Now, for the Friday night postmortem.
All of the Class LL schools held serve.
Central crushed Stamford, 37-0
Greenwich hammered Westhill, 45-7
Staples’ defense — as expected — gave new QB Keith Gelman a break and smothered Ludlowe, 38-0
Ridgefield rolled through McMahon, 42-6
(How many more verbs can I think of?) … Hamden battered Fairfield Prep, Newtown beat Oxford, Xavier routed Amity.
Cheshire was the only game of real intrigue, actually. The Rams, though, rallied to beat North Haven 27-17.
Read our entire Friday night roundup here
So the noose is tightening in that playoff race with just three regular season games to go. Glastonbury was the only Class LL team that didn’t play Friday night. The Tomahawks are home vs. Newington Saturday.
Hey! And.. by the way CIAC football committee:
Did you get this news?
Greenwich had to kneel… four times! …In the third quarter! …to avoid going over 50 points in their game against Westhill. And this after Westhill went for it on fourth down in their own territory. So Greenwich has to kneel and give them the ball back. Are you kidding me with this stuff?
Get rid of the 50-point abomination. Get rid of it. Get rid of it. Get rid of it.
Get rid of it.
OK, onward…
In Class L, Masuk and Pomperaug (yawn) both won again, making the SWC playoff race and half of the Class L playoff race almost moot.
I’m going to see Bethel against ND-Fairfield Saturday to check up on the Wildcats, see if they have any shot against Masuk next week.
Notre Dame-West Haven beat Hand 28-14, but needed to rally from two TDs down at halftime (must have been a lot of gnawed-off fingernails in Green Knight land — they’re currently sitting in fifth place in that division already).
Simsbury further legitimized itself with a win over Southington. Conard plays Bristol Central Saturday.
Class MM is going to be the New Canaan Invitational, unless the Rams completely collapse — they have Greenwich, Central and Darien yet to play. Darien, which plays Bassick today, is chugging along. Playoffs will certainly be on the line in this year’s Turkey Bowl.
Class M is mildly interesting for us with Bethel still in the mix (alas, Masuk looms)
In Class SS, St. Joseph rebounded with an easy victory over Fairfield Warde . The Hogs are in fourth place.
Bullard-Havens, which has Cheney Tech at home today, is making a move in the division as well — and making lots of people nervous, especially in Trumbull. Longshot Foran is seventh after a surprisingly easy win over Sheehan.
And in S, Ansonia is in dire need of help at No. 7 behind (in ascending order) Cromwell, Prince Tech, Hyde, Northwest Catholic, East Catholic and Bloomfield. That deficit should spook any Ansonia fan right now.
Speaking of which, Happy Halloween everyone.
Check out all the playoff rankings here
Early upset special. West Haven beats Chesire and Xavier in next to weeks at home to come close to playoff spot after losing 1st 3 games.They probably need a couple of upsets to get in though. They are playing well right now.
a 3 loss playoff team–thats what we need
I am not positive a 2 loss team will make the top 4 in this years L Division
There will be no two loss team in the class LL tourney.
Sean – do you agree that Bullard Havens making the states under any circumstance would be a sham? Not to sound bitter, but we need a way to fix this……
does Bethel have a shot…I think so.
Is it possible that Greenwich wins out and doesn’t make the playoffs. That would be a crime. Also, is it possible that Fairfield Prep goes winless this year. That would be sick. At a school that big, that is a mockery. Bring back Earl Lavery.
The state of football in Fairfield is deplorable. All three teams Prep, Ludlowe and Warde are a disgrace. The three teams combined for a 136 – 18 loss on friday night, Prep lost 49-0, Ludlowe, 36-0 and Warde 49-18. Hey Fairfield do something about it aren’t you tired of being doormats? Granted Warde does have 4 wins this season but the quality of the opponnets they have beaten is low. It’s the same old story.
Oh yeah on the 50 point rule. Allow teams to go over 50 pts but end the game at that point when they do without penalty to the coach. This will allow teams to go all out if they chose, will avoid possible injury from not playing at full speed and will end a game between two teams that probably shouldn’t be playing in the first place. No team is coming back from a 50 point deficit. The current rule is ridiculous. Am I the only one that thinks there are an inordinate number of mismatches and blowouts this year?
