West Chester Looks To Keep Rolling vs. Lock Haven

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The West Chester Golden Rams will welcome Lock Haven to John A. Farrell Stadium on Saturday afternoon as they look to stay perfect here in 2014.

Last week West Chester dismissed Millersville, 62-7. The win improved the Golden Rams to 4-0 (3-0 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference).

"We did exactly what we had hoped to do," West Chester head coach Bill Zwaan tells KYW Newsradio. "We got on them early, got points on the board. Then we didn't let up. We did what we had to do in the first half. I was really happy that our kids took care of business in that way, because then we are able to play our back-up guys in the second half and get the starters out."

The Golden Rams rolled up 608 yards of total offense in the win. 270 of those yards, as well as 5 of West Chester's 9 touchdowns, came on the ground. It was the second straight game that West Chester rushed for more than 200 yards and in this one the top three running backs for West Chester all got into the act - junior Brandon Monk (11 carries, 79 yards, 2 TDs), junior Eddie Elliott (12 carries, 124 yards, 2 TDs) and redshirt freshman Jarel Elder (7 carries, 66 yards, TD - also returned a kickoff 90 yards for a score).

"When spring ended and going into this season, my thought was all three of the guys would play," Zwaan says. "Maybe one would play a little bit more than the other two, but they all have their own things they do well. I think it has happened exactly that way. Brandon Monk's playing more than the other two guys, because he's probably, you know we can count on him a little bit more, he's played a lot of football. But Eddie Elliott does some really great things, especially because he has great speed, he can get outside and make things happen. And Jarel is just young and learning and he's getting better every single week."

West Chester will face a Lock Haven team that is 0-4 this season, but three of their losses are by a combined 21 points.

"They play you tough," Zwaan says. "Last year it was a tough, physical game into the 4th quarter (West Chester eventually won 34-13). We have to come out and play good football to beat these guys. It will be a physical game, for sure. They're the type of team that wants to stop the run first, so they are going to put more guys on the run. That means we're going to have to throw, but we still want to keep getting our run game better each week. So it will be a nice challenge for our guys up front."

West Chester and Lock Haven will kickoff at noon on Saturday.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.

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