Overtime

Alex Joseph came home from Philadelphia last night to surprise his mother and watch his 11-year-old brother’s football game.

The former Stamford High School star ended up getting the best surprise of all.

Joseph got a call this evening from the Oakland Raiders, who are signing him to their practice squad.

“I got a two-for-one deal,” said the linebacker, who last year helped lead Temple to its first bowl game in 30 years. “I was upstairs with my brother, I got him an iTouch and we were playing with it when my agent called and said the Raiders were going to call in a couple minutes.”

Joseph was signed as a free agent by the Packers moments after last April’s NFL Draft ended, but was cut at the end of preseason.

“I was down at first but then I realized it was out of my hands,” Joseph said. “You can’t do anything about it. I went back to Philadelphia and was working out, spending time with my girlfriend and dog, and my old teammates at Temple.”

Joseph will fly to Oakland in the morning, becoming the third high school player from Stamford, along with Vlad Ducasse (Jets) and Nate Collins (Giants), to join the NFL this season.

“I’m very excited,” Joseph said. “I’ve been waiting for this call for a while. I’ve been sitting around. I want to put the pads back on.”

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Friday’s football game between Brien McMahon and Stamford, at Boyle Stadium, has been moved from 6 to 3:30 p.m.

The change was confirmed by Stamford athletic director Pete Samperi. The reason is reportedly a precaution following a shooting incident last weekend.

Samperi refused to comment, other than to say the decision was made by the board of education.

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Besides a trophy, the Overtime High School Football Team of the Week also receives 60 T-Shirts, courtesy of BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering and The Stamford Advocate, with the school helmet and colors on the front.

Norwalk High School was our first winner last week. I just picked up the first batch of shirts that the Bears will receive — they were made by Ultimate Ink, the company run by area running guru Jim Gerweck.

Just a little promotion so players can see what they can look forward to if their teams are honored this season (sorry again for the side view, for some reason my iPhone T-Shirt photos don’t reproduce properly on the blog!).

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The voting is now open to crown the Overtime High School Football Team of the Week award, sponsored by BlueStreak Sports Training, Garden Catering and The Stamford Advocate.

Norwalk was the first winner last week.

The three finalists are: Staples, a 35-6 winner over Norwalk; New Canaan, which defeated Trinity Catholic, 48-8; and Wilton, which upset St. Joseph, 27-14.

The winning team, thanks to BlueStreak and Garden Catering, will receive a trophy and 60 T-Shirts with the award logo on the front in the primary color of the school.

The voting is open until noon on Wednesday and will count for 50 percent. The other half will come from the decision of a committee made up of Sean Patrick Bowley, the online sports producer for Hearst Connecticut Newspapers, Pat Pickens, the sports editor of the Fairfield Citizen-News, and Tim Parry, who runs the FCIAC Football Blog.

If the decision of the voters and the majority of the committee differs, the tie will be settled by The Advocate sports department.

Since almost every high school student and many people are on Facebook, you can also get updates by clicking on this link and “liking” and becoming a fan of the Overtime blog fan page. Every new post on this blog is linked to the page.

So vote below and check back to find out who is the Overtime Football Team of the Week.

Note: Due to technical difficulties, the poll may not show up in the blog post, but if you see a link below, you can click on that to vote.

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I’m no Sean Patrick Bowley with the camera, but after standing with him on the sideline at today’s New Canaan-Trinity Catholic football game, I became emboldened enough to attempt to shoot some game action on my iPhone.

Sure enough, on my first attempt I was lucky enough to capture Bobby Distler’s 19-yard TD run, the final score for the Rams in their 48-8 win.

It won’t win me an Oscar, but it is at least good enough to post.

Here it is.

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After a slow start, New Canaan High School scored the final 41 points — including 35 in the second half — to rout Trinity Catholic this afternoon, 48-8.

Joe Costigan had the Rams’ first two touchdowns of the second half, a 35-yard reception from Matt Milano and a 3-yard run that came five plays after he intercepted Trinity’s Patrick Murphy. Costigan had three carries for 36 yards on the drive.

Costigan finished with 76 yards on 11 carries, had a 35-yard reception and an interception.

I caught up with Costigan after to discuss the game.

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Perhaps the game that surprised the most people the first week of the high school football season was Norwalk’s 19-7 win over Greenwich, the Bears’ first in the series in 30 years.

Sean Patrick Bowley, the online sports producer for Hearst Connecticut Newspapers, shot some video from late in the game, including the final touchdown by the Bears’ Dave Klein, and postgame interviews with our first Overtime Team of the Week.

Last year’s weekly high school football chats with Sean Patrick Bowley and myself proved to be popular with local fans.

So we will be holding them again this season, starting tonight at 7 p.m. We’ve added a new hitter to the lineup: Kevin Duffy of the Danbury News-Times.

So come back here tonight and click on the link below to ask a question or just follow the talk as we look back on Week 1 and ahead to this weekend’s games.