Senior Night has Arrived at the Surf Club

Friday, November 15, 2013

Tonight at 7 pm the Daniel Hand Tiger Football Team (6-3) will take on the Green Knights of Notre Dame-West Haven (4-5).  Prior to the kickoff the team will honor their seniors as they reach their final home game on Strong Field.

Last week the Tiger's hopes for reaching the playoffs were almost snuffed out by an outstanding five touchdown performance by West Haven's Syracuse bound star running back, Ervin Phillips. The Tigers lost their third game of the year 46-35 to the West Haven Blue Devils. Despite having three losses, the Tigers are still mathematically in the hunt for one of the final eight playoff slots in Class L. Right now they're sitting in the number ten spot and they would have to win their last two games and hope for some strategic wins and losses by other teams to get them in. 

Notre Dame is out of the playoff hunt but that doesn't mean they are going to be a push over.  They lost to five quality teams (St. Joes, Fairfield Prep, Ridgefield, West Haven and Xavier) and have improved in the last couple of weeks.  Their senior running back, Cameran Tucker was injured earlier in the season but now seems to be back on track.  He ran for 167 yards last week against Wilbur Cross in a 56-28 romp.  Notre Dame wideout  Drew Arciuolo had 143 receiving yards and three touchdowns in that game as well.  The Tigers will have their hands full tonight and will need to play mistake-free to keep their postseason hopes alive.  

MATH IS HARD

It is very difficult to keep track of all the possible outcomes that will determine a teams "point total." but luckily there is a math/computer whiz employed by the CIAC who puts a webpage together that totals up all the scores and highlights who is in and who is out.  That page is up and running now here.  

For those of you who are wondering just how a team earns "points" during the season, here is an excerpt from the CIAC 2013 Season Tournament Packet...

2. To be eligible for the Playoffs a minimum of eight (8) games must be played. 
 
3. The top eight teams in each division will be selected using a point system as follows:  Four classes of competition will be used with the point system.  Division LL - Division L - Division M - Division S  
a. A school will receive
100 points for defeating a school in its own division; 
90 points for defeating a school in one lower division; 
80 points for defeating a school in two lower divisions; 
70 points foe defeating a school in three lower divisions; 
110 points for defeating a school in one higher division; 
120 points foe defeating a school in two higher divisions; 
130 points for defeating a school in three higher divisions. 
 
b. A school defeating a league opponent of a lower division will not be subject to the structure as outlined in paragraph a., but will receive 100 points.  
c. The following is used only if a game is played against an out-of-state team at the out-of-state team’s site. The out-of-state team must be a member of their state high school association.  
A school will receive
50 points for tying a school in its own division; 
45 points for tying a school in one lower division; 
40 points for tying a school in two lower divisions; 
35 points for tying a school in three lower divisions; 
55 points for tying a school in one higher division; 
60 points for tying a school in two higher divisions; 
65 points for tying a school in three higher divisions.  
d. A school will receive 10 points for each victory and 5 points for each tie earned by any opponent it has defeated. 
 
e. A school will receive 5 points for each victory and 2.5 points for each tie earned by an opponent it has tied. A school will not receive any bonus points for a tie where they were the opponent. 
  
f. The total number of playoff points will be divided by the total number of games played to determine the point value earned by each school. 
 
g. The following five steps will be used in breaking ties in pairings if two or more schools finish with the same point value in the same division. 
 
1) In the event there are exactly two schools tied at the point value and the two schools have met during the regular season, the winner wins the position in question (head-to-head). 2) The wins and ties of each of the opponents are added (2 points per win and 1 point per tie) and the team with the greatest number of points wins the position in question. This includes each opponent regardless of whether the game was won or lost. 3) The team that defeated the highest rated (CIAC point system) team wins the position in question. 4) The team with the best winning percentage wins the position in question. 5) Each team will be assigned a computer-generated random “tiebreaker number” two weeks prior to the end of the season. If there is still no winner after the first ten criteria in this section are applied then the team with the highest random tiebreaker number will be the winner of the position in question.  h. The top eight (8) teams in each division will qualify for the quarter-final games (32 teams total). 
Piece of cake... right?

If Hand can go 8-3, (that's still an "IF") they will probably be the only three loss team with a chance to get in.  That is due to the strength of their schedule and the extra points that come from defeating a school in a higher division and defeating schools with a lot of wins against other teams. #6 Darien is 8-1, but they have two huge games to end the season.  Tonight against North Haven (you really want to root for North Haven) and they finish with New Canaan on Thanksgiving.  Darien is the team most likely to drop out and make room for Hand in the top eight.

If you want to follow along on what games can make a difference for Hand here is a rundown...

Hand is guaranteed 20 more points for the following games because they defeated both opponents:

Saturday 11/16  
Wilbur Cross vs. Cheshire

Thanksgiving      
Wilbur Cross vs. Hillhouse 

Hand has a good chance of receiving 60 more points if the following games go their way:

Tonight
North Haven over Darien
Hillhouse over Branford
Guilford over Foran

Thanksgiving
Shelton over Derby
North Haven over Amity
Notre Dame over Hamden  

Hand could possibly get 40 more points, but these teams would have to pull off an upset:

Tonight
Fairfield Prep over Xavier
Shelton over West Haven

Thanksgiving
Cheshire over Southington
Fairfield Prep over West Haven

Yes, the math is hard and all of this is speculation.  The situation can change several times between now and about 1 pm on Thanksgiving.  We'll just have to follow along.

Gametime weather looks good; mostly cloudy, mid forties, light breeze, so if you haven't been to a game yet this year... tonight will be a great night to come down, see the new field and send off our seniors with a packed house.  

If you can't make it to the field, you can catch the live streaming video of all the action at TigerPrideFootball.com (donations suggested).