VinceLB this just in…your wrong!
Regarding Masuk-Bethel game this week and having seen both teams in action, I think Masuk’s speed and passing game will be too much for the Wildcats. Bethel’s secondary gets a lot of picks when its D-line puts pressure on the Qb, but it also gives up big pass plays and is not particularly fast. Masuk’s qb sets up deep and gets rid of the ball in a hurry-so he should frustrate Bethel’s pass rush. Bethel’s plodding triple option is great when the team is ahead, but if it falls behind Masuk early and is forced to pass more the game could get real ugly. I also have to believe that Murphy’s young team is rapidly maturing.
Class L – West Haven, if they could run the table, may get a “close but no cigar” award. Unfortunately they are not going to qualify with 3 losses.
For the other teams in L: 2 losses might do it… Simsbury and ND-WH could both lose their TG game, and that would set up a point race b/t them & Windsor & Fitch. Windsor looks like they have a load of points for the taking with South Windsor and Bloomfield on the schedule. Of course, those games may or may not be winnable.
As I showed in a blog comment a couple weeks ago, in all divisions except LL, it is actually quite common for 2 loss teams to make it!
Well Fairfield follower you must of hated fairfield in the way past then. Warde is 4-3 and beat Darien something that hasn’t happened since that Mustang title in the stone ages. Even with three losses they still have a chance to win out and with some help could slip into the 4th spot in MM. Ludlowe seems to be better than the past but not ready to beat upper tier teams yet. Prep has to have a down year once in a while. I also agree get rid of the 50 point rule, this isn’t YMCA youth basketball, let the kids play all game.
John d, it could happen..West Haven’s got some dangerous players. A win over Xavier or Cheshire would be just fine in Hamden’s eyes.
Bloomfield is going to beat Windsor and Fitch still has to play NL..If Hamden beats ND on TG WHHS could jump over all them. They can end up with over 100 pt avg. if they win out.
How would they leap over ND with two losses? WH has three already. ND (or Simsbury) would have to lose two more games.
Alotta good games this week in the state,too bad most of them fall on a friday (.Big big test for bethel,i just think they are playing masuk at the wrong time.Newtown could go down this week,as well as cheshire.In the big one,its gonna be real hard to pick against ncanaan this week,but they can afford a slipup,greenwich cannot.Il still take ncanaan in a close one.(reneg on gwich running table,sorry).Think im gonna hit up bethel-masuk locally and see ncanaan when they visit central.Props to the hilltoppers for handling business friday,avoiding letdown
Sean don’t let people comment about the playoff system, if they don’t know anything about it, LoL. I’m sad to say I have excel spreadsheets filled with probable playoff outcomes for a few divisions.
Sean if you had guess, would you bet NC wins the two big games, I’m thinking they’re going to split, but I’ve been wrong before.
Fairfield Prep is in the SCC and that’s why they can’t win a game. Or at least that’s what they’ll try to tell you.
Friday night Warde honored the anniversary of their 1959 State Championship Team during a halftime ceremony. I couldn’t help but laugh when I heard “…part of the CIAC committee to develop the playoff system still in use today…” during one of the bios. I assume all other posters were at other games because I listened hard and didn’t hear any boos….
NC has its hands full for the next three weeks. Greenwich, Central and then propbably Staples in the FCIAC Championship game. it will be tough for any team no matter how good to win all three of those. this is why NC wins states every year…because if you can make it through that kind of schedule there is no competition like that once they get to states.
To VinceLB: NL beat Fitch , Lost to East Lyme on fri and has to play Ledyard who has a good chance of beating Fitch.
Central is so confident right now ,I am picking Central v. Staples in the Fciac Championship!
VinceLB, really WH is playing well? Lets look at there past 4 games which were all wins.
Hand: 35-17. Okay Hand is a semi-decent team and you scored 35 in the second half, but what team who has beat Hand hasn’t done that? They end up being firecrackers in the beginning then die out at the end.
Foran: 26-3. It is Foran and you only scored 26 points? Even though there record is at 5-2 right now (Not sure, but I believe that is right) they have faced bad teams.
East Haven: 44-0. Yeah that must have been a tough game for you…
Cross: 27-3. Decent team, but again barely any threat or challenge.
