West Chester Picked To Repeat In PSAC Eastern Division Preseason Football Poll

LOCK HAVEN, Pa.  – West Chester University heads into the 2019 football season as the defending overall conference champion for the first time since 1972. That, in and of itself, should put a bulls-eye on the back of the Purple & Gold.
 
Well, the head coaches around the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), handed their counterparts another reason to be gunning for the Golden Rams when they picked West Chester to repeat as the PSAC Eastern Division champion in the league's preseason poll released Monday at Media Day inside the Durrwachter Center on the campus of Lock Haven University.
 
West Chester received six of the possible eight first-place votes to outdistance newcomer Shepherd University, which garnered the other two top votes to finish second in the poll behind the Golden Rams. Kutztown was slated third with Shippensburg and Bloomsburg fourth and fifth, respectively. East Stroudsburg, Millersville and Lock Haven rounded out the voting in the East.
 
The Golden Rams have won the Eastern Division in three of the last four seasons, representing the East in the PSAC Championship Game on each occasion. Last fall, West Chester downed Slippery Rock, 33-10, in the title game to claim the school's first outright conference crown since 1971.
 
The Rock was also slated to repeat in the West, also receiving six of eight possible first-place tallies. Cal U was a surprising second while perennial favorite, Indiana (Pa.), was slotted third. Both Cal and IUP received one first-place nod. Mercyhurst came in at No. 4 while Edinboro landed at No. 5. Gannon, Clarion and Seton Hill rounded out the West, respectively.
 
West Chester lifts the lid on its 2019 campaign at home on Saturday, Sept. 7 against Bentley University at John A. Farrell Stadium with a 12 p.m. kickoff. Tickets can be purchased online at the WCU Ticket Office, or by calling (610) 436-2266.
 
The game can be heard live on WCHE 1520 AM, or seen via web stream by Sports Fan Base Network (SFBN). A link to the web stream will be on West Chester University's official athletics web site at: www.wcupagoldenrams.com.