Ursinus Off And Running In Collegeville

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Division III Ursinus College Bears have emerged a force this season in the Centennial Conference.

The Bears are 4-0 (3-0 in the conference) as they prepare to visit Moravian on Saturday.

Now hopes were high for the Bears coming into the season, and head coach Peter Gallagher says a key to success has been a couple of aspects of their game that they knew had to come up big for them to be successful.

"Talking in the preseason," Gallagher tells KYW Newsradio. "The first thing we said is that we needed to be able to stop the run and be able to run the ball. And those are two things that we are doing pretty well right now."

The Bears defense is holding opponents to just under 109 yards a game and just 3.6 yards a carry. On offense, the Bears rushing attack is keyed by senior Jason Golderer, a Bishop McDevitt product. In four games this season, he has rushed for 573 yards and five touchdowns.

"Jason's been a good football player for us," Gallagher says. "He was the starting tailback, broke his leg in our Del Val scrimmage his sophomore year and took a medical redshirt. We've always been very confident that Jason could run the ball. Last year he played more wide receiver for us, but moved into the tailback spot (this season). I don't think many people are surprised of his production. He's an outstanding running back and an outstanding young man."

Moravian is 0-4 on the season, but Gallagher says they aren't focusing on that zero in the win column.

"Their record doesn't really show the talent that they have there," Gallagher says. "We certainly have a lot of respect for Moravian. We have to focus on what we do and I think we've been doing that this season. Executing our system and believing in what we're doing and letting that take care of everything."

This 4-0 start for Ursinus is the program's best start since they opened 7-0 in 2010.

Saturday's game will kick-off at 1:00pm.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.