Football Preview: Hand Tigers vs. Notre Dame Green Knights
Hand and Notre Dame are an even 3-3 against one another since November of 2014, but not for long. The Hand Tigers will square off against the Notre Dame Green Knights at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Hand will be coming into the match with an undefeated record on the line.
Last Friday, Hand earned a 15-7 win over Hamden. Given the Tigers' advantage in MaxPreps' Connecticut football rankings (they are ranked sixth, while the Green Dragons are ranked 53rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
The critical scores for Hand came from Tyler Narracci and Sam Markovitz.
Meanwhile, the third road game was the charm for Notre Dame, as they earned their first road win of the season. They came out on top against Cheshire by a score of 13-3 on Friday. The 13-point effort marked the Green Knights' lowest-scoring matchup of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Notre Dame relied on the efforts of Joe Capasso, who rushed for 42 yards and two touchdowns, and Cody Wieland, who rushed for 74 yards. Capasso is on a roll when it comes to rushing touchdowns, as he's now punched in two or more in the last three games he's played.
Notre Dame didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. In fact, those interceptions all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Josiah Carter.
Hand pushed their record up to 7-0 with the victory, which was their ninth straight at home dating back to last season. Those good results were due in large part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 6.4 points per game. As for Notre Dame, their win ended a seven-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 4-3.
Friday's contest might be decided in the on the ground. Hand has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 205 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Notre Dame struggles in that department as they've been averaging 201.7. It's looking like Friday's match might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Hand took a serious blow against Notre Dame in their previous meeting back in October of 2022, falling 34-7. Thankfully for Hand, Jacob Staton (who rushed for 121 yards and a touchdown, and also picked up 38 receiving yards) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
