Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the same can be said about Rowan football, which suffered its first defeat of the Pat Ruley era on the road against the Ursinus Bears this past Saturday, Sept. 21, by a final score of 58-14. 

In what was a clash between undefeated teams, Ursinus used its experience to overpower the Profs. The Bears struck first in the first quarter on a one-yard touchdown run by Tony Holden, his first of three on the evening and seven total rushing touchdowns for Ursinus, before freshman Matt Welsey answered back in the middle of the second quarter for the Profs, taking off for a 21-yard touchdown run to even things up at seven.

It was a competitive game early, but things got out of hand quickly as Ursinus exploded for 21 unanswered points in the last five minutes of the first half, continuously forcing Rowan’s offense off the field and building a 28-7 lead going into the break.

“It’s the little things,” Welsey said. “You can’t hope for third and thirteens and to convert every time.”

“We’re always looking at what’s efficient with us, and what’s not,” Ruley said. “Sometimes gameplans dictate the style of play, where we match up, and where we have the best chance, so every week we’ll be pretty flexible in that regard.”

The Profs’ offense continued to sputter out of the break, and Ursinus continued to wear down Rowan defensively as they rode their unanswered run all the way to a 51-7 lead in the fourth quarter. 

Senior Isaac Jean-Baptiste helped end the drought for the Profs, taking a kickoff return 94 yards to the house. Jean-Baptiste’s performance was one of the highlights of the day, as he tallied 245 all-purpose yards and was honored as the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Special Teams Player of the Week. He currently ranks fourth in the NJAC in all-purpose yards with 337 through the first three weeks of the season.

The Profs have a bye this week before heading back on the road to face another familiar foe, the Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays on Friday, Oct. 4. The Blue Jays are currently the No. 20 ranked team in the country and defeated the Profs by a large margin last season, 55-20. Ruley has had his fair share of matchups with Johns Hopkins throughout his coaching and playing career and feels a win against a team of their caliber would be program-changing in terms of the team’s trajectory going forward.

“[Johns] Hopkins is an excellent team, I’ve played them eight or nine times in my career,” Ruley said. “They’re always going to be well-coached, well-prepared, and have some really good players. The message is the same going into the Ursinus game because I think they’re at least in the same class in terms of caliber of team. We have to go out and execute at a high-level, we’ve gotta have a sense of urgency, we gotta understand getting behind the chains offensively, or allowing them to have short-yardage situations as an offense is putting us in a very vulnerable spot to be exposed.”

“It would mean alot heading into conference play,” Welsey said. “Especially after a loss and [Johns] Hopkins lost last week as well, having that energy of a win would be big for us and make conference play that much easier with a 3-1 record going in.”

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