Jordan goes crazy, leads WCU past Millersville – Daily Local

By Neil Geoghegan

[email protected]

WEST GOSHEN – The struggles at the start of the 2024 college football season have become a distant, if unpleasant, memory in West Chester.

The Golden Rams won for the third time in the last four outings on Saturday in front of a large Homecoming crowd at sunny Farrell Stadium, beating visiting Millersville 41-23. It was a pro effort until WCU’s dynamic quarterback Copper Jordan put an exclamation point on PSAC East’s victory with two electrifying fourth-quarter touchdown runs, on runs of 47 and 61 yards.

“In practice, he kicks our butts,” senior safety Shane Mosley said when asked about the 5-foot-11, 175-pound junior. “Honestly, he’s like Lamar Jackson was at Louisville. “I’m glad we don’t have to face him in our games.”

Jordan had his third 100-yard rushing game of the season, and it’s no coincidence that the Rams (3-2, 3-5) are undefeated in those contests. He finished with a career-high 218 yards rushing and also torched the Marauders with three passing touchdowns, two to senior receiver D’Shaun Seals, who was celebrating his 22nd birthday on Saturday.

“A lot of teams give up hope at 0-4, but we have a great head coach and he helped us keep our heads up,” said Jordan, a former Bishop Shanahan star. “He believed in us and we believed in ourselves, and now we’re playing like we should. We still have a lot of fight ahead of us and that is why we are going to continue attacking every week.”

It was the first 200+ field trip for any WCU player since running back Jarel Elder in 2015. Jordan averaged a staggering 14.5 yards per attempt, accounted for five touchdowns (two rushing, three air) and almost certainly set the program record for rushing yards by a quarterback.

“My guys gave me opportunities to make plays,” Jordan said. “There was a lot of open grass and I relied on my legs to get there.”

Additionally, redshirt sophomore running back Juke Peaker, a Philadelphia native, returned to the WCU lineup after missing two games with a concussion and contributed 110 yards rushing. In total, the Rams had 357 rushing yards against the Marauders (0-5, 0-8).

“Coop is a great player,” West Chester head coach Duke Greco said. “He can do a lot of different things and today our offensive line was fantastic. We had (Jordan) going one direction and Juke (Peaker) going the other. That’s good for us.”

The Rams scored touchdowns on their first two possessions, with Peaker running in from four yards out to open the scoring. The attempt, however, was blocked. West Chester then benefited from a seven-yard punt on the next drive, leading to a 21-yard pass from Jordan to Seals to make the score 13-0.

Millersville got on the board with a 30-yard field goal early in the second quarter, and was 13-3 at the half after WCU kicker Sean Henry badly missed a pair of field goal attempts from 41 and 31 yards. .

The Rams extended the lead to 17 thanks to a 75-yard scoring drive that ended with a 32-yard pass from Jordan to Raheim Bowens early in the third. Jordan and Seals then connected again for a 47-yard strike late in the third to make the score 27-9.

“Seals is an elite receiver and is as competitive as you can get,” Greco said.

“We’ve been building that connection for years,” Jordan said when asked about Seals. “He’s one of my best friends on this team.”

West Chester’s defense gave up two Marauders touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but that’s when Jordan took control. His 47-yard keeper put WCU ahead 34-23 with 6:02 left, and then Jordan closed out the scoring with a 61-yard goal. He finished with 349 yards of total offense.

“I feel like this was one of my best rushing games, but I could have done better passing it,” Jordan said.

Defensively, WCU gave up 406 yards, but it was a big improvement from the previous week, where East Stroudsburg racked up 478 in a 45-31 victory.

“I thought we played hard today,” Greco said of the defense. “Last week, I take my hat off to ESU: they were probably the best team we’ve played so far. “I am proud to have responded today.”

Mosley added: “We gave up too many big plays on defense in the first four games. We’ve settled on the last four, except for East Stroudsburg.

“There was a bit of a lack of concentration today in the fourth quarter, but I’m happy to have gotten the win.”

The Rams also won the turnover battle 2-0.

“I feel like this is the team we should have had all season,” Mosley said.

“We were 0-4 at the beginning and we lost those four games by 18 points,” Greco added. “We just didn’t finish. But since then we have shown character and won some games, so I am proud of this group. Fighting to 3-5 shows the true character of this team.”