Something will give on Saturday when the team with the state’s longest winning streak squares off against a team which hasn’t lost against in-state competition since 2019.

Defending Div. 1 state champion St. John’s Prep (6-0) has won 13 straight game since a 28-17 loss last Oct. 15 to the team it will host this weekend, Catholic Memorial (4-1). The last Massachusetts team to knock off the Knights were the Eagles (21-14) in the 2019 Div. 1 state championship game.

There may be no love lost between the programs, but the level of respect they have for one another is off the chart. St. John’s Prep coach Brian St. Pierre and his Catholic Memorial counterpart, John DiBiaso, know this is going to be a gridiron battle.

“They’re so talented on both sides of the ball as well as special teams,” St. Pierre said. “They’re tremendous up front and so well coached. They have players who are capable of putting you in a bind.”

St. John’s Prep might not have the same explosiveness as Catholic Memorial, but the Eagles have had no issues putting points on the board. Their ability to execute certainly has caught the eye of DiBiaso.

“They are big up front on both sides of the ball and they run the ball very well,” DiBiaso said. “They have a very good offensive scheme, they are very fundamentally sound and they don’t make mistakes.”

Catholic Memorial has been able to withstand the loss of several key components, something which has surprised their coach.

“Considering what we have lost, the kids have been fantastic, extremely resilient,” DiBiaso said. “It would have been easy for them to use excuses, but they come to practice every day and work hard.”

Like the Knights, the Eagles have had to overcome the injury bug and judging by the record, they’ve succeeded to date.

“We think the program is in a good place right now. The kids work hard and trust the process,” St. Pierre said. “Now, we are nowhere close to being perfect, but we are making steps and growing every single week.”

Elsewhere on Saturday, Natick (4-2) travels to Wellesley to face a Raiders’ team which has won three in a row after an 0-3 start.

The Hockomock League has a pair of interesting matchups Friday night, starting with the showdown between No. 6 Milford (6-0) at No. 4 King Philip (4-0). Foxboro coach Jack Martinelli will take his second crack at joining the 300-win club when his 5-1 Warriors travel to Canton.

A resurgent Central Catholic team seeks its third straight win when it hosts No. 13 Andover (5-1). Tewksbury is looking to improve to 6-1 when it travels to No. 12 Methuen (4-2).

Weymouth (5-1) is looking to move up in the competitive Div. 1 landscape and a victory over No. 10 Needham (5-1) would certainly help the cause.

