DHHS v Cheshire Game Moved To Turf Field At Daniel Hand High School

Editor's Note: The football game against Cheshire has been moved to the turf field at Daniel Hand High School at 286 Green Hill Road in Madison, CT.

No Easy Day.  That’s the title of of a new book about the mission to get Osama bin Laden, written by a Navy SEAL. It would also make a good motto to describe the Daniel Hand Football Team’s 2012 regular season schedule.  Week three’s struggle will feature the Cheshire Rams in a SCC Division I East matchup.  

The Tigers defeated Hillhouse last week 37-19 at Bowen Field in an afternoon game.  Hillhouse has an abundance of talent and will do very well this year.  However, they were not prepared to stand toe to toe and slug it out with Hand.  Hillhouse scored in the third quarter to get to within 4 points, trailing 23-19.  But that’s as close as they would come. Hand then controlled the ball and the closed the scoring by adding two touchdown runs by Ian O’Toole 

The Cheshire Rams are off to a great start under new head coach, Don Drust.  In week one they beat Shelton 30-23 and last week they shutout Branford 20-0.   

Drust took over from long time head coach, Mark Ecke, who resigned this Spring after a controversy over an incident at a JV Lacrosse game where he berated officials over an uncalled illegal hit on his son.  Ecke was merely a spectator at the game at that time.   Ecke had been Cheshire’s coach for 17 years and led the team to four State Championships.  Drust was an assistant for several years under Ecke. 

These two foes are very familiar with each other.  Both Cheshire and Hand run the same type of no-huddle spread offense.  Quarterback Vin Sansone is the Rams number one threat.  He ran for 136 yards against Branford last week.  

The weather forecast looks a bit dicey.  Better check with Patch before heading out in case of any delays or postponement. 

Patch Players of the Week 

Offense: The Hand offense started to stall out a bit in the third quarter, so Coach Filippone looked for a spark to get it going again.  That spark was MATT SULLIVAN who took over at quarterback for a dinged Brendan Bilcheck.  Sullivan came in as Hand’s version of Tim Tebow (much smaller) running the “Wildcat” offense.  Sullivan took off for a 52 yard touchdown run and finished the game with 146 yards rushing.  

Defense:  In the waning moments of the game, after the last defensive stop, you could see by the slow jog to the sideline that defensive end, PETER GERSON, had nothing left in the tank.  He left it all on the field.  "It" included several crushing hits and a gigantic 4th down sack in the fourth quarter.   

AROUND THE SCC 

Amity showed that they are indeed improved this year by defeating Sheehan 58-14.   

Guilford shocked West Haven by opening up a 14-0 lead, but it would not hold has West Haven prevailed 40-28. 

And Xavier rolled to win their 147th game in a row (or something like that... I’ve lost count) defeating North Haven 49-12.

The game of the week other than Cheshire-Hand?  Notre Dame WH vs. West Haven; AKA “The Battle of West Haven.”  Coach Demaio will be covering this live on 960 WELI.