RADNOR — The beauty of pre-Labor Day football is that no matter the implications of a final score, there shall be a consistency of reaction.
So it was Friday when Marple Newtown defeated Radnor, 56-7, and both camps unloaded the same basic reaction.
Two words: It’s early.
“I told them we were 1-and-4 last year and wound up making the playoffs,” Radnor coach Kyle Yeiter said. “I was just letting them know, ‘Guys, it’s a long season.’”
At the same time – at the other end of both the field and range of emotion – coach Chris Gicking would be sharing a similar take.
“I just said, ‘We have Upper Darby next,’” he said. “And we know they are a very good football team. So we have a lot of work to do this week.”
The Raptors (0-2,0-1 Central League) were stung hard by injuries in the trenches, but with the way MN has played in the first two weeks – outscoring Boys Latin and Radnor by a combined 106-27 – it may not have mattered.
While having entered the season encouraged by a several-season ramp-up to a roster deep in experience, the Tigers have been showing the ability to exceed those dreams. Behind a dominating offensive line Friday – including, among others, Andrew Kirlin, Jason Bennett, Brett Cowan, Eric Janda and Jake McGowan – they rushed for 232 yards and scored on every first-half possession.
Brian Box paced the balanced attack with 109 rushing yards, including TD sprints of 54 and 6 yards, and added a flourish of an 85-yard return of the second-half kickoff to complete the hat trick.
“The big guys up front, and everybody around them, are just going 100 percent every single play,” Box said. “They don’t let up on any play.”
Lou DiLuzio struck 2:29 into the game, scoring on a two-yard plunge to cap a drive spiced by a 19-yard Box surge. Box rolled for his 54-yard score on the first play of the next MN possession. And when Paul DeFruscio caught a 10-yard pass from Dave Bertoline with 0:45 showing – and Josh McManiman kicked the third of his six PATs – the Tigers were ahead, 21-0.
Bertoline would complete 10 of his 12 passes for 133 yards, with Jude Jelus adding 19 passing yards in the second half.
“We have really been focusing on execution in practice,” said Bertoline, the third-year starting quarterback. “We have the players to do everything we want. We just have to execute on a high level.”
The precision offense continued in the second quarter when Brett Wolski zipped 23 yards through the middle for a score, Box provided his six-yard TD and Bertoline sneaked in from the 1 for a 42-0 lead.
After Box’s kickoff return padded the lead, Ryder Palubinski kicked the first of his two PATs, then recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff. But Radnor stiffened and Bryce Cohen made it worthwhile, charging 92 yards for a touchdown. Cohen, who had a busy night as the punter, had chipped in an earlier 40-yard kick return.
“We have to get him some more little openings, because if there is an opening, he’ll hit it,” Yeiter said. “He’s a very, very electric player.”
Despite the early kick-in of the speed-up rule, the Tigers found time to squeeze in a five-yard touchdown run from Michael Favaccia with 1:08 left. With that, the message was clear: They mean Central League business.
“That was a statement, but we know we have Upper Darby next,” Bertoline said. “They beat us last year. But we know now we have to make an even bigger statement.”
That’s how it works at a point of the season when it is too early – either way – for too many conclusions.