When you play well against BAD teams you don’t make your case for the Playoffs. You will lose against Cheshire and Xavier. Xavier won’t let themselves live down that lose to Cross from the beginning and Cheshire won’t let our defeat of them happen again. They are to determined. Cheshire is like Hand in that they start out with a bang but unlike Hand, Cheshire can keep the sparks going all game and won’t give up.
Football fan,
I agree with you on Masuk’s progress, though it took a revenge game agaisnt Bkfld to finally get the D to play with passion.
Bethel has some size on the line, if they can control line of scrim and get a couple of turnovers (Cochran is still learing and not yet patient enough) I can see them pulling off an upset.
ND Senior, are you a player on the ND-WH football team? If so, please tell us your number so we can scrutinize your play. I’m sure Marcucci is thrilled one of his players is on here running his mouth. West Haven beat Hand by a wider margin than ND! Your poor grasp of spelling and grammar are not a good advertisement for the tuition charged by your school.
ND SENIOR————your team has been a embarrasment for years——-sssshhh
Could you point out to where I made errors? Now my placement of sentence structure is always questionable (Never has been my strong suit), but in terms of my spelling I think considering most of the people who comment on these and the NHRegister articles. If your talking about maybe some words put together or maybe some apostrophes and commas not put in the right place then I apologize my comments on a Connpost article don’t live up to your high quality standards. As for me running my mouth, I simply made a counter argument to VinceLB’s comment about WH making it into the playoffs. I simply stated my opinion about the previous 4 teams WH had beaten. WH beat hand by 18 points and we beat them by 14 that is hardly a wider margin to brag about. We beat WC 42-7 (A margin of 35 points) compared to WH who only beat then 27-3 (A margin of 24 points).
The fact is WH has yet to actually prove itself against a good standing team. WH lost to Shelton, Hamden, and ND and all three are very strong teams. Your win against WC is a step in the right direction, but by all means does not make up for those first three loses. Hand as I stated above is a firecracker, if you have seen any of the games they play in against WH or ND they are very pumped up they score, but something happens during half time and it is almost like they are a train that comes to a dead stop. Foran, which is 5-2, but there wins came against Lyman Hall (by 3 points), Guilford (by 1 point), Abbott Tech ( 41-0), and Sheean (28-7) which does not exactly make them that great of a team with all due respect to them, I have always thought if Law and Foran did a co-op football team they could make a good run and be more a threat together then they are alone. And your win against East Haven…you can’t say they are tough to beat, they are on what a 27 game losing streak? My point that I was trying to get across is WH has had tough opponents and they have not risen to the challenge. I highly doubt they will beat Xavier and Cheshire and I think you will find few people who disagree.
Also no I don’t play for the football team, although I am connected with them. I do not claim to be a football expert nor have I ever played the sport. I watch it and I have learned over the years what I can and I don’t sit here running my mouth, I give my opinion I don’t sit around going “yo were gonna kick forans ass next week were the best in the state goldrich is the best QB around we have the best WR and RB hamden and xavier and everyone else sucks” I try to be as fair as I can when I give my opinions about teams that face my school. I don’t sit around talking trash. I strongly disagreed with what VinceLB said so I gave my reason why I thought that and outlined what I though about each team they faced. I apologize if you actually took some form of disrespect because it was not intended, but that is my opinion, the this year WH does not have a strong team that can come in at clutch situations, the scores prove that. Trust me I have no inclination to rag on WH either, I moved to WH when I was eight and have been here ever since.
Ray concentrate on the present not the past haha. Never said we were any good last year or the year before…or anytime really since 2001. I’m just talking about the teams now not in the past. If we wanted to discuss greatest teams all time in CT High School football I wouldn’t even attempt to make an argument.
Wow. I now hate NDWH after that whole novel I just read. What a mindless waste of time.
Easy, glad
nd senior——–the past carries great memories-when its time to check out thats all you really have
ND Senior-please stick to picking up jockstraps or playing the sousaphone or whatever your “connection” to the ND football team is. Pithy analysis is not your thing. Now that you’ve essentially outed yourself, hopefully someone will talk to you.
Now go fill up the waterbottles!!
Hey. Guys. Enough.
