WATERBURY – Senior quarterback Joe Della Vecchia completed 8 of 14 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns to lead fourth-seeded St. Joseph to a 44-7 victory over No. 1, and previously undefeated, Valley Regional/Old Lyme in the Class S semifinals Saturday at Municipal Stadium.

Della Vecchia connected with Pat Mulligan on touchdown passes of 55 and 48 yards as the Cadets (9-3) scored 30 points in the third quarter after leading just 14-7 at halftime. Della Vecchia also scored on a 2-yard run.

Senior Tyler Matakevich rushed 12 times for 88 yards and two touchdowns, and senior L.J. Hunt gained 79 yards on 10 carries, including a touchdown, for St. Joseph, which will face No. 3 Ansonia in this weekend’s championship.

Jimmy Fairfield-Sonn connected with Mitchell King on a 19-yard touchdown pass for the Warriors (11-1).

44-7 near the end of the third quarter.

14-7 at halftime.

Jimmy Fairfield-Sonn has rushed 14 times for 63 yards for Valley but has thrown 2 INTs.

Tyler Matakevich has rushed 11 times for 63 yards and one TD for St. Joes.

WATERBURY – Sophomore quarterback Je’Vaughn Moore completed 7 of 13 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Hillhouse football team, the eighth-seed, to a 42-14 victory over No. 4 Gilbert/NW Regional in the Class M state semifinals Thursday at Municipal Stadium.

Moore threw both of his touchdowns to senior William Glover. Glover also recovered a fumble, and Moore added a 3-yard touchdown run.

Freshman Harold Cooper rushed 13 times for 130 yards and one touchdown, and senior Taurese Washington carried 13 times for 97 yards and two touchdowns for the Academics (9-3), who will face No. 2 New London in the championship game.

Hillhouse, which led just 20-14 at halftime, rushed for 301 yards on 40 attempts.
Bobby Lippincott and Drew McCarthy scored rushing touchdowns for the Yellowjackets (9-3).

35-14 with 8 minutes left in fourth quarter.

over Gilbert/NW Regional at the half.

QB Je'Vaughn Moore is 6 of 10 passing for 116 yards and one TD for Hillhouse.
Moore also scored on a 3-yard run, and Harold Cooper on a 25-yard run for the Academics.

From today's semifinals by viewing our scoreboard here.

No. 2 Hand (10-1) faces No. 6 New Canaan (10-1) in the Class L state semifinals Saturday at 7 p.m. at West Haven's Strong Stadium. New Canaan has won four straight state titles. The two last met in the 2007 Class MM final, with New Canaan rallying from a 17-point fourth quarter deficit to emerge with a 34-30 victory.

Was at Hand's practice today.

A feature story on the Hand-New Canaan match up, and capsules of all eight semifinals (with predictions) will run in Saturday's Register.

Below are some soundbites on the anticipated meeting between these two state powers. Hand has won nine state titles, New Canaan eight.

Hand quarterback Zach Miller:

"They definitely have some play makers; we have some play makers. Both defenses are pretty strong. It's going to be a good game. I'm hoping that we're going to be able to come out on top."

Hand coach Steve Filippone:

"We and New Canaan are really very similar football teams. (New Canaan coach) Lou (Marinelli) and I are very similar coaches. We're very close friends, and we try to do things the same way."

Filippone on Hand's surprising season. The Tigers had to rebuild their offensive line and replace quarterback Nick Merullo, who graduated.

"We were thinking 7-3, and we were hoping with the new playoff system (a quarterfinal round and the addition of eight teams was added this year) set-up that 7-3 might get us in. We thought that was a legitimate possibility if we did everything we were capable of doing."

Filippone on Hand's difficult schedule:

"We were able to beat a very good Cheshire team by one point. We lost to Notre Dame (-West Haven), came back to play a very tough (Wilbur) Cross team that was still a contender at the time, and then the following week played (and beat) an undefeated West Haven team. We had our work cut out for us, and the kids rose to the occasion in way we couldn't anticipate."

Here are the selections for the All-Southern Connecticut Conference team, broken up by division (I and II).


Division I Offense
OL: Tom Kenney (Notre Dame), Shaun Reiss (West Haven), Tom Linden (Xavier), Austin Wezenski (Xavier), Sean Marinan (Xavier)
WR: Alec Pacelli (Hand), Mike Georgalas (Shelton), Jake Scinto (Cheshire), Tirrell Young-Williams (Notre Dame)
RB: James Ward (Wilbur Cross), Kyle Kalanta (Amity), Kevin Philips (West Haven)
QB: Zach Miller (Hand), Sean Goldrich (Notre Dame)
UTY: Dontay Long (Wilbur Cross)

Division I Defense
DL: Theo Hoponick (Shelton), Eric Mischke (Xavier), Dylan Natale (Amity)
LB: A.J. Hill (Hand), Evan Gaudio (Cheshire), Dean Duffy (Fairfield Prep), Graham Stewart (Xavier), Cody Kitson (Shelton), Gerald McClease (Wilbur Cross)
DB: Jordan Teague (Hamden), Kyle Vignone (Fairfield Prep), Treymayne Barnes (West Haven), Dylan Wilson (Hand), Kris Mathews (Notre Dame)
P: Brian Speer (Amity)

Division II Offense
OL: Shawn Tarnawa (East Haven), Andrew Savenelli (North Haven), Robert Goldstein (Lyman Hall), Khamil Rangolam (Hillhouse), Andrew McCloskey (Guilford)
WR: Harrison Goodkind (Branford), Brian Murphy (Sheehan), Will Stitilis (Guilford)
RB: Chris Matteis (North Haven), Matt Hoey (Guilford), Chris Matteis (North Haven), Harold Cooper (Hillhouse)
QB: Ethan Curry (Guilford), Kyle Nolan (Branford)
UTY: Joe Desandre (Lyman Hall)

Division II Defense
DL: Connor Riordan (Lyman Hall), Tyvon Williams (Hillhouse), Ted Kostopoulos (Jonathan Law), Kunimel Lomotey (Branford), Trevor Keyes (North Haven)
LB: Mark Zurlis (North Haven), Stephon Davis (Jonathan Law), Joe Impellizeri (Foran), Joe Costanzo (East Haven)
DB: Stan Olsson (Foran), Bryan Maratera (North Haven), John Desandre (Lyman Hall)
P: Ryan Falaguerra (Jonathan Law)
UTY: Maxx Frisco (Sheehan), Taurese Washington (Hillhouse)

According to Masuk coach John Murphy, Masuk junior quarterback Casey Cochran was named the Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year.

