Box Score
ERIE, Pa. – Rondell White rushed for 245 yards and two touchdowns, caught seven passes for 87 yards while also throwing a TD pass on a halfback option as No. 23/25 West Chester defeated host Gannon, 56-41, in a non-league football game Saturday afternoon.
West Chester (2-0) remains unbeaten on the year while Gannon (1-1) suffers its first loss of the year. The two teams combined for 1,081 yards of total offense and 97 points in an old-fashioned shootout. West Chester put up 612 yards of total offense by itself and had over 500 yards by the end of the third quarter. Gannon scored 27 points in the second quarter to make it a 35-27 contest at halftime.
Erick Brundidge caught seven passes for 71 yards and tied a career-high with three touchdown receptions. He hauled in White's 18-yard strike with nine minutes remaining in the third quarter. WCU quarterback Sean McCartney was 23-for-35 for 305 yards. He threw five TD passes himself against just a pair of interceptions.
The Golden Rams jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter. Brundidge caught a 9-yard TD pass from McCartney, White scampered 58 yards for another score and Jared Bonacquisti caught a pass from two yards out to put WCU in control. However, Gannon came roaring back with three straight scores of its own to tie the game with 6:21 left in the first half.
Brundidge caught his second TD pass of the game with two minutes left in the half. But, Quad Law hauled in a 69-yard strike from Liam Nadler with 1:42 to go to make it a 28-27 ballgame. That is when McCartney led West Chester on a 9-play drive that covered 67 yards in just 1:14. It ended with Adam Dempsey snaring a 20-yard touchdown pass from McCartney with 20 seconds left.
Gannon had a chance for more points right before the half ended. The Golden Knights returned the ensuing kickoff 41 yards to West Chester's 40-yard line. Nadler completed a 9-yard pass and the hosts called timeout with two ticks left. However, Donnie Mack's 49-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right to close out a wild first half.
Brundidge pocketed his third scoring pass and White ran 20 yards for another score in the third quarter as West Chester opened an insurmountable 49-27 lead by the end of the third quarter. Gannon went on a 14-play drive that ate up 5:11 on the fourth-quarter clock right after White's 20-yard TD run. The Knights were faced with a 4th-and-goal at West Chester's 8-yard line when Jr., DB Al-Hajj Shabazz intercepted Nadler in the end zone to stall the drive and take the wind out of the hosts' sails.
It was the second straight Gannon drive that ended in a turnover. Nadler was sacked by Andrew Cohen on a 3rd-and-10 at the Rams' 38-yard line and coughed up the ball. Jr., MLB Ronell Williams picked up the fumble and returned it six yards to give the ball back to West Chester. Those two turnovers proved to be costly for Gannon in the final 15 minutes of the game.
Dempsey finished the day with three catches for 93 yards and two touchdowns – a career best for the sophomore wide receiver. White finished with 338 all-purpose yards coming just shy of yet another personal high for the talented back.
Blaise Schieler led West Chester with nine tackles in the game. Williams, Shawn Krautzel and Mike Labor each recorded eight stops. The Golden Rams' starting secondary had 27 combined tackles in the game.
West Chester returns to action next Saturday with another road contest at Millersville to open up PSAC play. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Biemesderfer Stadium.
NOTES: West Chester opens the 2013 season with a pair of wins for the first time since 2003 … WCU was 2-0 in head coach Bill Zwaan's first year at the helm with wins over New Haven and Glenville State … WCU's 612 yards of total offense marked the ninth time in recorded history that the Golden Rams eclipsed 600 yards of total offense in a single game … it is the eighth-best total in school history … Gannon's 27 points in the second quarter are the most allowed by West Chester in one quarter of football since Delaware put up 28 points in the first quarter of its game with the Golden Rams in 2003 … no Division II school has scored that many points in a quarter against West Chester since Zwaan took over … Sr., RB Rondell White set a new personal single-game career high with 245 rushing yards … he rushed for more than 200 yards in a game for the sixth time in his career … he holds the school record for most 200-yard rushing performances … White eclipsed 300 all-purpose yards in a game for the fourth time in his illustrious career … his 338 all-purpose yards is just shy of his career-best 343 against LIU-Post last year … Jr., QB Sean McCartney's 305 passing yards is the second-highest total in his career … he threw for 444 yards in his first college start against Shippensburg in 2010 … his 5 TD passes also ties his career high – also set against Shippensburg in 2010.
