West Chester Wraps Up Regular Season Saturday At IUP

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The West Chester Golden Rams will wrap up the regular season on Saturday as they take to the road to visit Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

West Chester is 9-1 (8-1 in the PSAC) and they are ranked as high as 12th in the country in Division II after beating East Stroudsburg on the road last week, 35-24.

"It became a challenge there in the second half," West Chester head coach Bill Zwaan tells KYW Newsradio. "Which, to a certain extent, after the game, I'm kind of happy we had a chance to fight back against a challenge. Because it looked at one point, up 21-0, like we might have a chance to run away with it. They did comeback, did a good job, and that forced us to fight our way through to get a win. And we did that."

Listen to West Chester head coach Bill Zwaan with KYW's Matt Leon:

It was a huge game for West Chester running back Brandon Monk in Saturday's win. The junior running back finished with 257 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns on 36 carries. For his efforts, Monk was named the PSAC East Co-Offensive Player of the Week.

The Golden Rams are currently third in the Super Region 1 rankings. That means they are right on track to make the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year with a win on Saturday, with a home game and even a first round bye in play.  However...

"If we don't win the game (against IUP), then we're going to be up in the air," Zwaan says. "So we really need to go out there and play well and get that win. But it's not going to be easy."

IUP brings a 6-4 record into Saturday's game. Last week they lost to Gannon, 31-21.

"They're a typical IUP team," Zwaan says. "They're going to run the ball well and play real physical defense. That's what they've always been. They will throw the ball maybe a little bit more than they have in the past. They've got a great wide receiver, a transfer, kid from Pitt (Drew Carswell), who is one of the best receivers in the conference and a really, really good transfer tight end from Wisconsin (Brock DeCicco)."

These two teams haven't met since 2011, when IUP thumped the Golden Rams, 34-7.

Saturday's game will kickoff at 1:00 pm.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.

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