FRIDAY’S GAMES

English/New Mission at O’Bryant, 4

Nashoba Tech at Lynn Tech, 5:30

Rivers at Brooks, 5:30

Braintree at Walpole, 5:45

Bishop Stang at Archbishop Williams, 6

Brighton at Randolph, 6

Chelmsford at Westford Academy, 6

Dighton-Rehoboth at Nauset, 6

Durfee at Dennis-Yarmouth, 6

Foxboro at Canton, 6

Latin Academy at East Boston, 6

Lynn English at Somerville, 6

Marshfield at Plymouth North, 6

Mashpee at Cohasset, 6

Medford at Chelsea, 6

Newton North at Barnstable, 6

Norwell at Sandwich, 6

St. John Paul at Martha’s Vineyard, 6

Stoneham at Burlington, 6

Wakefield at Wilmington, 6

Xaverian at Malden Catholic, 6

Apponequet at Greater New Bedford, 6:30

Cambridge at Acton-Boxboro, 6:30

Case at Bourne, 6:30

Dexter Southfield at New Hampton, 6:30

Essex Tech at North Reading, 6:30

Franklin at Attleboro, 6:30

Holbrook/Avon at Cape Cod Tech, 6:30

Hull at Carver, 6:30

Lawrence Academy at St. Sebastian’s, 6:30

Lowell Catholic at Manchester-Essex, 6:30

Masconomet at Danvers, 6:30

Medway at Dedham, 6:30

North Attleboro at Lynnfield, 6:30

Norton at Dover-Sherborn, 6:30

Pentucket/Georgetown at Ipswich, 6:30

St. Mary’s at Cardinal Spellman, 6:30

Salem at Winthrop, 6:30

Seekonk at Fairhaven, 6:30

Somerset Berkley at Old Rochester, 6:30

Woburn at Belmont, 6:30

Abington at East Bridgewater, 7

Andover at Central Catholic, 7

Bedford at Wayland, 7

Belmont Hill at Thayer Academy, 7

Blue Hills at West Bridgewater, 7

Boston Latin at Weston, 7

Bridgewater-Raynham at Dartmouth, 7

Gloucester at Peabody, 7

Haverhill at Dracut/Innovation, 7

Lincoln-Sudbury at Concord-Carlisle, 7

Milford at King Philip, 7

Millis at Bellingham, 7

Milton at Taunton, 7

Needham at Weymouth, 7

North Andover at Billerica, 7

Norwood at Westwood, 7

Rockland at Middleboro, 7

Scituate at North Quincy, 7

South Shore at Wareham, 7

Tewksbury at Methuen, 7

Triton at Newburyport, 7

Upper Cape at Old Colony, 7

Watertown at Melrose, 7

Whitman-Hanson at Duxbury, 7

Winchester at Arlington, 7

SATURDAY’S GAMES

BC High at St. John’s (Shrewsbury), 12

Noble and Greenough at BB&N, 12

Lowell at Lawrence, 12

Plymouth South at Quincy, 12

Amesbury at Hamilton-Wenham, 1

Brockton at New Bedford, 1

Catholic Memorial at St. John’s Prep, 1

Minuteman at Keefe Tech, 1

Natick at Wellesley, 1

Saugus at Falmouth, 1

Swampscott at Beverly, 1

Bristol-Plymouth vs. Tri-County, 2 (Xaverian)

Reading at Lexington, 2

Middlesex at Governor’s Academy, 3

Milton Academy at Roxbury Latin, 3

Revere at Lynn Classical, 3

Silver Lake at Hingham, 3:15

Groton at St. George’s, 3:30

St. Mark’s at Tabor, 3:30

Austin Prep at Greenwich Country Day, 4:30

Monomoy at Nantucket, 5

Framingham at Brookline, 7

 

DANNY V’S BEST BETS

THURSDAY

KIPP at Whittier, 5:30

Bishop Feehan at Bishop Fenwick, 6

Hopkinton at Holliston, 7

FRIDAY

Foxboro at Canton, 6

Mashpee at Cohasset, 6

Lawrence Academy at St. Sebastian’s, 6:30

Andover at Central Catholic, 7

Blue Hills at West Bridgewater, 7

Milford at King Philip, 7

Needham at Weymouth, 7

Tewksbury at Methuen, 7

SATURDAY

Catholic Memorial at St. John’s Prep, 1

Natick at Wellesley, 1

Justin Tucker had made field goals to win the AFC championship game and give the Ravens a cushion in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. He was the most accurate kicker in NFL history, already talked about as the rare specialist worthy of selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He didn’t need a signature moment, but he had a chance to create one as he lined up to kick a 66-yard field goal at Detroit’s Ford Field on the afternoon of Sept. 26, 2021.

The Ravens will play the Lions again Sunday. The last time they did, Tucker put his stamp on football history.

His field goal set a record and handed the Ravens a victory. More than that, it gave the New York Times Magazine and “60 Minutes” a hook as they lined up to profile Tucker, proclaiming him the greatest ever at his unusual trade.

“Look, I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t put a lot of value on that particular kick,” Tucker said Thursday. “It was a special moment for all of us to share. Two years removed, I can look back on that fondly, more than anything because the ball happened to bounce the right way off the crossbar.”

The Ravens were supposed to handle the winless Lions, who’d given up 76 points over their first two games, with ease. They took a 16-7 lead on Tucker’s 32-yard field goal at the end of the third quarter.

But the Lions answered, driving 75 yards for a touchdown to cut the lead to 16-14 midway through the fourth. Then, they intercepted Lamar Jackson and drove another 62 yards to set up Ryan Santoso’s go-ahead field goal with 1:04 left.

Two sacks and an incompletion later, the Ravens were in desperate straits, facing fourth-and-19 from their own 16-yard line. Jackson had to pull a magic trick just to give Tucker a chance.

“I remember we had to get that first down,” Jackson said. “Sammy made a great catch. He could have went out of bounds, [but he] got more yards and went out of bounds to make it easier for ‘Tuck.’”

