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Hand’s Christopher Bartosic, left, and Windsor’s Julian Jackson race to grab a fumbled ball during the first quarter of the Class L semifinal on Sunday in Madison.Hand’s Christopher Bartosic, left, and Windsor’s Julian Jackson race to grab a fumbled ball during the first quarter of the Class L semifinal on Sunday in Madison.Photo: John Vanacore / For Hearst Connecticut Media
MADISON — For Daniel Hand, five years without winning a state title seems like an eternity. The Tigers will get a chance at another championship on Saturday.
Paced by a dominant first half, the Tigers cruised to a 31-6 Class L semifinal victory over Windsor Sunday afternoon at the Surf Club in Madison.
The second-seeded Tigers will play fifth-seeded Masuk, a 28-14 winner over New Canaan in the other semifinal on Saturday at a site and time to be determined.
The Tigers will be looking for their 12th state title and first since 2012 when Hand topped Windsor to claim the Class L championship in part of consecutive titles for the Tigers.
“It’s been a long time,” Hand coach David Mastroianni said. “It is a great feeling. These kids wanted to get back and worked hard to get there. We said we would do everything we could to get back there and we did. We earned our way back. Nothing was gifted to us.”
While the Hand defense came into the contest as a reason to worry for the Warriors, it was all facets of the Hand game that paved the road to the title game.
The Tigers (11-1) used a combination of stellar special teams play, spectacular defense, and an opportunistic offense to put the game away early and led 24-0 at the half. For the third-seeded Warriors (10-2), the deficit could have been worse if not for a goal line stop as time expired in the opening half.
“They are a good team,” Windsor coach Robert Fleeting said of Hand. “They are very aggressive on defense. You can’t make mistakes against a team like this. We are very disappointed. We did not execute, and as a staff, we take responsibility for that.”
Hand used its special teams to take a 10-0 lead after one quarter. Following a muffed punt by Windsor that Hand recovered at the Windsor 9-yard line, Hand’s Brian Casagrande ran three times, the final one from 3 yards out to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead with 6 minutes, 43 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
After the Hand defense, which held the Warriors to just 14 yards in the first quarter and 48 yards in the opening half, stopped Windsor on three plays on its next possession, Isaiah McNeilly easily connected on a 26-yard field goal with 57 seconds remaining in the opening quarter for a 10-0 advantage.
“Special teams keeps us in games,” Mastroianni said. “We made some big plays. We played very well today.”
Things did not get much better for the Warriors in the second quarter as Hand put the game away with two big plays.
Sophomore quarterback Phoenix Billings was part of both as he gave the Tigers a 17-0 advantage with a 55-yard run up the middle with 6:02 left in the half. After an interception and return by Nicholas Woods gave the Tigers possession at the Windsor 30, Billings connected with Christopher Bartosic over the middle for an 18-yard scoring reception with 3:30 left in the half for a 24-0 lead.
“We definitely wanted to get out to a quick start and we were able to do that,” Billings said. “We prepared very well for this game and we executed. Getting back (state championship) is important to us.
“We realize what it means, and we realize it was our last time together as a group playing here at the Surf Club.”
Hand, which outgained Windsor 258-88 through three quarters, took a 31-0 lead when Billings hit Michael Tarantino with a 13-yard score for a 31-0 lead with 5:26 gone by in the third quarter.
Windsor, which was looking to return to the finals for a second straight season, finally got on the scoreboard with 2:52 left in the game when Tomasz Johnson ran 64 yards for a score. The Warriors gained 124 of their 212 yards in the final 12 minutes.
Billings finished with 70 yards and a touchdown on six carries, while passing for 123 yards.
Hand 31, Windsor 6
WINDSOR 0 0 0 6 — 6
HAND 10 14 7 0 — 31
H–Brian Casagrande 3 run (Isaiah McNeilly kick)
H–Isaiah McNeilly 26 field goal
H–Phoenix Billings 55 run (McNeilly kick)
H–Chris Bartosic 18 pass from Billings (McNeilly kick)
H–Michael Tarantino 13 pass from Billings (McNeilly kick)
W–Tomasz Johnson 64 run (kick failed)
Records: Windsor 10-2; Hand 11-1.
Video via WTNH-8, Sportzedge.com
Hand is very tough especially on defense don’t know what they were doing and tier-2 in the SCC Windsor started out started out the season and was one of the better teams in the state I don’t know what happened to them it look like Middletown took their heart out
There’s the 1st “tier 2” comment.
