Football Preview: Southington Blue Knights vs. Manchester Red Hawks
Southington has gone 8-0 against Manchester recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Southington Blue Knights will square off against the Manchester Red Hawks at 6:30 p.m. Southington will be strutting in after a victory while Manchester will be coming in after a loss.
Last Thursday, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Southington beat Hall 41-35. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Blue Knights.
Southington's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Nick Andrews, who rushed for 199 yards and a touchdown, and Jaxiel Rivera, who picked up 141 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Rivera's longest reception was for an incredible 81 yards.
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.
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).
Meanwhile, Manchester entered their match against Maloney on Friday without any home losses, but there's a first time for everything. Manchester came up short against Maloney, falling 35-12. The Red Hawks have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Defeat or not, Manchester got some senior leadership from Joe Mugovero and Emanuel Sampel. Mugovero picked up 124 receiving yards and two touchdowns, while Sampel threw for 167 yards and two touchdowns. The dominant performance also gave Sampel a new career-high in rushing yards (35).
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.
Everything came up roses for Southington against Manchester when the teams last played back in November of 2023, as the team secured a 47-20 victory. Does Southington have another victory up their sleeve, or will Manchester turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
