WEST CHESTER, Pa. – Senior WR
Lex Rosario (Matamoras, Pa./Delaware Valley) caught a 28-yard touchdown pass on fourth down at the beginning of the fourth quarter to lift No. 21 West Chester to a 28-21 victory over visiting East Stroudsburg on a Homecoming Weekend at John A. Farrell Stadium Saturday.
The win sets up a titanic battle next weekend for West Chester (7-1, 4-1 PSAC) with undefeated and division-leading No. 17 Kutztown (8-0, 5-0) at Farrell Stadium. East Stroudsburg (5-3, 2-3) dropped its third consecutive contest following a 5-0 start to the season.
Senior DB
Jarey Elder (Allentown, Pa./Parkland) set up the game-winning score with a 16-yard punt return to the East Stroudsburg 34-yard line. On second down, WCU quarterback
Paul Dooley (Philadelphia, Pa./Springside-Chestnut Hill) rushed for six yards to the ESU 28. An incomplete pass on 3
rd-and-4 left the Golden Rams with a decision to make. Head coach
Bill Zwaan elected to roll the dice and went for it on 4
th-and-4. Dooley delivered a perfect strike to Rosario, who had a defender draped all over him at the goal line, and fell into the end zone for the score.
From there, West Chester's defense took the game into its own hands and limited East Stroudsburg to just one first down, that by penalty, on its next three possessions. The Warriors did get the ball back with 2:22 left in the game, and drove to the West Chester 17-yard line. However, back-to-back pass attempts on third and fourth down that sailed out of the back of the end zone did in the visitor's comeback bid.
ESU quarterback Jake Cirillo engineered an 8-play, 75-yard third-quarter drive that saw him connect with Rece Bender on a 42-yard scoring pass to bring the Warriors within two, 21-19. ESU first-year head coach Jimmy Terwilliger elected to go for two, and Cirillo ran in the two-point conversion to knot the game at 21 with 7:24 to play in the third.
East Stroudsburg had jumped out to a 10-0 lead early on a 27-yard field goal by Jordan Walters in the first quarter and a 52-yard run down the far sideline by Gunner Anglovich on the first play of the second quarter.
West Chester answered with a 37-yad interception return for a TD by Elder and an 11-yard run by Isiah Bruce (Philadelphia, Pa./Upper Darby) with 1:53 to play before halftime. ESU, then, ran two plays and got to the West Chester 39-yard line with three ticks left on the clock. Walters came on and kicked a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference record 56-yard field goal as time expired to send the Warriors into the locker room down 14-13.
Dooley came out of the break and put together a 7-play, 77-yard drive that was capped by
Dan Neuhaus' 15-yard TD reception, his team-leading fifth of the season, that put the home team on top, 21-13.
Dooley finished 13-for-26 for 170 yards and a pair of TDs against a pair of interceptions. He also led West Chester with 40 yards rushing. The Golden Rams could not get much of a running game going against East Stroudsburg's stingy defense. Neuhaus and Rosario each had four catches on the day. Neuhaus put up 72 yards while Rosario had 46. Each caught a TD pass as well.
Defensively, West Chester was led by fifth-year senior DE
Ch'aim Smith (York, Pa./York Suburban), who finished with eight tackles, including 3.5 for a loss and one sack. He also had a pass breakup and a QB hurry.
Nyeem Jones (Philadelphia, Pa./Ben Franklin) led the team with nine stops on the afternoon.
