After a tough four-game losing streak, the football team was excited to start their Inter-Ac schedule against unbeaten Penn Charter.

The defending co-Inter Ac champion football team started out a hopeful season with a strong win over St. Augustine Prep. However, the tides quickly turned after the team lost four straight games to LaSalle College High School, Pope John Paul XXIII, the McDonogh School, and the Peddie School, all of which were very tough opponents.

“I knew the teams that we were playing, like I knew the programs were solid,” Head Coach Dave Gueriera said. “I didn’t realize how good each individual team was. Year after year, you don’t know who’s coming back, who transfers in, but I was impressed with the four teams that we lost to.”

Although, team morale was kept high even through this losing streak.

“They know the out of conference schedule that they played was really tough,” Gueriera said. “But I think that having going through this four-game losing streak, they still have confidence in themselves that they are a good football team.”

Coach knows, however, that the team will have to improve on mistakes they have made up until this point in the season to have success in the Inter-Ac.

“We have to sharpen up mentally. We’re still playing really good football teams and teams that will make us pay if we make mental mistakes,” Gueriera said.

Junior offensive lineman Jake Hornibrook would definitely agree with Coach Gueriera’s thoughts.

“All four of those games were winnable games, we just made dumb mistakes, like penalties, and some things also just didn’t fall our way,” Hornibrook said.

While the team will have to combat their mistakes, many of the players feel that they are ready to take on their Inter-Ac schedule.

“I feel like we’re ready for the Inter-Ac with the tough schedule we had,” Hornibrook said. “It definitely prepared us. We definitely won’t see anything we haven’t seen.”

Along with being prepared, it seems like the players won’t let the losing streak weigh down on them once Inter-Ac play begins.

“I think that we’re a resilient bunch,” Gueriera said. ”and I think our minds are in the right spot. With the Inter-Ac starting, we have a nice bye to rest up, we’re one hundred percent healthy.”

And the players did look well-prepared and mentally intact when they kicked off their Inter-Ac schedule facing Penn Charter on Homecoming. Coach Gueriera knew it would be a tough game facing the undefeated Quakers, even saying the week before the game that Penn Charter would be their toughest competitor in the Inter-Ac this season. Malvern won this game 23-9. After starting out slow, the team picked up their play and had a very sound game on both sides of the ball. After a slow start, the team was able to take over the rest of the game on both sides of the ball and ended up with a 23-9 win, clearly showing they were past the losing streak.

“It wasn’t that hard [to overcome a losing streak going into the Inter-Ac],” senior defensive back Liam McKnight said after the Penn Charter game. “Yes, we did have a losing streak. But at the same time, it prepared us for the Inter-Ac, so we felt very well-prepared.”

While the team knew that Penn Charter would be a big game, many players are are looking forward to other games in which they will see the biggest two of Malvern’s biggest rivals Inter-Ac rivals.

“We’re definitely looking forward to the EA game and the night game against Haverford,” Jake Hornibrook and junior wide receiver and defensive back Ryan Iacone both said.

Both players agreed that losing to Episcopal last year on a field goal that they and many others believed didn’t actually go in makes them want to beat Episcopal that much more this year. Hornibrook and Iacone also both share high share high expectations for their Inter-Ac performance this year.

“I think we should go 5 and 0 in the Inter-Ac and win it outright,” Hornibrook said.

This may be what all the players think, but senior McKnight knows what it will take to accomplish this goal.

“We can’t really take any team lightly, so we’re going to take every week with the same focus,” McKnight said. “Episcopal and Haverford are always big games, but then we have Germantown Academy and Springside Chestnut Hill. People might think these aren’t big games, but that’s not our mentality. We are focused the same for every game.”

The team has started their Inter-Ac schedule with two strong wins over Episcopal and Penn Charter, so we’ll see how they do for the rest of the season.

“I guarantee an Inter-Ac Championship,” Ryan Iacone said.

Update: Malvern defeated The Haverford School 31-7 on Friday, October 27.  This win moved them 3-0 in the Inter-Ac and 4-4 overall.