By Joe Santoliquito, Patch.com
September 14, 2011
NEWTOWN SQUARE–Marple Newtown is 2-0 overall, and what’s more the Tigers have outscored their two opponents by a combined 83-0. Marple Newtown coach Ray Gionta is cautiously optimistic as his team takes on its biggest challenge this season, undefeated Strath Haven, which has outscored its first two opponents 75-6.
“We’re 2-0 and that might be surprising, but not surprising to me because I know the type of kids we have,” Gionta said. “We’re much better defensively. We’re faster and reacting well to the ball. We’re a work-in-progress on offense; we’re scoring points, but we have to clean up our act and get things together.”
Gionta said he’s been pleased with the play of defensive linemen, tackles Anthony Desiderio and Chris Kurkian, and ends Kenny Smith and Corey Power.
“We’re not big, we’re small on defense but we’re playing well,” Gionta said.
Gionta continued, “I also have to mention Joey Pham, Nick Ciarrocchi and Joe Vegso, they’ve all been playing well for us. We have Strath Haven this week and we’ll see what we have. The key thing for us is to get better each week. We’re hoping to get better to beat Strath Haven. We’ve been out for four weeks and we think we’re getting better.”