense was just not ready for the Rock’s hurry up offense, as many plays were run with 25 seconds remaining on the play clock. Fortunately, West Chester answered back, using a personal foul, and catches by Tyler Karpinski and A.J. DePietro, the latter a 23-yard touchdown, to get into the end zone. But the PAT failed and West Chester remained at a 7-6 deficit.

A.J. DePietro with a TD catch from Pat Moriarty (Photo Ron Hockman)

The Rock’s next three possessions each resulted in touchdowns. Two came on 41-yard touchdown passes while the third was setup by a short field after a West Chester interception. In that time, the Golden Rams mustered only one first down on offense. Trailing 35-6, West Chester moved the ball well in its two minute drill, including tight end Connor McGrath’s first collegiate catch which went for 19 yards. However, the drive would stall as the game moved to halftime. Besides the score, the most telling halftime statistic was West Chester rushing yardage - which was net -4 yards.

Corey Kelley and Drew Formica make a tackle (Photo Ron Hockman)

Not much changed in the third quarter as the Rock defense forced three three-and-outs while their offense tacked on two more touchdowns. Trailing 48-6 with four minutes left in the third quarter, the Golden Ram offense had their most productive drive of the game. But even it was not without a gaff. The quarter closed after Jarel Elder converted a key fourth down run to the Rock 26. But after the extended media time out as the teams changed sides, for whatever reason, West Chester was forced to call a time out of their own. At least it paid off as one play later, Moriarty completed a 17-yard touchdown to Eddie Elliott.

Eddie Elliott hauls in a touchdown pass (Photo Ron Hockman)

For the game, the Rock dialed up 557 yards of offense while holding West Chester to just 245 yards. In their final games for the Golden Rams, Monk had 173 all-purpose yards, while Elliot and Adam Dempsey had one catch each. Linebacker Ralph Reeves had a game-high 12 tackles. Seniors Barry Lyons and Drew Formica had six and four tackles respectively. And in his final collegiate game, defensive end Cohen notched nine tackles including two sacks to set the school single season record for sacks at 13.5 and the PSAC career sack record at 33.5.

Andrew Cohen with one of his two sacks (Photo Ron Hockman)

Sortable Box Score    Coaches Box Score

West Chester Athletic Site - No. 9 Slippery Rock Captures PSAC Championship Game

Slippery Rock Athletic Site - #9 Rock rolls to PSAC title at WCU

post-gazette.com - Slippery Rock repeats as PSAC champ

York Daily Record - Slippery Rock repeats as PSAC football champion

D2football - PSAC Columnist - Slippery Rock Wins PSAC Title

Players News - Keyser Named PSAC Scholar Athlete

In each sport that the PSAC sponsors, the conference presents the scholar athlete award to the participant at the championship site with the highest grade point average. The player with the highest GPA at the PSAC Football Championship game was West Chester defensive back Kyle Keyser. The junior currently boasts a 3.817 as a finance major.

Kyle Keyser receives the PSAC Football Scholar Athlete award from Commissioner Steve Murray (Photo PSAC)

PSAC Site - West Chester's Kyle Keyser Earns Football Champion Scholar Award

Reader Question - NCAA Playoff Chances

Q - Many questions have been received regarding the Golden Rams' chances of making the NCAA playoffs, assuming a win over Slippery Rock in the PSAC Championship game.

A - Just a quick recap, for Division II football, the NCAA divides the country into four regions and seven teams from each region qualify for the playoffs. Teams within each region are ranked based on their record and strength of schedule. Starting after week seven, the NCAA publishes their top ten teams in each region. After last week, West Chester is not in the top ten. To answer the question - very slim.

1. Shepherd (9-0) - Shepherd is in regardless of tomorrow's outcome, but they're playing a 2-8 team, so a likely win and top seed.
2. Bowie St (9-0) - Bowie St is interesting in that they played their first four Division II games of the season with an ineligible player. So those wins will be nullified, but not forfeited. That means that their winning percentage gets dinged a little bit. Their conference, the CIAA, applied nullification to their conference record and determined that they still won their division and qualified for the CIAA Championship game. A win over Winston-Salem St, and Bowie St is likely in. But a loss tomorrow will make nullification a bigger impact to their status.
3. Charleston (9-1) - Charleston's only loss is to Shepherd, so they are in regardless of tomorrow's outcome, but they're playing a 1-9 team, so a likely win.
4. Slippery Rock (9-1) - even a West Chester loss will only make the Rock 9-2. They're in.
5. Assumption (9-1) - similar to the Rock, a loss to New Haven in the Northeast-10 Championship game tomorrow will make them only 9-2. Hard to exclude them from the NCAA playoffs.
6. Indiana (7-2) - a probable win over Cheyney tomorrow will make them 8-2, only slightly better than West Chester's 8-3. Also important to point out is that among common opponents with West Chester - Kutztown, Lock Haven, Seton Hill, Mercyhurst, Slippery Rock, Cheyney - Indiana will be 4-2 (lost to Kutztown and Slippery Rock) and West Chester would be 5-1 (loss to Mercyhurst). So this is a possibilty.
7. Virginia Union (8-1) - Virginia Union doesn't play tomorrow, but they stand a good chance based on their current position in the regional rankings.
8. California (7-3) - similar to New Haven even though the Vulcans have the same record as West Chester, their strength of schedule is better. It will diminish when they play Lock Haven (2-8) tomorrow.
9. New Haven (7-3) - Assumption's opponent in the Northeast 10 Championship tomorrow, they're ahead of West Chester based on their superior strength of schedule.
10. Glenville St (7-3) - the Pioneers took themselves out of the picture with a loss to Fairmont St last night.

Since the list only includes ten teams, it's obvious that West Chester is no better than 11th, however, they may actually be lower since they have the same overall record as Shippensburg (7-3), but lost the head-to-head meeting with the Raiders. Clarion is also 7-3 and plays at Kutztown tomorrow.

So what needs to happen? First and foremost, West Chester needs to beat Slippery Rock. And the bottom line, that's the only thing that the team can control. After that, root for Assumption to beat New Haven, since Assumption is likely in either way, this would make New Haven 7-4. Hope Kutztown beats Clarion and Mercyhurst beats Shippensburg. The CIAA will surely get a team in, and if the nullification is not going to hurt Bowie St, then hope they win and Virginia Union's two fewer games and lesser strength of schedule (after West Chester's improves after tomorrow) catches up to them. Is there any chance California loses to Lock Haven? Doubtful. Some have pointed out that under this scenario, West Chester will have defeated Slippery Rock where as the Vulcans lost to the Rock. But that would be cherry picking a common opponent. Looking at all of the common opponents that California and West Chester have - Bloomsburg, Shippensburg, Seton Hill, Slippery Rock, Mercyhurst and Lock Haven - both teams are 4-2. So a lot of things have to happen just right, but even then, there appears to be too many teams in front of the Golden Rams to get into the number seven spot based on the selection criteria.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or ideas for topics, please e-mail them to GoldenRamFootballClub@comcast.net and be sure to follow us on twitter @GoldenRamFC

D2football - PSAC Columnist - Championships Are Set In SR1