Purple Tops Gold In Annual Spring Game, 28-13

WEST CHESTER, Pa. – Rising Jr., WR Lex Rosario (Matemoras, Pa./Delaware Valley) caught a pair of touchdown passes, and rising Sr., RB Mike Class (Souderton, Pa./Pennridge) ran for a pair of scores to lead Purple to a 28-13 victory over Gold in West Chester University's annual spring football game inside John A. Farrell Stadium Friday night.
 
Purple came out victorious for the third straight year and has now won five of the last six spring games. The first-team offense put up a touchdown in each of the four quarters with a 20-yard scamper from Class with 11:32 left in the fourth sealing the deal.
 
West Chester University's football squad also participated in "Audible For Autism" before the game with a number of young children with Autism arriving at Farrell Stadium on a fire truck with first responders, and then running out onto the field with the team as the Golden Rams took the field for their final scrimmage of the spring. At halftime, the kids had an opportunity to run for a touchdown as well.


 
On the field, West Chester head coach Bill Zwaan needed to see where his skill positions stood coming out of the spring season, and he was very pleased with the results that he saw.
 
"Lex has to become the third wide receiver for us, and he has had a really good spring," Zwaan said afterwards. "But, he made some nice catches tonight.
 
"The running backs, (Dukes and Class), look like the guys that we want them to look like. They've been playing a lot. They just have to handle the bulk of the carries now. I just wanted to see if they could handle that. They have to get first downs for us and put the ball in the end zone, and I think they showed that tonight."
 
Rising Sr., Mark Dukes (Pottstown, Pa./Pottsgrove) rushed eight times for 53 yards and caught two passes for another 31 yards. Class finished with 65 yards on 10 carries. Purple's offense racked up 432 yards of total offense and averaged 7.4 yards per play in the win. Rising So., WR Rasheem James (Philadelphia, Pa./Ben Franklin) led Purple with four catches for 121 yards. Rosario finished with 91 yards receiving on three catches.
 
"I have a good relationship with Lex," R-Jr., QB A.J. Long (Bethlehem, Pa./Friendship Christian [Tenn.]) said. "(James) and I are getting there. I think there is more work to be done. But, when you add these weapons to Dukes and Class, I think we will be a really hard offense to stop."
 
Gold quarterback, R-Fr. Mike Piperno (Washington Twp., N.J./Washington), threw a pair of TD strikes to lead the opposition. R-Fr., WR Darnell Ferrell (Allentown, Pa./Allentown Central Catholic) led all receivers in the game with eight catches for 124 yards out of the backfield.
 
"We are so banged up defensively that it was hard to get a good gauge on our defense," Zwaan explained about his stop unit. "But, I think we will be fine. It was hard to have our entire team practicing at the same time this spring because of so many injuries. But, there was definitely a lot of intensity. The approach is better."
Purpled opened up the scoring Friday night when Rosario got behind the Gold defense and hauled in a 62-yard strike from rising Jr., QB Paul Dooley (Philadelphia, Pa./Springside-Chestnut Hill) with 7:33 left in the first quarter.
 
"We had a really good spring," Dooley offered. "We wanted to see how we would perform against the speed of our first-team defense, and see how we would make the reads. I thought we did pretty well with that."
 
Gold answered back early in the second quarter when Piperno found a wide open Joe Kennedy (Springfield, Pa./Springfield) in the end zone from 16 yards out to knot the game. However, Purple put up 21 unanswered points to wrestle control of the game away from the Gold.
 
Rosario made a diving catch in the corner of the end zone on a pass from Long with four minutes left in the first half. Class then ran in from three yards out with two minutes left in the third quarter to give Purple a 21-7 lead. That touchdown was set up by a beautiful perfect strike spiral from R-Fr., QB Nick Skulski (Avondale, Pa./Bishop Shanahan) to James, who toed the sideline to corral the 34-yard pass at the Gold 4-yard line.
 
Following Class' 20-yard run that gave Purple a 28-7 advantage, Piperno hooked up with Ethan Harris (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East) from three yards out. The two-point conversion pass fell incomplete with 1:21 left in the contest.
 
West Chester opens the 2018 fall campaign on Thursday, Aug. 30 at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass.