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West Chester Hoping For Fast Start To Season

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The season will kick-off for Division II West Chester University on Saturday afternoon as they welcome the University of New Haven to John A. Farrell Stadium.

Hopes are high that this could be a special season for the Golden Rams after going 7-4 in 2012.

"We've stayed healthy in camp and we look like we're moving in the right direction," West Chester head coach Bill Zwaan tells KYW Newsradio. "Kids are excited to finally play somebody and we've got a good team coming into town. I think we'll be fired up and ready to go."

New Haven, out of the Northeast-10, went 10-1 last season, averaging about 38 points a game in the process. They advanced to the Division II playoffs where they lost in the first round to IUP.

"Very good skill players, quarterback, wide receivers, running backs, they always seem to have good skill and they can score points," Zwaan says. "Real physical team defensively and usually a pretty big football team. So it's one of the better Division II teams in the country and we certain have a challenge, but it is somebody we can definitely play with."

Bill Zwaan Interview

Zwaan says getting off to a fast start this season would be big for his team.

"Especially when you open up with a team that's ranked, where you can now get your self established early in how the season's going to go," Zwaan says. "We're not playing Delaware this year for the first time in a long, long time. So that gives us a chance to jump out and get our record straight right away. So it will be huge if we can come out of this thing with a victory over a ranked team, jump on the winning side of it and maybe get on a little run here early."

West Chester and New Haven will kick-off at noon on Saturday.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.

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