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12/03/2017 11:00 PMThe North Haven football team saw its 2017 season come to a close with a 35-13 loss against Hand in the quarterfinals of the Class L State Playoffs at the Surf Club in Madison on Nov. 28. No. 2 seed Hand scored the first two touchdowns of the game to build a 21-13 halftime advantage against the 7th-seeded Indians, and then extended the lead by adding a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter on its way to the win. North Haven finished the year with a record of 8-3, while the Tigers moved on to the semifinals, where they defeated Windsor 31-6 to improve to 10-1 and advance to face Masuk for the title.
North Haven was red hot heading into the playoffs, having won five straight games with its back against the wall to qualify. Against Hand, however, the Indians were unable to recover after allowing a touchdown on the game’s opening drive, and just had an all-around difficult night against a quality Tigers’ squad. Hand’s offense moved the ball efficiently, its defense contained the Indians’ ground game, and the Tigers capitalized on North Haven’s mistakes in their quarterfinal victory.
“It was very puzzling, but in my experience of being involved in football for about 41 or 42 years, my best explanation is that our emotional tank was empty. Hand is very good, and you’re just not going to go to the Surf Club and not play your best football and expect to win,” Head Coach Anthony Sagnella said. “I think sometimes in sports, that happens, and I kind of had a feeling a few minutes into the game looking at the faces of everybody on the field. And that is not to devalue to victory by Hand. They came ready, and they deserved to win the game. It was heartbreaking to watch our senior class have to finish their careers that way, but it’s just part of sports, and there’s nothing you can do.”
Hand struck quickly on its first possession by piecing together a drive that culminated with a short touchdown run from Brian Casagrande and a 7-0 advantage just three minutes into the game. Later in the first quarter, the Tigers used a long punt return to set themselves up deep in North Haven territory. Quarterback Phoenix Billings followed by throwing a TD pass to Michael Tarantino for a 14-0 lead with 3:07 left.
The Indians’ offense was slow out of the gates, but got something going late in the first quarter, and senior captain Zack Orth’s 1-yard touchdown run cut the deficit to 14-7. On its next possession, North Haven was forced to punt and mishandled the snap, once again giving Hand the ball in Indians’ territory. A few plays after that, Casagrande scored on another short rush for a 21-7 lead with 2:26 to play in the first half. The Indians responded as captain Mark Montano threw a long pass to fellow senior Steven Erbe to put them on the doorstep of the end zone, after which junior Noah Pastore scored from one yard out to make it 21-13 at halftime.
Unfortunately for North Haven, Pastore’s score marked the Indians’ final TD of the season. Casagrande brought home a long touchdown run four minutes into the third quarter, and then Billings threw his second TD of the game to put the Tigers in control with a 35-13 lead with 2:12 to go in the period. Hand’s defense kept North Haven off the board in the second half, and the Tigers advanced to the Class L semifinals.
“They shut our run game down almost completely, and there was no secret to us this season. We were a one-dimensional team, and we made no bones about it. That’s who we were, and we managed to win eight games and get to the playoffs doing that, and we certainly weren’t going to change that, nor could we have changed that. It’s who we are,” Sagnella said. “Any success we had on the offensive side of the ball was through the air. There were a few things we were able to take advantage of, but we were never in a good rhythm. We did not have a good night in the kicking game, and we did not defend them very well. Every time we got them into a crucial situation where we could stop them, they would end up getting a touchdown, so it wasn’t a good situation.”
Despite the defeat, Coach Sagnella praised his team for displaying great growth while making the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons this fall. The Indians had to deal with inexperience and a season-ending injury to one of their key leaders, but persevered through those setbacks by progressively getting better each week. In the end, Sagnella knows that 2017 was another solid year for North Haven; it was just one in which the Indians couldn’t get past a Hand program that’s eliminated them from the playoffs on three occasions.
“It didn’t end favorably, but when you look at where we were in August with a very inexperienced team, it was a very good season. We only had three returning starters from the year before and one of them, Korbin Pecora, got injured in Week 3, and we lost him for the entire season, so you’re taking away one-third of our experience early in the season. And the team continued to grow as much as any team, if not more than any team, I’ve ever had,” said Coach Sagnella. “Every week was a growing experience, and every week we learned some valuable lessons and built on those and went to the next challenge. I think that’s the hardest part for me to swallow in this outcome is that I started to believe that we were going to do well in the playoffs. I believed everything we were going through in the regular season was just hardening us and preparing us to compete at the highest level, and so it was disappointing to get bounced out in the first round, especially the way we did and especially by who bounced us out. Hand is our old nemesis, so that kind of stung a little bit.”
Montano ran 24 times for 66 yards to go with three completions on five attempts for 85 yards. Erbe caught three passes for 85 yards. Orth made 10 tackles on defense, while Montano had nine tackles for North Haven.