Friday, November 8, 2013
The Daniel Hand Tiger Football Team (6-2) will travel to Ken Strong Stadium tonight to take on the West Haven Blue Devils (7-1) at 7 pm. The Tigers had their six game win streak broken last week by Xavier. Another loss will likely put the Tigers out of playoff contention.
With their 28-14 win last Friday, Xavier became the first visiting team to walk away from the Surf Club with a win since Notre Dame did so (by the same score 28-14) on October 30, 2009. The Tigers had their chances against Xavier, they were only down by 7 in the fourth quarter, but turnovers and mistakes by Hand sealed the game for the Falcons.
At 7-1, West Haven is ranked #3 in the LL playoff bracket. They could probably survive with one more loss, but they are facing a rough road for their last three games with Hand and Shelton at home and then at Fairfield Prep on Thanksgiving. Both Shelton and Fairfield Prep are 6-2 and fighting to stay in playoff contention.
West Haven is coming off a big 50-7 win over Wilbur Cross last Friday afternoon. The Hand defense will need answers for West Haven's two big playmakers, RB Ervin Phillips and QB Duane Gary. As expected, West Haven Coach Ed McCarthy was parked in the end zone at the Surf Club on Friday. West Haven has not beaten Hand since 2009 and had a big chance to upset the number one team in the state last year, but Ervin Phillips dropped the pass on a two-point conversion that would have given them the lead late in the fourth quarter. McCarthy and Phillips will not have to dig very deep for motivation tonight. Hand will need to bring their "A" game to stay alive in this one.
Playoffs? We're talkin' about playoffs?
If the season ended right now, #7 Hand would be traveling to #2 Middletown in the first round of the Class L playoffs. (Wouldn't that be a great game?) But we know... there is still a lot of football to be played. Hand is the highest ranked 6-2 team due to its strength of schedule. There will be one more guaranteed 6-2 team when #4 Bristol Eastern and #5 Farmington play each other tonight. Undefeated #1 New Canaan will likely coast until Thanksgiving when they play #6 Darien. Other than those games, there doesn't look like many more chances for movement within the top eight teams. Hands' best chance to get in will be to win out. So it looks like the playoffs start now.
Around the SCC
No break for Hand tonight and the same goes for Xavier as they face Shelton at home. Xavier started their playoff run last week and will need to continue with Shelton tonight and Fairfield Prep next week. Xavier does not have a Thanksgiving game this year because Middletown called it quits.
Hotshot QB Jake Kasuba and the Foran Lions (6-2) travel to North Haven. North Haven is 7-1 and sitting 9th in playoff points. A win over Foran can put them into the top eight. But they'll have to stop Kasuba first, he has 2362 passing yards with 23 TDs this year.
On the air or online
If you can't get to West Haven tonight, you can catch the live streaming video broadcast at TigerPrideFootball.com And please help them out with a small donation if you can. (It's a great service but it doesn't come from Santa Claus or the Federal Government so it's not "free.")
If you're in the car, you can catch the game on the radio with Coach George DeMaio on ESPN Radio 1300 AM.
Gametime Weather - Clear, in the low forties with a 10-12 mph breeze.
