Football Preview: Manchester Red Hawks vs. Southington Blue Knights
Manchester hasn't had much luck against Southington recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Manchester Red Hawks will take on the Southington Blue Knights at 6:30 p.m.
Manchester will head out to face Southington after giving up their first home loss of the season on Friday. Manchester lost 35-12 to Maloney. The Red Hawks have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Despite the defeat, Manchester had strong showings from Joe Mugovero, who picked up 124 receiving yards and two touchdowns, and Emanuel Sampel, who threw for 167 yards and two touchdowns. The dominant performance also gave Sampel a new career-high in rushing yards (35).
Meanwhile, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Southington beat Hall 41-35 last Thursday. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Blue Knights.
Southington can attribute much of their success to Nick Andrews, who rushed for 199 yards and a touchdown, and Jaxiel Rivera, who picked up 141 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Rivera is becoming a predictor of Southington's success: when he posts at least two receiving touchdowns the team is 2-1 (and 1-3 when he doesn't).
Southington didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off four passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of JoJo Fabiano and Nyzaiah Smith. With that strong performance, Fabiano is now averaging an impressive 5.1 total tackles per game. Southington got some further help from Andrew Mikosz: he picked up 0.5 sacks and made ten total tackles (2.5 for loss).
Southington was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 201 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Manchester's loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 4-3. As for Southington, their win ended a five-game drought at home dating back to last season and bumped them up to 3-4.
Manchester was taken down by Southington 47-20 in their previous meeting back in November of 2023. Thankfully for Manchester, Rashard Williams Jr (who picked up 125 receiving yards and three touchdowns, and also rushed for 44 yards and a touchdown) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
