SPB's High School Sports

Sean’s Playoff Neighborhood of Make Believe (Week 9)

November 11, 2009 at 6:12 pm by Sean Patrick Bowley

Ding! Ding!

The Trolley is here, so hop-aboard and let’s see how the 2009 state playoff races are looking in Sean’s (ok, and Steve Filippone’s … but I thought of it first) Connecticut Playoff Neighborhood of Make Believe.

All aboard! Let’s go!
(insert trolley music here)

2009 MAKE BELIEVE CIAC FOOTBALL PLAYOFF POINTS
(as imagined by the Connecticut Post, based on a proposal by Steve Filippone, Daniel Hand High School, Madison.

Remember, the new proposal calls for:

• The regular season to end Thanksgiving, keeping that incredible sports day intact.
• Top eight qualify from each division.
• Quarterfinals on Tuesday (like normal with the current semis).
• Semifinals on Saturday (like normal with championships).
• Then a week of hype for the four Championship games at… Rentschler Field.

Ooooh, baby. Can’t wait.

CLASS LL

TEAM	W-L	Bonus	Pts.	Avg.
1. Glastonbury	8-0	280	1080	135.00
2. Staples	8-0	210	1010	126.25
3. Xavier	7-1	270	970	121.25
4. Simsbury*	7-1	250	950	118.75
5. Cheshire	6-1	220	820	117.14
6. Hamden	7-1	230	930	116.25
7. Bpt Central	7-1	190	890	111.25
8. Ridgefield	7-1	180	880	110.00
Manchester	6-2	190	790	98.75
Newtown	6-2	160	760	95.00
Windsor*	6-2	160	760	95.00
Greenwich	6-2	140	740	92.50
South Windsor	6-2	140	740	92.50
Trumbull	5-3	150	650	81.25
Shelton	5-3	130	630	78.75
Southington	5-3	80	580	72.50
West Haven*	4-3	120	520	74.29
New Britain	4-4	110	510	63.75
Stamford*	3-5	110	410	51.25
Wilbur Cross*	3-5	90	390	48.75
NFA	3-5	60	360	45.00
Bristol Central*	3-5	50	350	43.75
East Hartford	3-5	50	350	43.75
Newington*	3-5	50	350	43.75
Hartford Public*	3-5	50	350	43.75
Amity	2-5	30	230	32.86
McMahon	2-6	30	230	28.75
Norwalk*	2-6	30	230	28.75
New Milford*	2-6	30	230	28.75
Westhill	2-6	20	220	27.50
Danbury	2-6	20	220	27.50
Hall*	1-7	0	100	12.50
Fairfield Prep	0-8	0	0	0.00
Harding	0-8	0	0	0.00
Bulkeley*	0-8	0	0	0.00

* Class L school in 2009 format

Synopsis: Assuming Glastonbury and Staples will have clinched in this format, all of the one-loss teams are in position to clinch playoff spots. Not one team is left out, folks. Of course, they still have to finish the season because there are a bunch of 6-2 teams waiting to take their spot.

Greenwich is out of the playoff race in real life. Here, they’re very much alive, battling Manchester,  Windsor, South Windsor and Newtown for the right to sneak into the playoffs.

If the playoffs started today, you’d get:
No. 8 Ridgefield at No. 1 Glastonbury
No. 7 Bridgeport Central at No. 2 Staples
No. 6 Hamden at No. 3 Xavier
No. 5 Cheshire at No. 4 Simsbury

CLASS L

TEAM	W-L	Bon*	Pts.	Avg.
1. New Canaan**	8-0	270	1080	135.00
2. Masuk	8-0	280	1080	135.00
3. Pomperaug	8-0	270	1070	133.75
4. Conard	8-0	230	1030	128.75
5. Vinal Tech**	8-0	220	1030	128.75
6. NDWH	7-1	250	950	118.75
7. East Lyme**	7-1	200	910	113.75
8. St. Paul**	6-2	190	800	100.00
Darien**	6-2	150	790	98.75
North Haven**	5-3	140	640	80.00
Fitch	5-2	140	620	88.57
Branford***	5-3	160	660	82.50
Wilby**	5-3	100	610	76.25
Daniel Hand**	4-4	110	530	66.25
Fairfield Warde**	4-4	110	510	63.75
Wethersfield**	4-4	70	480	60.00
Torrington**	4-4	70	470	58.75
RHAM**	4-4	50	460	57.50
Fairfield Ludlowe**	3-4	40	370	52.86
Bunnell**	3-5	60	370	46.25
Bristol Eastern**	3-5	70	370	46.25
Fermi**	3-5	60	370	46.25
Naugatuck	3-5	70	370	46.25
Maloney**	3-5	50	350	43.75
Platt Tech**	3-5	50	350	43.75
Platt***	3-5	40	350	43.75
Wilton**	2-6	50	260	32.50
Woodstock Acad**	2-6	40	250	31.25
Farmington	2-6	30	230	28.75
Windsor Locks	2-6	20	220	27.50
E.O. Smith**	2-6	30	230	28.75
Kennedy**	1-7	30	140	17.50
Bassick	1-7	20	120	15.00
Crosby	1-7	20	120	15.00
Middletown	0-8	0	0	0.00
Weaver**	0-8	0	0	0.00