These comments are getting old, almost as old as the “Ansonia makes it to the finals every year because they’re in the NVL and don’t play anybody”
Windsor lost to Middletown 10 days ago after that they smacked around Maloney 36-0. What took Windsor’s ‘heart out’ was Hand’s speed, athleticism and exceptional game plan. Almost had to wonder if Windsor even bothered to watch video of the Tigers. Mind boggling to think what Hand would be doing it they had their top RBs available to play.
Forget Tier 1-2-3, the only number that mattered today was Hand’s front 7. Windsor struggled to move the ball all afternoon. There only glimmer of light was after Hand pulled their starters after the 3Q.
Losing Casagrande will be huge next year, but Hand returns every other one of their key players. And with what they have coming up thru JV/freshman/Youth Mastriani is poised to go on a nice run.
Ray, this was a very down team for Windsor standards. After starting with a skeleton crew so to speak on the offense and defense of line, our center went out with a season ending injury to start the year. And last week, one of our key lineman sprained his ankle. This week our starting center, fractured his leg. During the first half of the hand the game another one of our starting offense of an defense of lineman White down and was out for the rest of the game. Windsor will be back and in full strength next year, hopefully, with the quarterback issue straightened out. Good luck to your Ansonia team in the championship.
WC,
Going into the Semi’s, all we heard about was the bad-a__ defense & the speedy offense the Warriors had, now that they got shellacked, you’re saying it was a skeleton crew??
Seriously Chains? Kids lose two games, spend the season in top 10, make it to the state semis and its a down year?! Fair weather man, fair weather……
Playing two competitive Teams is what happened to Windsor.The level of the Teams you play will determine the success of your team.Middletown and Windsor will win 8-10 games next year in the regular season.Unfortunately many Leagues have too many cupcakes lined up for their big dogs year after year after year
What a sham these polls are by the way. Windsor is ranked in top five most of the year? Wilbur Cross, Bunnell, and Hillhouse (to just name three) are better than them.
Actually three of Windsors starting lineman or out of the game, Due to injuries. Makes a big difference. Congratulations to hand.
Anybody know will they Hand get Hutton back?
Can’t wait!!! For Huttion to return
AMAzing????? I guess you haven’t watche the games! That’s all hearsay! Lol
Hand rules because of a culture of winning.
Great job Tigers! Finish!
Let’s extend Hand a hand – but Masuk Rules! Man I liked Masuk then butvthat guy was annoying. Let’s hope for a tough, safe, we’ll-played final between to fine teams.
Hands starting rb tore acl week 2 and the back up, who has been amazing, has been out for the whole playoffs but you don’t see hand making any excuses like how Windsors linemen was hurt or north havens guy was sick but still played
Who’s currently their RB & also been amazing is a guy named Jesse Lutz, who’s about 5’-4”, 140 lbs.
Nobody in North Haven makes excuses.
North Haven got beat. End of story.
I believe Montano said he felt fine.
Get a grip, it’s high school football.
Hand is fortunate to have depth–a lot of it. Not many teams have that for the skill positions.
Phoenix Billings of Hand of Madison is flying under the radar and is possibly the best Quarterback in the State. And make note, he is only a Sophomore.
Billings is one of many, many gifted athletes on the Tigers team–he is a very good young quarterback but best in the state??? Not yet! Like a storied gun fighter in the wild west, constantly looking over his shoulder for the next young maverick to take him down, Mr. Billings will now be playing for rest of his career with the proverbial target on his back. Playing under that pressure will either cause him to rise to the top or break him. Hoping for his ascension.
Then he must be enjoying the same attention from top D1 colleges that a sophomore QB from a notable FCIAC team is reportedly getting. That’s quite a burden of expectation to bear.
No excuses….stop!
Hand has guys out too!
Hand dominated the game on both sides not to mention with its 3rd string running back who is barley 5’5… Windsor was overrated all year
Hand won’t beat Masuk, No way
Dear Stox,
During Masuk’s rise to the top they played 3 teams with a winning record. That means 70% of the teams they played lost 6 or more games. Their opponents had a record of 48 wins and 52 losses. WEAK.
Hand played 6 teams with a winning record–twice as many as Masuk. Hand opponents had a combined 54 wins against 46 losses.
All things are not equal since these teams played different schedules in different conferences and anything can happen on any given day. But the smart money will be on Hand–and it will not be close. Check back in after the game!!
Yes it was a skeleton crew. Period. Windsor will be back next year.
So will NC & Hand.
Hope you get the skeletons outta the closet by then…