West Chester Travels To Concord In D-II Tourney Saturday
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The West Chester University Golden Rams have advanced into the second round of the Division II NCAA Football Tournament and on Saturday they will travel down to Athens, West Virginia, to battle top seed Concord University.
West Chester is the #4 seed in the region. This past Saturday they won their first-round game in impressive style, hammering visiting Slippery Rock, 46-20.
"(Senior quarterback) Sean McCartney had a great day," West Chester head coach Bill Zwaan. "(Junior) Timmy Brown, (senior) Mike Doty, our receivers did a really nice job against their man-to-man coverage and got open and Sean put the ball on the money. So we did move the ball really well. Our offensive line has been playing great the last couple of weeks and they played really well again on Saturday. I think the biggest thing that I was really happy to see was how well we played defensively. Our kids did a great job against their running back, who is one of the best in the league, if not one of the best in the country. And we did a nice job against their passing game. But the fact that we shut down their run as well as we did is a good omen as we go forward here in the playoffs."
Listen to Bill Zwaan on the KYW's Matt Leon:
McCartney threw for 405 yards and 5 touchdowns in the win. Three of those scores went to the tight end Brown, who finished with 7 catches for 164 yards.
"(Brown) has been a great weapon for us," Zwaan says. "And he's got great hands and is really athletic, so when he gets into the open field, he can take it into the end zone. He's got 15 touchdown (catches). For a tight end, that's pretty amazing."
Concord is 11-0 and they had a first round bye. They are the champions of the Mountain East Conference.
"They're very athletic," Zwaan says. "Real physical team. A lot like (another MEC team) Shepherd, a lot like Shepherd was last year when we had to go down there (in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament) and beat them on the road, but that was a real tough match-up for us, too. So I'm expecting a tough football game. I'm hoping our experience from last year, playing on the road and beating higher seeds on the road (on their way to the 2013 Final Four) will help us, but this is a good match-up for us."
The winner of this game on Saturday advances to play the winner of Bloomsburg and Virginia State in the quarterfinals.
Saturday's game will kickoff at noon.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
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