MADISON – The seemingly endless parade a cars making their way into the Surf Club and the “Eat the Bear” T-shirts that could be seen on both sidelines and in the home and visiting team’s cheering sections, made it clear this was not going to be just another Friday night football game between two of the most storied programs in Connecticut.
Mike Ciotti is no stranger around Madison football circles. His father Larry was Hand’s first varsity football coach. Mike was a highly decorated lineman who would eventually play at Yale. Now a Cheshire assistant coach, the teams and football communities came together to honor one of their favorite sons.
Ciotti joked that if he could change the final score, which saw fourth-ranked Hand roll to a 38-0 win over No. 9 Cheshire, he would have been feeling much better.
“Health-wise I am feeling pretty good,” Ciotti said. “Take the 38-0 out of the emotions, I am feeling pretty good. I am getting a little better every single day.”
Ciotti was honored at halftime with his family joining him on the field along with both teams. By that point, Hand already led 17-0.
The first big play in the game was a fourth-down stop by Hand on Cheshire’s first drive. Sophomore Thomas Pshybyshefski made the hit on Cheshire running back Oliver Donroe. He would later add an interception. Lucca Boyce had a 1-run scoring run. A fumble recovery by Thomas Cahill, another sophomore, set Hand up in plus territory again. Pshybyshefski then caught a 26-yard scoring pass from Jake Rusher.
Rusher would throw touchdown passes to Cahill and Owen Scheps and Boyce broke free for a 28-yard touchdown.
“We played great as a team,” Pshybyshefski said. “I feel like in practice, we had a pretty good week and executed in the game.”
Andrew King led Hand (5-0) with 11 tackles. Hunter Hearrin had eight tackles and two tackles for loss for Cheshire (3-2).
However, the night belonged to the First Family of Hand football.
“The better team won and there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot that we were going to do about that tonight,” Ciotti said. “We didn’t play well but good teams make you play the way we played tonight.”
Cheshire came into Hand in 2025 and left with the victory on a game-winning two-point conversion. Certainly, the Hand players remembered who handed the Tigers their only loss last season. They made sure there would be no late-game drama on this night.
“There was a lot of emotion,” Cheshire coach Don Drust said. “There is not a better human being in the world than Mike Ciotti. The world deserves to know who he is, the world deserves to know what he does and how he does it. We should all live a little more like Mike, we should wake up every day and when we step out of bed, act a little bit more like Mike Ciotti because there is not a man of more character, a man of more will, strength, honesty and there aren’t enough words to put out here.
“We are really fortunate; we share a space with him every day and there is nothing better than to be able to see it. They get to actually see it, be around it and feel it. I think the biggest piece for them is he is the toughest, grittiest, hard-nosed human being, but at the same time, he will tell kids that he loves them, tell kids how he feels about them and he is not afraid to be that guy to use the word love and care and all those things, and that is why he is so special.”
Player of the Game
Hand sophomore defensive back/receiver Thomas Pshybyshefski had five tackles, one that stopped Cheshire on fourth-and-short and an interception. He also caught a touchdown pass.
Quotable
“Some of our best games all time have come against the Rams. We expect nothing less, we want nothing less. That is a very good team. I think we played exceptionally well tonight. Those first two times (Cheshire was stopped on fourth down) were huge momentum swings. Those plays go another way, the game is a different game. Our boys earned a high-quality win against a very good opponent.” – Hand coach Erik Becker
Hand 38, Cheshire 0
CHESHIRE 0 0 0 0 – 0
HAND 14 3 21 0 – 38
H-Lucca Boyce 1 run (Ryan Vincent kick)
H-Thomas Pshybyshefski 26 pass from Jake Rusher (Vincent kick)
H-FG, Vincent 22
H-Boyce 28 run (Vincent kick)
H-Owen Scheps 6 pass from Rusher (Vincent kick)
H-Thomas Cahill 13 pass from Rusher (Vincent kick)
Team records: Cheshire 3-2, Hand 5-0
This article originally published at Hand football shuts out Cheshire on an emotional night for both programs.