SPB's High School Football

Welcome back to our weekly live high school football scoring updates feature. If you can’t get to the game, but want to follow everything that’s happening across the Connecticut High School Football world live, just click the window below.

We will be covering as many games as possible with our staff. But if you’re going to a game, and want to join in our live scoring updates, use a Twitter account and send your updates through your mobile phone. Remember, you must put #ctfb at the end of your tweets for it to show up.

With everybody using #ctfb, you can get updates from your phone, as well by searching #ctfb on Twitter.

Here is the Internet/Radio broadcast links.

Darien at Wilton, 2 — WSTC 1400-AM/WNLK 1350-AM (wstcwnlk.com)

Thanks and enjoy the games!

Trumbull High QB Brian Gallo and his teammates run through drills at Trumbull High in Trumbull, Conn. on Wednesday Oct. 07, 2009.

And, yet there’s so many more questions to be answered, posed, and then answered again. Why we’ve only just begun.

So what’s on tap this weekend–or to be realistic, tonight, because there’s not a heck of a lot going on Saturday. Yes, a few interesting games, but nothing that blows my doors open, at least.

No, all of the big action is happening tonight. So what do you do? Where do you go?

It’s raining in greater Bridgeport right now (looking nothing like the nice weather in the picture above), and it’s supposed to continue somewhat into the evening, according to forecasts. It’s also supposed to be on the chilly side. Is it enough to postpone a few games? Maybe, but according to radar there’s a monsoon headed this way Saturday and into Sunday. So if you’re going to postpone, we’ll see you in somewhere on the way to Week 5. Otherwise, gear up and fall in.

It’s football weather. Get out there and play.

Meanwhile, here are all the goodies from today’s Connecticut Post and elsewhere:

Paxton: Explosive Force vs. Immovable Object: Trumbull vs. Central set to clash at McDougall Stadium
Advocate Staff: FCIAC Notebook: Warde’s Dellavolpe returns to New Canaan
Sonski: SWC Notebook: Fast Start for Nighthawks
Chisholm: SCC/NVL/CSC Notebook: Foran players stepping up for Lions
Bowley: Week 4 Games to Watch
Standings
Scoring Leaders

For updates on any postponements, check casciac.org or the scoreboard page here

Add: here’s the first game change for the weather: Wilby at Ansonia has been moved up to 5:15 p.m. today.

Double add: I posted a thought on Twitter at @spbowley and it bears mentioning here: I know we compared/contrasted Central’s offense vs. Trumbull’s defense in the paper today. …Central’s defense is actually much better than the numbers suggest. It’s just that they score so much, they have to bow to the @#$%&! 50-point policy. GET RID OF THE 50-POINT POLICY, CIAC. GET RID OF IT.

I know most of you have been diligently posting on other posts, so sorry I didn’t get this intro page out there. But feel free to move your predictions and everything else here.

Welcome back to our weekly live high school football scoring updates feature. If you can’t get to the game, but want to follow everything that’s happening across the Connecticut High School Football world live, just click the window below.

We will be covering as many games as possible with our staff. Several of us, including me, will be at McDougall Stadium for the Central-Trumbull game.

We will also have Dave Ruden at Dunning Stadium for Fairfield Warde-New Canaan, Jesse Quinlan at Danbury-Greenwich, plus a host of other sources across the NVL, SCC and SWC.

If you’re going to a game, and want to join in our live scoring updates, use a Twitter account and send your updates through your mobile phone. Remember, you must put #ctfb at the end of your tweets for it to show up.

With everybody using #ctfb, you can get updates from your phone, as well by searching #ctfb on Twitter.

ADD: Almost forgot, here are your Internet/Radio broadcast links. Feel free to post updates from these feeds as we go along.

FRIDAY NIGHT

Hand at West Haven, 7 — Sportingnewsct.com
Notre Dame-WH at Cheshire, 7 – Sportingnewsct.com
Shelton at Hamden, 7 — ESPNRadio1300.com (WAVZ) Internet only
Crosby at Wolcott — WATR 1320-AM (WATR.com)

SATURDAY
Darien at Wilton, 2 — WSTC 1400-AM/WNLK 1350-AM (wstcwnlk.com)

Thanks and enjoy the games!

Here’s my weekly “Guide to This Week’s Games” which appears in the Connecticut Post and Danbury News-Times will be posting to this space from now on.

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Get your homework done and your questions ready. Let’s get off the chatboards and into our weekly live chat with Dave and me. Lots to cover. See you there!

Hooooo boy! It’s Monday night, kids and you all know what  that means?

(Cue Paul Schaffer and the Late Show Band)

“Polls! …We got your polls! …Come get your polls! …Let’s see some Polls! …We all love pollllllls!!!!”

(Flourish)

OK. Ladies and gentlemen, I have here in my laptop tonight’s Top 10 Connecticut high school football polls.

