If anyone would have said that the Golden Rams would not turn the ball over, would own a six minute advantage in time of possession, would be penalized only 35 yards, and would hold the nation's leading rusher to less than 50 yards, it would be likely to expect a West Chester victory. And it almost was. Instead, the #22 Golden Rams (9-3) bowed out of the 2019 playoffs in the first round after losing to the #13
Notre Dame Falcons (11-1) by a score of 31-24. It was a couple of other bugaboos that have plagued West Chester this season that reared their ugly head again and were too much to overcome: big plays, special teams, and more specifically, big plays
on special teams.
The Golden Rams found themselves trailing just 14 seconds into the game when the Falcons returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. But the West Chester offense responded with confidence in their game plan. The Golden Rams sped down the field with a 47-yard catch and run from
Paul Dooley to
Dan Neuhaus and a 18-yard run by
Ja'Den McKenzie. It looked like the team would settle for a field goal when Dooley was flushed from the pocket on third-and-goal from the three, but he some how connected with tight end
Cody Boozel for the tying score.
Notre Dame was held in check on their next possession and their ensuing punt was downed at the West Chester 17-yard line. Dooley led the offense on a methodical six-minute drive. However, after getting to second and six on the Notre Dame 30-yard line, three straight Dooley runs accounted for just five yards and the Golden Rams turned the ball over on downs. And it may have been the turning point of the first half. Over their remaining first half possessions, Notre Dame scored on a 40-yard touchdown pass, a 55-yard touchdown run and used a 52-yard pass to set up a 26-yard field goal. Meanwhile, West Chester punted and turned the ball over on downs on the Notre Dame 32-yard line. The Golden Rams were pursuing a scoring opportunity when they got out to midfield with a couple of minutes left, but a false start, a screen pass that gained only two yards, a sack and an incompletion forced another
George Lambritsios punt. So West Chester entered the locker room trailing 24-7.
West Chester opened the second half, as they so often do, with a solid offensive plan. They used 44 yards on the ground from McKenzie, but the drive stalled and the Golden Rams had to settle for a career-long 49-yard field goal from
Andrew Chegia. Midway through the third quarter and trailing 24-10, the West Chester defense forced a Notre Dame punt. But the Falcons rugby style punter rolled out and took off to pick up a massive first down. Notre Dame scored on the very next play to extend the lead to 31-10. Later in the period when Notre Dame actually did punt, the ball only made it to the West Chester 35-yard line. On the next play, Dooley hit tight end
Dan Neuhaus over the middle for a touchdown to narrow the score to 31-17 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Golden Ram defense overcame an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and forced a punt, but Dooley and company were starting at their own 7-yard line with under 12 minutes to play. With an elevated sense of urgency, the offense motored downfield and capped the drive with back-to-back passes to
Lex Rosario for 16 and 30 yards, with the latter one being in the back of the end zone. Chegia's PAT made the score 31-24 with over six minutes to play. On the subsequent possession, Notre Dame converted just one first down and was then content to force West Chester to burn all their timeouts defensively. But with two and a half minutes left, the Golden Rams had the ball at their own 17-yard line.
Dooley used a pass interference penalty and four completions to Rosario to get to first and goal at the 9-yard line with under 30 seconds left to play. After a spike and an incompletion to
Elijah Hall, West Chester faced third and goal. Dooley couldn't find an open receiver, so he scrambled to the goal line but was dropped at the one yards line. With the clock running out, the offense quickly got to the line, but another Dooley keeper was stopped for no gain as time expired. A valiant Golden Ram comeback was not to be fulfilled and the season came to an end.
It was Dooley's best performance of the season as he went 21 of 36 for 297 yards and three touchdowns along with 31 yards rushing. McKenzie netted 91 yards on the ground, with most of it coming on the opening drive of the second half. Rosario, whose previous season high was six catches against Bloomsburg and 98 yards at Lock Haven, hauled in 11 catches for 163 yards and a touchdown.
Defensively,
Jalik Smith and
Jackson Taylor each had a team-high eight tackles. The Golden Ram defense held the nation's leading rusher
Jaleel McLaughlin to just 45 yards on 18 carries for a 2.4 yards/carry average, far below his 7.2 yards/carry coming into the game. And 24 of those yards came on a touchdown run after the successful fake punt, that is, after the defense had completed its job for the series. West Chester amassed ten tackles for loss in the game.
Some of the frustrating moments are somewhat overlooked. For the game, Notre Dame was only 4 of 12 on third down and 1 of 1 on fourth down. But four of those five conversations were in long yardage situations:
19 yards when needing 9 yards,
8 yards when needing 2 yards,
18 yards when needing 14 yards (fake punt),
12 yards when needing 7 yards, and
11 yards when needing 10 yards.
And the glaring special teams gaffes were the kickoff return for touchdown and the fake punt conversion. Down 21-7 in the second quarter, Notre Dame was forced to kickoff from their own 20-yard line due to a penalty. But it took a little while for
Phil Poquie to corral the kickoff and only got to the 24-yard line, negating any benefit of the penalty yards.
Ja'Den McKenzie is Freshman of the Year (Photo Ron Hockman)
Ch'aim Smith (Photo Ron Hockman)
Golden Ram captains Ch'aim Smith, Jarey Elder, Frank Tranzilli and Lex Rosario will be the guests on coach Zwaan's show (Photo Ron Hockman)
Bill Zwaan enters his tenth Division II postseason (Photo Ron Hockman)