West Chester Visits Cheyney Saturday

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- West Chester will make its shortest road trip of the year on Saturday when the Golden Rams travel about five and a half miles to visit Cheyney University on Saturday in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East match-up.

The Golden Rams are 5-2 (3-1 PSAC East) and coming off a tough 20-19 home loss to Bloomsburg last weekend. The Huskies scored the game-winning touchdown with just 99 seconds remaining.

"It was a game that we had really been looking forward to," West Chester head coach Bill Zwaan tells KYW Newsradio. "If we could've pulled that off, we could've put ourselves in great position for the PSAC East championship. The kids all knew that and we really didn't come out and play the way we can. That's the disappointing part. You're going to lose once in a while, but when you lose and don't play up to your ability, you just feel like you let somebody down. I feel like we, as coaches, we just didn't get everything out of our guys that we should have and that's disappointing for me as a coach."

Even with the loss, the Golden Rams are still in a four-way tie for first place in the PSAC East with Bloomsburg, Kutztown and Shippensburg.

Jarel Elder had a big game against Bloomsburg, finishing with 171 yards rushing on 23 carries and he scored all three West Chester touchdowns. The senior running back has now rushed for 726 yards and 11 touchdowns in seven games this season.

On the other side of the football, redshirt junior linebacker Tyler Morrissey led West Chester with 15 tackles. He had two tackles for loss and a sack, continuing a string of high-level performances.

"You see those guys once in a while who can just find the play," Zwaan says of Morrissey. "As the play is developing, he knows where it's headed, he knows where the blocking schemes are coming from, so he's able to avoid and get to the ball. He really has played fantastic football for us. He's one of the leaders."

Cheyney is 1-6 this season (0-4 PSAC East). The Wolves have lost six in a row since a season-opening win over Lincoln. Despite that record, Zwaan expects Cheyney to give his team a battle.

"They always play us tough," he says. "It's a natural rivalry for us because we're so close and so many of our kids know their kids and so many kids who go to West Chester know kids who go to Cheyney. So we do have a natural rivalry, so they always play us tough."

Last year, West Chester beat Cheyney 46-12.

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