The Seton Hill Griffins were handed their second loss of the season on Saturday night in their game against the nation’s 10th ranked West Chester Golden Rams. What started in the first quarter as a pretty even game (West Chester only led 3-0 after one quarter) quickly opened up into a 45-10 West Chester victory.
“I think the offense needs to score a lot of points against this team to compete,” said West Chester head coach Bill Zwaan coming into Saturday’s game.
West Chester’s offense gained over 500 yards total on the day and was led by a strong performance from quarterback Sean McCartney who continued his impressive start to the season with three total touchdowns.
“McCartney is very experienced and confident. He is in his sixth year so he is very confident in the offense.” said Zwaan.
On the season, McCartney now has 12 total touchdowns in three games. Though he was not the only impressive offensive performance for West Chester, wide receiver Erick Brundidge also had a big day grabbing six catches for 166 yards and three touchdowns.
The Seton Hill offense does not have as much to celebrate.
“I thought the offense was inconsistent in their execution. We stopped ourselves all night with penalties, dropped balls and missed assignments,” said Seton Hill head coach Isaac Collins.
The Griffins were only able to score 10 points and were outgained by 310 total yards. The Griffins unfavorably timed penalties caused their big offensive plays to be called back throughout the game, including a would-have-been 70 yard touchdown by wide receiver FJ Williams.
“That definitely would have been a big game changer to show anyone in the PSAC that we can score with any team that steps on the field with us,” said Williams on the touchdown.
The Seton Hill offense executed a two quarterback game plan in which both senior Drew Jackson and junior Dan Pietrangelo both took about half of the teams snaps.
“We really have a solid foundation at QB with Dan and Drew switching in and out, they both bring something different to the table,” said Williams. “Dan is a good game manager and Drew has big play making ability,” he continued.
The Seton Hill defense hurt themselves by giving up big plays as there were two touchdowns scored by West Chester that were 40 yards or more. That makes it four total touchdowns of 40 yards or more scored on the SHU defense this season.
“We must be more consistent on defense and get our offense the ball by creating turnovers or getting our opponent to go three and out,” said Coach Collins.
Collins and Williams both pointed out something important to take away from this game.
“My biggest takeaway from this game is mental mistakes. They are the reason we had so many penalties, blown routes, signal miscommunication, and our receivers not making big plays,” said Williams.
When asked what the biggest thing to learn from this game was Collins answered, “we [the team] are not quite ready for a stage like playing a top 10 team.”
The Griffins will look to bounce back from this loss next week as they play PSAC West’s Slippery Rock. Tickets for Seton Hill students to shuttle to the game are available.