SPB's High School Football

And the state coaches have spoken. Your new No. 1 is…

[Dramatic chord]

NEW CANAAN

Yes, the mighty Rams have assumed the top spot in The Day of New London coaches poll.

And here’s the final tally:

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That’s right. For the second straight year, the FICAC FCIAC championship will be held on Thanksgiving morning and not at Boyle Stadium the week before.

With its 29-6 victory over Trinity Catholic, New Canaan (9-0) clinched its first berth since 2006.

With its 12-0 victory over Staples, and Wilton’s 28-17 win over St. Joseph, Darien (9-0) clinched its first berth since 1997.

That means the Thanksgiving Day game has morphed into the 43rd FCIAC Championship Game at Dunning Stadium.

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OK, so Ansonia lost for the first time in nearly three seasons.

OK, so we won’t be getting the battle of unbeatens we thought we’d be getting at Jarvis Stadium next week.

The sun will come up today. I promise, Ansonia fans.

Your team just won’t be No. 1 anymore.

So we move on. And I promise, this was the first question us voters asked ourselves when we first got the score:

Who’s No. 1 now?

Hmmmmmm….

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Once again, we are getting toward the end of the season and I really don’t see any real resolution in store for us when we get to the end of the season.

Yeah, I know there are those who’d just looooove to see a true No. 1 champion crowned. Yeah, it would have been nice to see Greenwich 07 take on Ansonia 07. But I’m pragmatic enough to understand, in the end, there’s just no fair and reasonable way to crown a No. 1 team without making a mockery of high school-level sports.

That said, I think everybody knows what I’d like to see for a playoff system. I’ve said it on this space for at least the last year. It goes something like this:

One more week, three state championships.

Six is far, far, faaaaaar too many for a state such as ours. There just isn’t that much of a difference between our football teams to crown six state champions.

SO! What do we do? Well, we combine LL and L, MM and M, SS and S into three (their points are already calculated as such) and then take the top eight from each division and play down.

From now until the end of the season, I will go all Mr. Rogers on y’all, jump on a trolley and send us on a trip into an idyllic, Connecticut playoff neighborhood of make believe I like to call: Bowleyland.

(Hey, it’s my playoff idea. I can name it anything I want. Name your playoff proposal after yourself!)

Without further ado, (ding! ding!) let’s go…

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While America votes and waits on the results for something much more important, the results are already in for both state football polls. Discuss:

TOP 10 MEDIA
Team………………………Points……..Last
1. Ansonia (8-0) (17)…….646………….1
2. New Canaan (8-0) (3)…594…………2
3. New London (7-0) (1)…566………….3
4. Seymour (8-0)………….506…………4
5. Darien (8-0) (1)…………486…………5
6. Hillhouse (8-0)………….448…………6
7. Glastonbury (8-0)………350…………7
8. Brookfield (7-0)…………308…………9
9. Masuk (7-1)……………..294…………8
10. Southington (6-1)…….263………..10
First-place votes in parentheses after record.
Others receiving votes:
11. Hamden (7-1), 240
12. Cromwell (8-0), 211
13. New Britain (7-1), 186
14. Ridgefield (6-2), 132
15. Cheshire (6-2), 94
16. Newington (7-1), 69
17. Montville (8-0), 57
18. Bunnell (6-2), 39
19. Ledyard (6-2), 23
T20. Greenwich (5-3), 17;
T20. North Branford (7-0), 17;
22. Rocky Hill (7-1), 14
23. St. Paul/Goodwin Tech/Lewis Mills (7-1), 12
24. Simsbury (6-2), 9
25. Shelton (5-3), 8
T26. Watertown (6-2), 7
T26. Wolcott (6-2), 7
T26. Xavier (6-2), 7.
The following voted: Bob Barton, New Haven Register; Bill Bloxsom, Hersam-Acorn; Sean Patrick Bowley, Connecticut Post; Don Boyle, SportingNewsCT.com; Bryant Carpenter, Meriden-Record Journal; George DeMaio, WELI; Mike DiMauro, The Day of New London; Matt Doran, Norwalk Hour; Scott Ferrari, Greenwich Citizen; Noah Finz, WTNH-8; Brian Girasoli, Norwich Bulletin; Ned Griffen, The Day of New London; John Holt, WFSB-3; Mark Jaffee, Waterbury Republican-American; Ken Lipshez, The Herald of New Britain; Mike Madera, Elm City Newspapers; Joe Morelli, New Haven Register; Paul Nichols, Middletown Press; Mike Pucci, New Haven Register; Dave Ruden, Stamford Advocate; Tom Yantz, Hartford Courant; Jimmy Zanor, Shore Line Newspapers

TOP 10 COACHES
Team………………………….Points….Last
1. Ansonia (9) 8-0……………380………1
2. New Canaan (1) 8-……….352……….2
3. New London (1) 7-0………324………3
4. Seymour (1) 8-0………….286……….4
5. Hillhouse (1) 8-0………….284……….5
6. Darien 8-0………………….259……….6
7. Southington 6-1…………..213……….7
8. Brookfield 7-0……………..192……….9
9. Glastonbury 8-0………….168………..8
10. Masuk 7-1……………….126……….10
Also receiving votes:
11. Hamden (7-1), 125 points
12. Cromwell (8-0), 105
13. Cheshire (6-2), 93
14. Montville (8-0), 70
15. Ridgefield (6-2), 64
16. New Britain (7-1), 63
17. Newington (7-1), 60
18. Rocky Hill (7-1), 33;
19. Bunnell (6-2), 27
T20. Greenwich (5-3), 16
T20. North Branford (7-0), 16
22. Xavier (6-2), 14
23. Plainfield (6-1), 9
24. Ledyard (6-2), 8
T25. Berlin (5-2), 7
T25. Newtown (7-1), 7
T26. Shelton (5-3), 7
T26 Simsbury (6-2), 7.
The following coaches voted: Tom Brockett, Ansonia; Jim Buonocore, Ledyard; Dave Cadelina, Bridgeport Central; John DeCaprio, Notre Dame-West Haven; Chuck Drury, Pomperaug-Southbury; Steve Filippone, Hand-Madison; Tanner Grove, Montville; Jude Kelly, St. Paul-Bristol; Tim King, Valley Regional-Deep River; Bill Mella, Southington; John Murphy, Masuk-Monroe; Marce Petroccio, Staples-Westport; Bob Zito, Maloney-Meriden.

Just wasn’t my week for prime-time highlights. And this flash video camera is showing its limitations. (No, that’s not an eclipse during Stratford/Newtown).

However, you can at least get an idea of the scene a these three key regional games (Check for Amity-Xavier highlights just a few posts down the blog).

Enjoy:

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Brookfield, Masuk and Newtown in the SWC.
. . . . . . . . . (St. Joe and Greenwich???)
Darien and New Canaan ^ in the FCIAC.

Ansonia and Seymour in the NVL

Hillhouse in the SCC.

Ladies and gentlemen, these are your league frontrunners as we head into the final month of the 2008 football season.

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We have Stratford-Newtown and Bunnell-Brookfield tonight. So there’s little time to dilly-dally.

But, until then, bask in the glory that is Hillhouse football. The undefeated Acs stuffed Shelton 34-7 at Finn Stadium.

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