The Hand Tigers’ football squad earned its fourth win of the season, defeating Cross 49-14 on Oct. 5 at Cross. The Hand (4-0) defense forced Cross to cough up the ball on four turnovers (two fumbles and a pair of picks).

Senior Matt Sullivan started the scoring for the Tigers with a 52-yard score off of a screen pass from senior quarterback Brendan Bilcheck. Bilcheck also had a score on a 10-yard touchdown draw. Senior wide out Caleb Ewald also scored on a 77-yard touchdown pass. The defense, only allowing three Cross first downs in the half, scored as well when junior linebacker Pat Rogers scored on a fumble recovery. Hand went to the locker room up 28-0.

In the second half, Hand continued its dominance when junior strong safety Dan Rogers had a 38-yard run for a score, while junior running back Connor Dowd had a 12-yard run to cap off the scoring in the third period. Despite having three turnovers in the game themselves, the Tigers continued the scoring when sophomore running back Kyle Freiman scored on a run with just over a minute remaining in the contest.

“It wasn’t as pretty as it sounds, but we were happy to get out of there with the win,” Head Coach Steve Filippone said after the 4-0 start. “Our defense played great; we are 4-0 and we are where we wanted to be at this point. Now we have the big one next week [versus undefeated Xavier on Oct. 12 on the road at 7 p.m.].”