Testori’s hat trick helps power Hand

MADISON — Scott Testori used the same technique, the same hesitation and the same placement on penalty kicks taken less than 2 minutes apart on Saturday afternoon.

The end result was the same: Testori scored on both to give the Hand boys soccer team a lead it never relinquished in a 31 win over Fairfield Prep at the Surf Club.

“There was contact on both of them,” Testori said. “The second one was less contact. Still, if it’s against my leg and I go down it’s (a PK).”

Testori finished with a hat trick for the Tigers, scoring on a header less than 4 minutes into the game, but it was the two penalty kicks he was awarded that decided this game between the last two Southern Connecticut Conference tournament champions. The first PK came just 2 minutes, 11 seconds into the second half.

Testori started his routine, then hesitated before striking the kick past Fairfield Prep goalkeeper Ryan Cowles (six saves) into the bottom right corner of the net to break a 1all tie.

“The second I went down, I heard the whistle,” said Testori, a junior forward. “The most important thing is to keep your calm, keep your cool up there. I did my normal runup, saw the keeper went (in one direction) a little early, went where he didn’t, bottom corner.”

Then it was Cowles who tripped an oncoming Testori in the box 94 seconds later. Testori used the same routine with the hesitation and the strike to the same spot.

“My runup, I’ve worked on for the past year,” Testori said. “Usually, the keeper will go early and I can go to whatever side he doesn’t. If he doesn’t, usually, I pick my spot before and I can go one of the corners. If the keeper doesn’t go early, that’s what I will do.”

Said Hand coach Greg Cumpstone: “He has confidence to get up there and take it. At that point, it’s more of a head game more than anything about quality. Twelve yards out, all you have to do is hit the back of the net, but it’s tough when you have pressure on you.”

That opened things up for the Tigers (501), who finished the half with nine shots overall (including the pair of PKs), compared to just one for Prep (212).

“The biggest thing was we didn’t come ready mentally to play,” Fairfield Prep coach Ryan Lyddy said. “We were the lackofdisciplined team today. For whatever reason, we were not on our A game.”

After Testori’s header on the far post off of Chris Porte’s corner kick gave Hand the early lead, Prep had the better of the play for the remainder of the half. The Jesuits outshot the Tigers 84.

Luciano Paoletta had the equalizer on a scramble in the box with 4:19 left before halftime. Michael DeMoura had the through ball to set it up.

“Today was a good wakeup call for us,” Lyddy said. “We will regroup and they will face a different team when we play them again.”

STREAK INTACT

The last time Hand lost a regularseason home game was to Guilford (21) on Oct. 23, 2017. The Tigers are 901 since.