That would be wide receiver Sammy Watkins, whose clutch 36-yard gain moved the ball to Detroit’s 48-yard line.

“We were looking at fourth-and-19, and I’m still warming up on the sideline,” Tucker remembered. “Because I knew without a doubt in my mind, ‘We’re going to convert this and go and kick the game-winner.’”

Tucker had made a 61-yard field goal to beat the Lions eight years earlier on “Monday Night Football,” so he had reason to be confident. He had made longer kicks in practice and warmups, many of them. “But I just physically wasn’t feeling 100%,” he recalled. “I was probably closer to 60%.”

He has recounted his thought process heading into the 66-yard attempt. His routine — lining up the kick with his hand, making the sign of the cross on his chest, cocking his right leg when he reached launch position — was familiar. But he improvised, jogging faster and swinging his hip more violently as he approached contact, trying to generate greater power.

His teammates looked on, apprehensive but hardly hopeless.

“I believe I knew ‘Tuck’ was going to make it,” Jackson said. “Like, it was a no-brainer.”

The ball soared toward the uprights, dead center as Tucker’s kicks so often are.

“It bounces off the crossbar and it’s good!” CBS announcer Greg Gumbel proclaimed joyously. “Hahaha … Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!”

Lions coach Dan Campbell gave his head a resigned half-shake. Ravens coach John Harbaugh jogged onto the field looking dazed. Several very large Ravens hoisted Tucker in jubilee.

“Honestly I try not to go there,” Campbell told reporters this week when asked how he remembers the kick. “Of course, you have a flashback from time to time.”

Over the ensuing two years, many new acquaintances have asked Tucker to revisit that moment.

“It comes up pretty frequently,” he said.

He had a shot to best himself by a yard last year in Jacksonville. His kick was right-center but a few rotations short.

“Physically, I was feeling pretty good,” he said of the 67-yard attempt. “Once you’re getting into the sixties and beyond, so many things, when added up together, can take away from the distance you can get. I struck that one really well, but I might’ve left it too high and left it more susceptible to the breeze in the stadium. The footing wasn’t perfect. Everything’s gotta be just right.”

He’ll never put a limit on what he and his partners in the Ravens kicking unit might achieve, but for him, it’s not about a magic number as much as it is solving the problems — wind, temperature, field conditions, his form on a given day — presented by each attempt. He loves the Detroit kick as a tribute to resourcefulness — “We found a way to get the ball to go just far enough” — not perfection.

“I would say the idea of what the range could be has always kind of been there,” Tucker said. “To make it a reality is a little bit of a different thing.”

Week 7

Lions at Ravens

Sunday, 1 p.m.

TV: Ch. 45

Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM

Line: Ravens by 3

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DeMar DeRozan had high praise for coach Becky Hammon after winning her second straight WNBA championship with the Las Vegas Aces.

The pair worked together for three years when Hammon was an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs under Gregg Popovich. DeRozan reached out to Hammon to congratulate her after the Aces defeated the New York Liberty on Wednesday, clinching a 3-1 series victory despite the loss of star point guard Chelsea Gray.

The Aces were the first team to win consecutive WNBA titles since the Los Angeles Sparks won in 2001 and 2002.

“She’s an amazing person,” DeRozan said Thursday after the Bulls‘ 114-105 preseason loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves at the United Center. “Hell of a competitor, knows the game in and out. My time when I was in San Antonio with her being an assistant coach was amazing.”

Hammon served as an assistant coach in San Antonio for eight seasons, where she quickly grew to prominence as one of the best candidates for a future head coach position. She made history in December 2020 when she became the first woman to serve as a head coach in an NBA game after Popovich was ejected. The following year, the Aces hired Hammon and she immediately led the team to their first championship.

During his time with the Spurs, DeRozan described Hammon as a “big sister” figure who offered a vast wealth of basketball knowledge — while also never backing down from challenging players.

“She felt like one of us, from the IQ of the game, from an ex-player, one of the best players to play in the W,” DeRozan said. “I had no doubt whenever she went into coaching, anywhere she went into coaching, she was going to try to dominate. It’s not surprising for me at all and I’m definitely happy to see it.”

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