WEST CHESTER, PA – West Chester University's football squad conducted its annual Purple-Gold Intersquad contest Friday evening inside Tomlinson-Fillippo Field at John A. Farrell Stadium. Purple came out victorious, 32-15.
The first- and second-team offenses went up against the first- and second-team defenses for the first half with the third teams then going at it in the second half. Quarterbacks
Colin O'Sullivan (Fort Washington, Pa./Upper Dublin) and Towson University transfer
Jake Pellicciotti (Eldersburg, Md./Liberty) ran the two offenses in the first half.
Pellicciotti and O'Sullivan each threw a touchdown pass in the first half to transfer WR
Blake Thomas (Secaucus, N.J./DePaul Catholic), who entered West Chester from the University of Maine.
Gabriel Smalley (Philadelphia, Pa./Lincoln) threw a scoring pass to WR
Yeator Tappia (Willingboro, N.J./Burlington Twp.) in the second half.
"I think everybody here has been happy with the spring," head coach
Duke Greco said as he prepares for his third campaign running the Golden Rams' gridiron squad. "There is a lot of new energy and everyone was pretty consistent."
The first- and second-team offenses came out and competed hard, engineering a couple of scoring drives. In a sport where the defense tends to have the upper hand during the spring as teams put in new offenses and run players in and out of the game, West Chester's offense played very well Friday night.
"The defense kind of kicked the offense around a little all spring," Greco said. "But, tonight it was more of a back-and-forth battle. So, that was good to see."
O'Sullivan and Pellicciotti talked afterwards about the competitiveness in the QB room and how they have strived to make themselves and each other better.
"Learning a new offense is kind of like learning a new language," Pellicciotti said. "But, Colin has been a big help to me in my transition. Coach Greco has been a big help too. But, the other quarterbacks
Reilly Hoffacker (Sicklerville, N.J./Cedar Creek) and Gabe Smalley have been terrific too. I've been in a few quarterback rooms in my career, but Gabe, Reilly and Colin are awesome. We are all competitors, and we are competitive on the field. But, we can flip that switch too. I've been real fortunate to have them."
O'Sullivan, who appeared in five games and started four last fall, came into the spring with the most experience in Greco's offensive system. He has been asked to be the leader in that QB room.
"There are a lot of different coaches and a lot of new players and different faces around," O'Sullivan commented. "But, for us, we all have one goal and have really been committed to that. So, we bonded over that and have done all the right things."
The Purple-Gold intersquad scrimmage brings to a close the spring football season. The Golden Rams will return to camp for the fall in early August in preparation of their first game of the 2026 season on the road at Lincoln University on Sept. 5.