Drumroll, please….

The New Haven Register Top 10 Media Football Poll 

First-place votes in parentheses after record.
Dropped out: Ansonia (5).

Others receiving votes:
11. New London (3-0), 223 points;
12. Berlin (3-0), 152;
13. Holy Cross (3-0), 139;
14. St. Joseph (3-0), 138;
15. Simsbury (3-0), 125;
16. Central (3-0), 80;
17. Notre Dame-West Haven (2-1), 75;
18. Trumbull (3-0), 50;
19. Xavier (2-1), 45;
20. Ansonia (2-1), 34;
21. New Britain (2-1), 28;
22. Windsor (2-1), 27;
23. Wilbur Cross (2-1), 20;
T24. East Lyme (2-0)
T24. Wolcott (3-0), 16;
26. Fairfield Warde (3-0),
T27. Fitch (3-0)
T27. Shelton (1-2), 8.

The following voted: Marc Allard, Norwich Bulletin; Bob Barton, New Haven Register; Bill Bloxsom, Hersam-Acorn; Sean Patrick Bowley, Connecticut Post; Don Boyle, SportingNewsCT.com; Bryant Carpenter, Meriden-Record Journal; Henry Chisholm, Connecticut Post; Garrett Dale, Register Citizen; George DeMaio, WELI; Mike DiMauro, The Day of New London; Matt Doran, Norwalk Hour; Noah Finz, WTNH-8; 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; Mike Pucci, New Haven Register; Dave Ruden, Stamford Advocate; Tom Yantz, Hartford Courant; Jimmy Zanor, Shore Line Newspapers.

  The Day of New London Top 10 state coaches football poll

Dropped out: Ansonia (7).

 Also receiving votes:
11. Pomperaug (3-0), 135 points;
12. St. Joseph (3-0), 109
13. Simsbury (3-0), 108
14. Holy Cross (3-0), 94;
15. Berlin (3-0), 79;
16. Central (3-0), 70;
17. Newtown (3-0), 39;
18. Notre Dame-West Haven (2-1), 38;
19. Wolcott (3-0), 37;
T20. Ansonia (2-1)
T20. Xavier (2-1), 32;
22. Windsor (2-1), 24;
23. Trumbull (3-0), 18;
24. East Lyme (2-0), 14;
25. Bloomfield (3-0), 11
26. Wilbur Cross (3-0), 10;
27. Ridgefield (2-1), 7. 

The following coaches voted: Scott Benoit, Hamden; Tom Brockett, Ansonia; Jim Buonocore, Ledyard; Dave Cadelina, Bridgeport Central; 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.

Connecticut Sports Writers Association Top 10 Media Poll

Also Receiving Votes:
11. Pomperaug 3-0 154;
12. Berlin 3-0 110;
13. St. Joseph 3-0 99;
14. Holy Cross 3-0 82;
15. Simsbury 3-0 71;
16. New Britain 2-1 49;
17. Ansonia 2-1 47;
18. Central 3-0 32;
19. Trumbull 3-0 30;
20. Notre Dame-West Haven 2-1 29;
21. Windsor 2-1 28;
22. Xavier 2-1 26;
23. Fitch 3-0 22;
24. Newtown 3-0 21;
25. Wilbur Cross 2-1 16;
26. Wolcott 3-0 15;
27. Avon 3-0 14;
28. Bloomfield 3-0 14;
29. Foran 3-0 14;
30. Hand 2-1 11;
31. Fairfield Warde 3-0 11;
32. Branford 3-0 7;
33. East Lyme 2-0 2;
34. Ridgefield 2-1 2;
35. Darien 1-2 1;
36. Hyde Leadership 3-1 1;
37. Southington 1-2 1

Voters: Marc Allard (Norwich Bulletin), Bob Barton (CT H.S. Football Record Book), Bill Bloxsom (Hersam Acorn), Don Boyle (Sporting News CT), Jim Bransfield (Middletown Press), Johnny Burnham (Bristol Press), Bryant Carpenter (Meriden Record-Journal), Henry Chisholm (Connecticut Post), Ray Curren (Elm City Newspapers), Garrett Dale (Torrington Register Citizen), Anthony Della Calce (Central CT weeklies), George DeMaio (WELI Radio), Gerry deSimas (Collinsville Publishing Co.), Bill Donovan (WXLM 104.7 FM), John Goralski (Southington Observer), Dave Greenleaf (CCC website), Mike Guerrera (Southington Citizen), John Holt (WFSB Channel 3), Mark Jaffee (Waterbury Republican), Larry Kelley (Times Community Newspapers), Greg Lederer (Cheshire Herald), Ken Lipshez (New Britain Herald), Andrew Lovell (New Britain Herald), Robert Mayer (Berlin/Plainville/Southington Citizen), Matt Norlander (Darien/New Canaan News-Review), Tim Parry (FCIAC Football Blog), Sean Patrick Bowley (Connecticut Post), Pat Pickens (Fairfield Citizen-News), Ryan Pipke (New Britain Herald), Mike Pucci (New Haven Register), Paul Rosano (Meriden Record-Journal), Dave Ruden (Stamford Advocate), Steve Sellers (Shore Publishing Newspapers), Mike Suppe (Hersam Acorn Newspapers), Peter Vander Veer (Elm City Newspapers), Tom Yantz (Hartford Courant), Rich Zalusky (Willimantic Chronicle), Jimmy Zanor (Shore Line Newspapers)

