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DePaul recap, La Salle preview

MALVERN – With La Salle now in close sight, the Friars prepare for their fourth straight season-opening contest against the Explorers in Ocean City, NJ.

Under new head coach Brett Gordon – the offensive coordinator for the past 14 seasons – the Explorers come in to Friday’s Labor Day weekend matchup riding a hot hand from their opening matchup, as they La Salle took down No. 4 ranked (MaxPreps) Harrisburg via a 45-7 score to open their season. Junior quarterback in Rutgers commit Gavin Sidwar went 19-of-24 through the air, throwing for 270 yards and five touchdowns with junior receiver Joey O’Brien making up for over 150 of those yards.

The Friars are no stranger to not just La Salle, but Sidwar – who has started the last two Beach Bashes against Malvern. However, he has just seven points of offense between those two games. Malvern beat La Salle last season 13-7, while the previous year saw the Friars take it in blowout fashion, 35-0. The Explorers did however take down the Friars 10-7 back in 2021, which was the first of now four Beach Bashes.

“We got a heck of an opponent ahead of us,” Friars head coach Dave Gueriera said. “La Salle is an unbelievably talented team and they pose a lot of problems on both sides of the ball. (Sidwar) is a really good player and he’s got a lot of guys to throw to while defensively they got guys that can just run and make plays. We have our hands full for sure but we’re definitely looking forward to the challenge.”

Malvern on the other hand was busy as well the day prior. They wrapped up the preseason with their annual scrimmage against DePaul Catholic (NJ) on Thursday, this year on their home turf. The contest ended in a 14-14 tie before the JV portion of the game took over following three quarters of play.

“Happy that we got out of here healthy, that is my number one concern in a scrimmage especially against a team of this caliber,” Gueriera said following the preseason draw. “And secondly, I thought we did a very nice job on both sides of the ball. We had one hiccup on defense on the first play of the game, but I think they recovered with a really good three quarters after that.”

With Gueriera having the team’s health in mind, the Friars opted to sit out running backs Chris Smith and Zeke Bates for the contest.

“When you have a scrimmage like today and those guys are a little banged up, it makes sense to just hold them out and just get them ready for next week,” Gueriera explained. “I would have loved to have gotten them reps but the right decision was to keep them out. We’re hoping both are good to go for next week.”

Under center, the Friars split reps between Skyler Smith and Jackson Melconian as expected. Malvern goes into Friday’s matchup expected to do the same.

“We’re probably a two-quarterback offense,” Gueriera said. “I think the two quartebracks did a really nice job (vs. DePaul) and we’re lucky to have both of them.”

Melconian went 5-of-8 through the air with 98 yards though an interception, while Smith was 6-for-10 throwing for 75 yards and a touchdown.

The Friars went down early when DePaul took the opening play of the affair 90 yards to the end zone, though Malvern later responded as tailback Dan Riely ran near 50 yards to the red zone before Jake Bauer proceeded to stuff it in to tie it at 7-7. Melconian saw a drive of his go into the red zone after he found Andrew Pellicciotta and he took it 72 yards, but his pass deflected off of a lineman’s helmet and into the hands of the Spartans for a pick. DePaul then took a 14-7 lead into the half.

In the third and final quarter (for the varsity portion of the game), Malvern was put in plus territory after the senior Bauer pumped a ball free and forced a fumble for Ian Files to pick up. Smith took advantage, finding fellow senior Luke Hardy in the back of the end zone to tie it at 14.

Malvern and La Salle kick off Friday at 6:00 p.m. at Ocean City High School.

Quinn Riley '25

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Malvern Prep Football 2024

MALVERN -- This season, expectations are no different for Malvern.

Dave Gueriera will begin his eighth season at the helm of the Friars, and he attempts for his sixth Inter-Ac title. The 37th in Malvern's history, that would be.

The season opener against La Salle is in just over a week, the fourth annual Beach Bash between the two schools down the shore at Ocean City High School. Prior to that, however, the Friars have a preseason matchup on Thursday, August 22, against DePaul Catholic HS (NJ) at home which marks the official end to training camp.

The freshman team kicks off their season at 1:00 p.m. that day before the varsity and JV team scrimmages the Spartans at 5:00 p.m. on their home turf. It's a team they've played a preseason matchup against for the past five seasons (not including 2020), flip-flopping the location every season. The varsity teams play the first half of the game and the JV teams face in the second half.

"A scrimmage like that helps us level up quicker -- whereas before we weren't getting those same looks at our defects when we faced easier opponents in the past," said Gueriera. "They are always in the mix at the end of the season for their state championship in New Jersey. They have a lot of talent and they have great coaching, so for us, it's a great look to see where are we as a team, what things do we need to work on, and also what things are working, and what we want to build on."

Read More of the 2024 Season