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By PAUL SOKOLOSKI; Times Leader Sports Writer
Saturday, September 06, 1997     Page:

Certainly, one game is not worth banking a season on.
   
Unless the team doing the banking has never come out of training camp and
won on opening day.
    And it has never accomplished a winning season.
   
And it has little other than pride to show for four years of hard work.
   
King’s College is thinking they all go hand-in-hand.
   
“You build confidence day-by-day in camp,” said King’s coach Rich Mannello.
“When the game starts, it has to start all over again. That’s why the first
game is so important.”
   
Call it setting a tempo, which the Monarchs hope will be upbeat after
today’s 1:30 p.m. battle with Alfred University at Monarch Fields.
   
To feel it, all the Monarchs need do is glance back at their past.
   
They’re winless in four consecutive season openers since the rebirth of the
school’s varsity football program in 1993, and have four consecutive losing
seasons to show for it.
   
And last year, King’s opened with a tough 14-12 loss to Moravian- beginning
a trend that saw the Monarchs drop four games by four points or less on their
way to a 2-8 season.
   
They vow things will be different in 1997.
   
“Everybody’s excited,” Mannello said. “This is the best camp we’ve ever
had. We’ve finally got players here who refuse to accept average work. The
kids are anxious.”
   
Junior Mark McHugh emerged with the team’s biggest prize, as he wrestled
the starting quarterback job away from senior Frank DeLano. But DeLano, who
missed five games with a separated shoulder last year, will figure into the
mix along with promising freshmen Jeff Cemelli and David Wychock.
   
“Mark McHugh won the starting job last Saturday,” said Mannello, a former
assistant at Division II Springfield College and Division I-AA Northeastern.
“I want to stress the four quarterbacks did a great job. I really think we
need all of them to win. That’s a great combination there.”
   
And it just may be a winning one that translates into a season of success.
   
“From the day I moved into Pennsylvania, I’ve wanted to win,” said
Mannello, whose teams have gone a combined 6-32-1 since King’s returned to the
varsity football level four years ago. “The thing you have to do is take one
day at a time.
   
“Goal number one is to get win number one.”
   
As far as King’s is concerned, opening day would be an ideal place to
start.
   
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