**Class MM schools in 2009 format ***Class M schools in 2009

Synopsis: Again, not one 1-loss team out of the mix and, woah, there’s even 2-loss St. Paul Co-Op hanging onto the No. 8 spot. New Canaan, Masuk and Pomperaug have all probably clinched spots while Conard, Vinal Tech are mere bonus points away. Notre Dame and East Lyme are all probably just one win away from clinching (a second loss probably won’t knock the Green Knights out, either). All that’s really left is figuring out who will take the last playoff spot or two, and positioning.

By the way, Darien is very much in the same position it is in now, probably needing to win out to squeak in.

So, if the season ended today, here would be your 2009 Class L playoffs:

No. 8 St. Paul at No. 1 New Canaan or Masuk
No. 7 East Lyme at No. 2 Masuk or New Canaan
No. 6 Notre Dame-WH at No. 3 Pomperaug (could happen in real life)
No. 5 Vinal Tech-Coginchaug at No. 4 Conard

This fixes the problem of all the “New Canaan Invitational” jokes going on in Class MM right now. This s a strong fieldYeah, I’m sure some of you aren’t keen that Vinal and Conard will meet while NDWH and Pomperaug butt heads. But there’s still two more weeks to sort this out. A Green Bowl win for ND would fix that.

CLASS M

TEAM	W-L	Bon*	Pts.	Avg.
1. New London	7-0	310	1020	145.71
2. Avon	8-0	240	1050	131.25
3. Wolcott**	7-1	240	990	123.75
4. Berlin	7-1	240	940	117.50
5. Bethel	6-2	160	770	96.25
6. Gilbert/Nwestern	5-2	150	650	92.86
7. Ellington/Som**	5-2	100	640	91.43
8. Coventry/WT	6-2	120	730	91.25
Ledyard**	4-3	130	530	75.71
Watertown	5-3	120	630	78.75
Rockville	5-3	120	620	77.50
Windham**	4-3	70	500	71.43
Foran**	5-3	80	620	77.50
New Fairfield	4-4	150	560	70.00
Bacon Academy	4-3	80	480	68.57
Cheney Tech	4-3	80	480	68.57
Stratford	4-4	110	510	63.75
Hillhouse	4-4	70	480	60.00
Barlow**	3-5	80	410	51.25
Tolland**	3-5	60	390	48.75
Sheehan	3-4	40	340	48.57
Lyman Hall	3-5	80	380	47.50
Derby/O’Brien	3-5	60	370	46.25
Jonathan Law	3-5	10	320	40.00
Plainfield**	2-5	30	240	34.29
Enfield**	2-6	60	260	32.50
Brookfield	2-6	50	250	31.25
Waterford**	2-6	40	250	31.25
Tourtellotte/ET	2-6	10	210	26.25
Guilford	1-6	30	130	18.57
Wilcox Tech**	1-6	10	110	15.71
Wolcott Tech	1-8	0	100	11.11
East Haven	0-8	0	0	0.00
Plainville**	0-8	0	0	0.00
St. Bernard/NT**	0-8	0	0	0.00

**Class MM 2009 school

Synopsis: This division enhances my previous arguments for just three divisions. It’s somewhat watered down compared to the other divisions. But certainly not as bad as how some of the real divisions turn out in the current format. Still, it’s a decent field, one in which the seeding actually looks right.

New London, Avon, Wolcott, Berlin are your top seed. Bethel’s hanging in there as the No. 5. The rest is a free-for-all for the final three spots. Probably won’t be a great quarterfinal, but when this bracket is finished, the winning team can call itself a legit champ.