Here are some remarks from Ansonia football coach Tom Brockett on Montville (10-1), the Chargers' opponent in the Class S state semifinals, which will be played Saturday at 2 p.m. at Middletown. Ansonia (10-1) advanced to the next round after defeating Hyde 47-26 on Tuesday.

"Montville's a great team. Montville's going to be a little different animal than what we faced (Tuesday). Hyde's still a young team. Montville's a veteran, senior team with some great, great players. We're going to have to play great defense. We're going to have to bring it."

"I know they have (running back) Tyler Girard-Floyd and some great athletes; they really do. They're one of the top teams in the state, make no doubt about it. That's a great football team."

Here are the sites and times for Saturday's semifinal games.

CLASS LL
No. 1 Xavier vs. No. 4 Glastonbury at SCSU, 2 p.m.
No. 2 NFA vs. No. 3 Trumbull at West Haven, 2 p.m.
CLASS L
No. 1 Masuk vs. No. 5 Darien at Shelton, 2 p.m.
No. 2 Hand vs. No. 6 New Canaan at West Haven, 7 p.m.
CLASS M
No. 8 Hillhouse vs. No. 4 Gilbert/NW Regional at Municipal Stadium, Waterbury, 2 p.m.
No. 2 New London vs. No. 3 Brookfield at Bunnell, Stratford, 2 p.m.
CLASS S
No. 1 Valley Regional/Old Lyme vs. No. 4 St. Joseph at Municipal Stadium, Waterbury, 7 p.m.
No. 2 Montville vs. No. 3 Ansonia at Middletown, 2 p.m.

CIAC FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS
Tuesday’s results
CLASS LL
No. 1 Xavier 28, No. 8 West Haven 7
No. 2 Norwich Free Academy 30, No. 7 Hall 14
No. 3 Trumbull 27, No. 6 Conard 9
No. 4 Glastonbury 7, No. 5 Staples 6
CLASS L
No. 1 Masuk 49, No. 8 Bristol Eastern 23
No. 2 Hand 19, No. 7 North Haven 7
No. 6 New Canaan 21, No. 3 Naugatuck 12
No. 5 Darien 31, No. 4 Wethersfield 7
CLASS M
No. 8 Hillhouse 33, No. 1 Berlin 30
No. 2 New London 53, No. 7 Platt 14
No. 3 Brookfield 50, No. 6 Lyman Hall 21
No. 4 Gilbert/NW Regional 41, No. 5 Plainville 6
CLASS S
No. 1 Valley Regional/Old Lyme 37, No. 8 Sacred Heart 24
No. 2 Montville 55, No. 7 Cromwell 28
No. 3 Ansonia 47, No. 6 Hyde 26
No. 4 St. Joseph 48, No. 5 Woodland 12

Senior running back Montrell Dobbs rushed 23 times for 355 yards and six touchdowns to lead the third-seed Ansonia football team to a 47-26 Class S state quarterfinal victory over visiting, and No. 6, Hyde Tuesday at Jarvis Stadium.

The Chargers (10-1) advanced to Saturday’s semifinals against No. 2 Montville (10-1), which was a 55-28 winner over Cromwell. A site and time has yet to be announced.

Dobbs scored on runs of 1, 19, 68, 79, 65 and 28 yards. Freshman Arkeel Newsome added a 50-yard touchdown run for Ansonia.

Freshman Seth Beaton threw two touchdown passes, Gary Ormond threw a touchdown pass on a halfback option, and Patrick Davidson scored on a 10-yard run for the Howling Wolves (7-4), who have lost four in a row.

Hyde cut the lead to 26-20 in the third quarter before the Chargers pulled away.

Quarterfinal capsules for all 16 games, the weekly Tuesday Morning Quarterback feature, and a detailed Top 10 Poll.

Click here for the latest Top 10 Poll.

My picks are in bold.

CLASS LL
No. 8 West Haven at No. 1 Xavier at Palmer Field, Middletown
No. 7 Hall at No. 2 Norwich Free Academy
No. 6 Conard at No. 3 Trumbull
No. 5 Staples at No. 4 Glastonbury
CLASS L
No. 8 Bristol Eastern at No. 1 Masuk at Bunnell High, Stratford
No. 7 North Haven at No. 2 Hand at Surf Club, Madison
No. 6 New Canaan at No. 3 Naugatuck
No. 5 Darien at No. 4 Wethersfield
CLASS M
No. 8 Hillhouse at No. 1 Berlin at Sage Park
No. 7 Platt at No. 2 New London
No. 6 Lyman Hall at No. 3 Brookfield
No. 5 Plainville at No. 4 Gilbert/NW Regional at Torrington
CLASS S
No. 8 Sacred Heart at No. 1 Valley Regional/Old Lyme
No. 7 Cromwell at No. 2 Montville
No. 6 Hyde at No. 3 Ansonia
No. 5 Woodland at No. 4 St. Joseph at Fairfield Ludlowe