Howdy,

Masuk of Monroe quarterback Casey Cochran had been knocked to the turf one final time Saturday night when Hand of Madison linebacker Weston Staples offered him a hand and pulled him up.

It was the only nice thing the Hand defense did all night.

The Tigers' defense pulled off the football equivalent of a TKO in the Class L semifinals as they repeatedly beat on Masuk's receivers.

Hand shutout the state's most prolific offense in the second half and took down the defending state champion Panthers, 35-14, before an overflow crowd of over 5,000 at Ken Strong Stadium.

"West Haven, Notre Dame (of West Haven) and now Masuk — we have not let up one point in the second half," junior linebacker Matthew Walsh said. "And each team we let up 14 points in the first half. That says a lot about how we come out in the second half and just shut them down. Nobody can hit the entire game like us. We keep bringing it, and after a while, teams quit."

Hand coach Steve Filippone said, "They're (Masuk) a very good football team. My hat is off to Murph (head coach John Murphy) and Casey and all the rest of those guys. They're terrific, but they hadn't seen a defense like we play defense. No way. They hadn't seen it. They hadn't seen kids who are going to hit them, who are going to rush them, who are going to tackle the way we tackle, and that was the difference in the game."

The Tigers (12-0) will play New Canaan for the title.

Masuk had won 24 straight games prior to Saturday and were ranked second in The Day's Top 10 state coaches' poll. It had been receiving seven of 13 first-place votes.

Cochran, the Panthers' masterful senior quarterback, is the state's all-time passing yardage leader. He had completed 71.3-percent of his passes this eason prior to Saturday for 2,764 yards with 36 touchdowns and four interceptions.

Masuk had also averaged a state-best 52.3 points.

Hand decided to defend the Panthers by keeping five in the box and dropping six back into pass coverage.

"We were kind of daring them to run," Walsh said.

Masuk ran 13 times for 42 yards.

The second component of Hand's defensive plan was brutally effective.

"Our idea was to rush three and keep the ball in front of us, which we did all night," Filippone said. "They were not able to throw the ball deep.

"You guys will remember there was a bowl game played between Penn State and Miami a number of years ago (the 1987 Fiesta Bowl). (Vinny) Testaverde was the quarterback. Miami, they had the greatest receiving core and quarterback in the world, and Penn State sat back in zone defense. And every time a Miami kid caught the ball, they drilled them. And by the third or fourth quarter, the Miami kids didn't want to catch the ball anymore.

"That was our game plan."

Cochran opened the game by directing a 13-play, 78-yard drive. He completed his first six passes and concluded the drive with an 8-yard touchdown to Jason Piontkowski.

It was Cochran's only touchdown pass of the night. He completed 35 of 62 passes for 278 yards with two interceptions.

"We were hitting receivers," Walsh said. "After a while, the second half, I tell you what, they did not want to catch that ball anymore."

Filippone said, "Our kids just made so many great hits that just cause them to either put the ball on the ground, or to think about it next time around. Am I going to go in there and catch another one and get drilled?"

Just ten of Cochran's completions went for 10-or-more yards. The longest pass play went for 22 yards to Piontkowski.

"They really played amazing," Cochran said. "They were covering everything that we showed them."

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Reading material for YOU:

CLASS LL

Staples 44, Newtown 20

Xavier 55, Norwalk 14

CLASS L

Hand 35, Masuk 14

New Canaan 27, Windsor 24

CLASS M

Ansonia 48, Berlin 14

Ledyard 35, Wolcott 0

CLASS S

Cromwell 35, Northwest Catholic 19

Holy Cross 23, Valley Regional/Old Lyme 14

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YOUR conference playoff scorecards:

NVL: 5-1

FCIAC: 5-2 (includes Staples over Ridgefield).

SCC: 4-2

ECC: 2-2 (includes Ledyard over Waterford).

SWC: 2-3

Pequot: 3-5

CCC: 3-7

CSC: 0-2

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It was something else to have watched the Class M semifinal between Ledyard and Wolcott and Hand-Masuk back-to-back as the offensive styles in both games couldn't have been more different. There were 28 pass attempts in the M semifinal. Cochran threw twenty times in the FIRST QUARTER. Hand's Henry Foye completed 23 of 31 passes for 249 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.

Ledyard ran 34 plays to 16 for the Eagles in the first half of their semifinal. The Colonels never punted in the game, either.

The Tigers' Nicolas Vitale is a chip off the old block — he's as tough a receiver as older brother Richie was as a running back at New London. Nicolas had 13 catches for 152 yards and a touchdown in Saturday's win.

New Canaan head coach Lou Marinelli and Filippone will match wits for the third time in a state final. The two are close friends. Marinelli has won twice and beat Filippone in last year's Class L semifinal round.

The state finals feature Xavier of Middletown, Staples of Westport, Hand, New Canaan, Ansonia and Ledyard. Same as it ever was.

Vaya con dios.