Patch Players Of The Week: Nick Vitale And Peter Gerson

The Tiger's game against the Lyman Hall Trojans was rescheduled to Saturday at 7 p.m., due to the rain Friday.

Of course, rain is in the forecast for Saturday as well. The Trojans may feel that the sloppy conditions will be an advantage for them as it may hamper the high-powered spread offense attack of the Tigers.

Lyman Hall may be looking for any advantage they can get to avoid a repeat of last year’s 41-7 blowout at the Surf Club.  That loss was a low point for the Trojans who went on to win 8 games in the regular season and earned a berth in the Class M playoffs.  They may be looking to prove that last year’s game was an anomaly, but will they have the “horsepower” to do it?

Both teams are coming in to the game with 1-0 records.  Lyman Hall scored in the last two minutes to defeat Wilby 28-22 and Hand thoroughly dominated Fairfield Prep 42-0 (see photo gallery for photos from last week.)

Hand’s performance impressed the voters this week as they moved up to #4 in the New London Day - State Coaches poll.  (Interestingly enough that was two spots ahead of New Canaan?) While the voters are impressed, it’s still only week two and there is a long way to go before we start plugging “Rentscher Field” (the site for State Championship games)  into our GPS units. 

For the “die-hards” going Saturday; an umbrella and rain gear are essential, as rain is in the forecast for Saturday as well.  Also remember that the Durham Fair is open, so plan your route accordingly. 

Patch Player of the Week

This was very hard to pick this week.  In fact, I could not get it down to just one.  Receiver Nick Vitale (21) had an exciting opener with two TD receptions and another TD on an 85 yard kickoff return.  Defensive end Peter Gerson (92) showed that he will be a force to reckoned with this year.  He had several QB sacks, including one that led to a fumble into the end zone and a Tiger touchdown.

Around the SCC

The SCC game of the week had to be North Haven’s stunning upset of Hillhouse 20-19.  The Indians blocked a field goal with 5 seconds remaining to preserve the win.  Hillhouse, the defending Class M Champions, with most of last year’s team returning,  had come in to the game ranked number 4 by the New Haven Register.  A video of North Haven QB Jalon White’s desperation pass for a TD has gone viral on YouTube approaching 200,000 views. 

Despite a solid performance in a 36-7 win over Notre Dame West Haven, Xavier found themselves falling to #2 in some of the polls. Cheshire’s 46-18 win over Hamden has placed them solidly in the top ten. West Haven sputtered but came out on top over Amity 28-14.