Del Val Hosts Christopher Newport In D-III Tourney Opener
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The season continues on Saturday for the Delaware Valley College football team as they welcome Christopher Newport to Doylestown in the first round of the Division III NCAA Tournament.
The Aggies went 9-1 during the regular season, but lost the Middle Atlantic Conference title this past Saturday when they lost their annual "Keystone Cup" match-up to Widener, 44-28. That gave the 10-0 Pride the conference title and left the Aggies hoping for an at-large bid. Which they got.
"When we got the at-large bid," Del Val head coach Duke Greco tells KYW Newsradio, "it was a relief and something I thought we deserved, but I was extremely happy for our players and grateful for the opportunity to compete this week."
Listen to Del Val head coach Duke Greco with KYW's Matt Leon:
In the first round they get a Christopher Newport team which hails from Newport News, Virginia, and brings a 7-3 record into the tournament. They are the champions of the USA South Conference.
"They have a lot of team speed," Greco says. "They have a lot of great athletes. It's going to be a challenge. And for us, we're excited. We have guys from all over, but we're really Philly based and it is an opportunity to, not just to represent Del Val, but represent Philadelphia and show Christopher Newport what we are and what Philly football is all about."
This game will feature a couple of high powered offense as the Aggies average 43.4 points per game and Christopher Newport puts up 36.1 points a contest, so Greco says his defense will be challenged in this one.
"Our defense has been playing much better the last five weeks," Greco says. "We had four great games, we had a great half against Widener. We didn't play a complete game defensively (against Widener), but we're playing better. Newport's strength is their offense and defensively we need to step up and make some plays. And offensively, we've been inconsistent the last few weeks. So we need to get that back and be more consistent and respect the football and put ourselves in position to let our athletes make plays."
This will be the first-ever meeting between these two programs.
The winner of this game plays the winner of Widener and Muhlenberg in the second round.
Saturday's game in Doylestown will kickoff at noon.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
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