First impressions, Impressions, Impressions:

Looks like the stars are aligning somewhat. Pretty much uniform, give or take a few teams. So, really, there’s nothing to write home about.

With Ansonia bowing out of all the polls, Pomperaug makes its first appearance in the NHR poll; New London replaces the Chargers in the Coaches poll and in the CWA poll. Pomperaug is on the fringe in those two, in 11th place. New London is No. 11 in NHR.

Personally, I’ll go with Pomperaug on that but…

Strangely enough, Staples has dropped in the coaches poll. But its only a few points, nothing to get worked up about.

Teams that maybe/should be in the top 10?

Simsbury.

We don’t know a lot about them, but we do know they’ve beaten Windsor (30-19)  Newington (9-7) and East Hartford (41-7). Not bad.

Meanwhile, there are a few teams that, honestly, shouldn’t be mentioned in any polls, but somehow are because some people (cough, writers, cough) apparently love to throw their local team a bone… Not going to list them here, but here’s a plea to the writers voting:

Please, we take our votes seriously?

Here’s a perfect example: of all the votes out there, there’s a team that has outscored its opponents 104-0 and hasn’t even received a sniff yet.

Conard.

It”s beat Hartford Public, East Hartford and Bulkeley, all by shutout. And it gets nothing. Nada.

Yeah, you’re right, I didn’t vote for them.

But when you consider that my No. 15 was Notre Dame of West Haven, you get an idea that there’s quite a few good ones in my top 15.

If you were going to vote outside the box, Conard could have used your support.

End rant.

OK, so I lied about getting this up Monday night. Let’s try early (early) Tuesday morning for highlights of Stratford’s 21-13 victory over Oxford on Friday afternoon, in the inaugural game on the Oxford campus.

Interesting game between two teams trying to climb the SWC ladder. Stratford, 0-2, including a blowout loss to Pomperaug and a crushing, 13-12 nailbiting loss to Weston, was playing without head coach Duane Shirden, who was tending to family matters after the death out of state with of his grandmother.

Oxford, 1-1 after a rather competitive loss to Masuk the week before, was playing to protect its new turf (which was a nice enough field, just laid out the wrong way. It would have been nicer to have the field turned perpendicular so, if they decide to build a complex around it, there will be room for stands and all of the usual amenities), and get back into the win column.

Oxford stared off well enough, a turnover led to one touchdown and then Mike Giordano scampered 48 yards for another score and a 13-0 lead.

Unfortunately for Oxford, Stratford tightened its defense (four interceptions — three by QB/DB Jeff Miller) and started chipping away. Vinny Valente, who caught nine passes for 93 yards, turned a sideline rout into diving touchdown. Big Asia Bolling, who wasn’t on the roster, outfought a defender at the goal line for another touchdown and a 14-13 Stratford halftime lead.

Stratford finally put some distance between it and the Wolverines when, on a fourth-and-3, tall Nick Riley leaped over a defender to catch a 9-yard touchdown pass from Miller.

But the Red Devils just couldn’t put the Wolverines away. They fumbled away one possession, which Miller subsequently got back with an 70-something yard interception return. … but the senior got a little cute before the goal line and fumbled the ball through the back of the end zone for an Oxford touchback.  (No footage available, I was blocked by the Stratford players on the sidelines). Oxford tried to rally again, but Donald Graham picked off Giordano with 51 seconds left.

So Oxford falls to 1-2 with a particularly frustrating loss. Stratford, also 1-2, can feel much better about itself — especially since they could bring a win home for Shirden.

Hmmm…. why watch the video now? Because it’s probably a high school football game you didn’t see (3:30 p.m. start), so have a look at how it all went down.

I know Dave Ruden‘s blogpost is right below mine, so I’m just going to link to his latest stuff.

But in case you haven’t been to our main high school football page, or haven’t been following Dave on Twitter (@DaveRuden), he breaks the news that Stamford LB Khairi Fortt is giving his verbal commitment to Penn State, joining King standout Silas Redd.

Dave will have video of Fortt’s decision on his Overtime blog, so click here to check it out.

You can also read the newspaper story here.

Meanwhile, I’m curious to hear from you about his decision… and, according to Dave, it sounds like Georgia really dropped the ball on this one.