His points were fine. It’s the rest of you acting like a bunch of children. Enough with the venom.
I think that ND is correct in that West Haven’s wins have not been against the SCC’s elite. But with that being said Cheshire has not been overly impressive with close wins against Sheehan and North Haven. Xavier has been playing very good as of late but West haven is capable of shuting down their running game and as well as Cheshire’s. The westies can pull off a upset.
SPB, don’t let these jerks post their silly comments. The ND Senior made some good points. There his points and he wasn’t attacking anybody. We don’t need grown men attacking 17-18 year old boys on this thing. It’s not what this is all about, come on guys! Dixwell why would you write such mean things to a young fan, for all we know he is an aspiring SPB (That’s a good thing!)
Now to brass Tax. SPB you didn’t answer my question from the other day. Can NC win the next three games, what do you think? I think they are going to go 2 out of three, and probably loosing to Greenwich with Bridgeport Central giving them a good run and possibly beating them too.
On the comments, just keep it civil is all I ask. I allow some of the bad ones just to make the point. I really shouldn’t, though.
To answer your question: Yes, of course New Canaan can. I’d even go as far as to say they’re favored to beat Greenwich and Central. However, those games are both on the road so it’s going to be incredibly tough. As for Darien, yes, I think they can win that, too.
After that, it’s open season on the weak Class MM field. Add in an FCIAC championship game against Staples (NC would be favored again) and that would mean they’d finish 13-0 again, which would be simply unbelievable.
If they beat Greenwich, you can really start to believe that scenario.
I’m surprised nobody has talked about the new proposed Playoff system yet. Fillipone just recently presented it to the CIAC. Now that’s news. I don’t like it. I like the idea of extending the season one week, but narrowing down the format to 4 divisions from 6, and having 8 teams instead of 4 per divison, increasing the number from 24 to 32. The only problem is that the only schools that gain the slots are the L and LL divisions, plus it makes it harder for smaller schools to win a state championship! If you understand the playoff system you will understand what I just said. I’m sure MM schools and below will nix the new system or at least I hope they have enough sense too.
SPB What are your thoughts? I’ll be bringing this up on the wed night Live Blog, please be prepared : )
If NC beats Greenwich and Central, I’m pretty sure Darien is a given, they will def win States, but if they falter to those two teams they will show some weakness, and I wouldn’t be surprised if East Lyme gives them a good run for their money in the MM. I’ve heard that they are playing some pretty good football, and knowin the little history on both teams, East Lyme will not come in scared of NC.
1) To single out one poster’s grammar is ludicrous. Just read through the posts. How many misuses of its/it’s, your/you’re, their/they’re and lose/loose can you count?
2) Sousaphone is a funny word. It was in poor taste, but it made me laugh.
3) ND Senior’s arguments were supported with facts, which few posts here are. However, why is everyone assuming he/she is a current student? Perhaps he moved to WH 67 years ago and has a grandson on the team.
4) Why are there no Hilltopper fans questioning why Greenwich is ranked ahead of them in every poll? The “transitive property” states that if Greenwich > Trumbull and Trumbull > Central then Greenwich > Central. However the “logical property of equality” states that if Central beats Greenwich…..then Central > Greenwich. (Don’t beat me up over this, I “get it”. Just a little food for thought.)
I’ve heard of this, apparently they met this week. We’re working on details so we can break it down, John.
I absolutely love it and I disagree on your reasons why this doesn’t work.
How does this add Class LL playoff slots and make it tougher for small schools to win titles?
Based on what I know about this proposal (which is basically my Playoff Land of Make Believe proposal from the last two years with an extra division added in), our state’s 140 schools will be divided evenly into four divisions of 35 teams each. So… What’s the problem?
Dr. Von,
I am indeed a student and not a senior citizen. If I were older I would be much more experienced and able to word myself gracefully.
As for my connection to the team, I film there games so I do have a bit of experience in knowing what is going on. I do fill water bottles, but that’s for the hockey team. 3rd year hockey manager and proud of it. :D
Sean the only schools that gain spots are L and LL schools. The smaller schools(MM and smaller) gain no spots and have a harder time winning a state championship, why would they ever agree to that. In reality 8-2 and 9-1 MM schools and smaller will still potentially not make it the new system. They need to keep six divisions and keep the idea at 8 entry’s, then you have 48 schools and all 8-2 and 9-1 teams get in. (A few 7-3 and 6-4 teams might sneak in…no plan is perfect).
