West Chester Opens D-II NCAA Tournament Saturday
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- For the second straight year the West Chester Golden Rams are headed to the Division II NCAA Tournament. They will be home for the first round, welcoming another Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference school, Slippery Rock, to John A. Farrell Stadium.
West Chester wrapped up a 10-1 regular season this past Saturday by winning on the road at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 28-17.
"It was a really good win for us on the road," West Chester head coach Bill Zwaan tells KYW Newsradio. "Tough opponent. IUP's got a good football program. Our kids hung in there. We did what we needed to do. (Junior running back) Brandon Monk had a big punt return and scored a couple other touchdowns and had a nice day for us. (Senior quarterback) Sean McCartney played really well. Our defense, after the first couple of drives, settled in and played great. (Senior linebacker) Mike Labor had a tremendous game for us."
So now the Golden Rams are in the tournament for a second straight year and the 11th time in program history. Last year West Chester advanced all the way to the Final Four.
Listen to the entire interview with West Chester's Bill Zwaan:
"We play in a really tough conference and we play pretty good football teams," Zwaan says. "So, yeah, I'm pretty proud of what our guys have done. It's only the first time in the school's history that we've had back to back double digit wins and this group has had more wins in the past three years, they've got 30 wins over three years. That's pretty impressive. They accomplished one of their goals, which is to get into the playoffs, and now we've got some other goals we're going after, starting this weekend."
Slippery Rock brings a 9-2 record into Saturday's game. Last week they beat Bloomsburg in the PSAC title game, 28-26.
"They are a really good offensive football team," Zwaan says. "A lot of good athletes, receivers, running backs. They've played a couple of quarterbacks at different times, those guys have played really well. They're your typical PSAC West team in that they have good football players throughout."
On the other side of the football, Zwaan says Slippery Rock is physical on defense.
"We've got top try and figure out a way to run the football on them," Zwaan says. "Just like we had to do last week against IUP and all our guys have to play well."
The winner of this game plays the top seed Concord in the second round.
Kickoff on Saturday is set for noon.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
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