What I think Fillipone is trying to do is a two prong attack. Start by changing it to this and then in a few years get the 6 divisions back. Lets not forget, Fillipone makes his money in the M division.
Sean, I bet you were a big fan of the Virginia plan too weren’t you, what we need here is a Connecticut comprimise.
ND Senior keep up the good work, were on your side bud, Don’t listen to the other guys who only pretend to know anything about CT HS Football!
Again, where are you getting that from? How are small schools getting screwed by this?
We’re shrinking the field from God-awful, watered down six division to four manageable divisions, while expanding the playoff teams from four each to eight.
The Class LL and Class L fields won’t stay the same as they are now. All of the teams will be dispersed over four divisions. There will be some current Class Ls bumped to LL, and current Class MMs bumped to Class L, and so on.
There is virtually no difference between the Class SS and S, and then the Class MM and M schools anyway. There can be a huge difference between Class LL and L teams. Every year, we get irrelevant championships from either Class S or SS and a Class MM and M.
This works in my mind. I throw my full weight behind it.
Is it less watered down yes, I agree with you on that. But most coaches are not arguing that the system is watered down, in fact their argument is that to many 8-2 and 9-1 teams aren’t making the playoffs which is def not fair to schools that play in tougher conferences, I think you will agree with me on this point?
But look at it now S and SS get eight spots combined right now, and so do M and MM, and L and LL. In the new system S gets eight, M gets eight So nothing changes for them and realstically there will be two less state champions for teams MM and smaller. L schools will now get eight spots and so will LL schools for a combined total of 16 teams a pickup of eight on there end plus minus a few schools shuffling around they get to keep their original two state champions.
Not only is this unfair to smaller schools, it never addresses the major problem directly, which is ensuring 8-2 and 9-1 teams make the tourney. It will address it in the L and LL divisions, but will still potentially keep strong teams out of M and S division, you have to agree with me on that, I recall a Weaver team in M not that long ago not making it in the M division.
I think the plan is a huge step in the right direction, but to make it fair to allthe CIAC should keep the MM division and only get rid of the SS. If were going to play the extra week a few extra games won’t hurt.
Does this make more sense?
My appologies, that Weaver team was 9-1, meant to say that in the last blog.
Sean I was driving home late last night from a meeting Waterbury and I started bouncing the 13-0 NC comment around in my head. Two years in a row undefeated in the FCIAC and states, when was the last time that has happend? Im pretty sure none of the great teams going back to The Darien teams of the late 90s have. Prob have to go way back for it. Im not a huge FCIAC guy so im not really sure. Anyways the more I bounced it around the more I started thinking it’s pretty much impossible, good luck to them and if the do it, they should be considered as one of the best teams in the state in the last 20 years. And while were at it, best team ever last twenty years…..Bloomfield 97′ Three NFL players to include Dwight Freeney, just awesome!
Is the proposed playoff system available online? I checked the CIAC site and couldn’t find anything.
It seems that small schools that play in leagues with mostly larger schools will still be at a disadvantage to “qualify” for the postseason. Derby in the SCC for example, or SJ having to play Greenwich, Trumbull, and even NC while other smaller schools play like sized teams.
Has there ever been discussion of abolishing the current leagues for football purposes? Take the four proposed divisions, which leaves approx. 35/36 teams, and divide these into four quadrants throughout the state with 8 teams each. During the season, the bulk of your games would be within your region and division (we’ll leave Thanksgiving open for traditional rivalries).
I think there is too much tradition in the league structure to go this route, but are there any states that work in this manner?
John D: I see what you’re saying and my answer is: I guess. But you should really look at the numbers in action, which I did all last night compiling election results.
If you consolidate and add eight playoff teams, you’re going to gain 9-1 teams, not lose them because you’re still adding more playoff teams (24 to 32).
There will be a posting on this today (Before the live chat). But in the meantime, take a look at the same alleged proposal with only three state championships: Sean’s Playoff Neighborhood of Make Believe (Nov. 2008)