So if the playoffs started today:

No. 8 Coventry/Windham Tech at No. 1 New London
No. 7 Ellington/Somers at No. 2 Avon
No. 6 Gilbert/Northwestern at No. 3 Wolcott
No. 5 Bethel at No. 4 Berlin

CLASS S

TEAM	W-L	Bon*	Pts.	Avg.
1. Holy Cross***	8-0	300	1160	145.00
2. Bloomfield	8-0	270	1140	142.50
3. Montville***	7-1	270	1000	125.00
4. St. Joseph***	7-1	190	980	122.50
5. East Catholic	7-1	200	970	121.25
6. NWCatholic	7-1	210	970	121.25
7. Ansonia	6-2	260	920	115.00
8. Hyde	7-1	220	920	115.00
Bullard Havens***	7-1	160	890	111.25
Cromwell	6-1	170	770	110.00
Prince Tech	6-1	150	770	110.00
Woodland***	5-3	140	690	86.25
Griswold***	5-2	80	590	84.29
Canton	5-3	90	610	76.25
Valley Reg/OL	5-3	90	590	73.75
Stonington***	5-3	70	580	72.50
Rocky Hill***	4-4	100	530	66.25
Killingly	4-4	110	530	66.25
Oxford	4-4	80	500	62.50
Morgan	4-4	80	500	62.50
Haddam-Killing***	4-4	50	450	56.25
Weston***	3-5	70	400	50.00
Trinity Catholic	3-5	30	380	47.50
Capital Prep	3-4	20	320	45.71
Notre Dame-FF.	2-6	70	290	36.25
O. Saybrook/West	2-5	50	250	35.71
Sacred Heart	2-6	50	270	33.75
North Branford	2-5	20	220	31.43
Housatonic/Wam	1-6	10	120	17.14
Immaculate	1-7	30	130	16.25
Seymour***	1-7	10	130	16.25
Stafford/EWindsor	1-7	10	120	15.00
Abbott Tech***	1-6	0	100	14.29
Putnam	1-7	0	100	12.50
SMSA	0-6	0	0	0.00
Nonnewaug***	0-10	0	0	0.00

***2009 Class SS

Synopsis: Foof, now this is a playoff race. Yeah, lots of 1-loss teams are sitting below the Filippone Line (our version of baseball’s Mendoza It is, however, a tad misleading because many of these teams are still waiting to play their seventh game. Hyde and Cromwell play each other. St. Joseph still has to play Greenwich. Besides, two of the 1-loss teams are Bullard-Havens and Prince Tech… they’re both below the Filippone Line with very low point totals.

This is another division that’s going to sort itself out in another two weeks, believe me.

So, if the playoffs started today here’s the Class S field

No. 8 Hyde at No. 1 Holy Cross
No. 7 Ansonia at No. 2 Bloomfield
No. 6 NW Catholic at No. 3 Montville
No. 5 East Catholic at No. 4 St. Joseph

That is an amazing playoff field. Hoist that trophy high if you win the title here.

***

Ding! Ding!

Looks like our time is up here in the wonderful, idyllic … *perfect* state tournament land of make believe.

Until next time… OR until the CIAC realizes one more week of football won’t rip apart the fabric of spacetime.

I’ll even say we keep the starting date as-is if you adopt this format. See I’m all about compromise. I understand we don’t want our kids playing forever. One more week for eight teams won’t kill anybody, except maybe the third line on a hockey team or the 6th man on a basketball team.

C’mon CIAC. You can do it.

Make it happen.

Luv,

Sean Patrick

Posted in General | 61 Comments

1. If Glastonbury and New Canaan both go undefeated I ask
   why cannot New Canaan and Glastonbury playoff ??

   Comment by cuoz18 — November 11th, 2009 @ 8:32 pm

2. You got way too much time on your hands! Love the energy, though.

   Comment by Tha Crusha — November 11th, 2009 @ 8:36 pm

3. This is what I do for a living. Nice, huh?

   Comment by Sean Patrick Bowley — November 11th, 2009 @ 9:54 pm

4. You can ask, Cuoz, you’re just not going to get a true state champion played on the field. It’ll never, ever happen.

   Comment by Sean Patrick Bowley — November 11th, 2009 @ 10:00 pm

5. I tend to agree with you BUT what would happen if teams were allowed to play up in enrollment classes ?
   It would be an unwritten rule that the LL winner will be the #1 overall team.This was done in the later 1970’s unsucessfully by Ansonia.

   Comment by cuoz18 — November 11th, 2009 @ 11:03 pm

6. I would add a rule similar to professional football (and baseball) that prohibits, if possible, two teams from the same conference from squaring off in the first round. Your next assignment is to get a comment from the CIAC if any playoff rule changes would be entertained in the off season, or whether this is all totally wishful thinking.

   Comment by Jeff — November 12th, 2009 @ 4:41 am

7. CLASS S
   1976: Ansonia 6, Derby 0
   1977: Ansonia 20, Stamford Cath. 7

   CLASS LL
   1978: Amity 35, Ansonia 20
   1980: Newington 24, Ansonia 12

   CLASS S
   1981: Ansonia 23, Woodrow Wilson 6
   1982: Ansonia 14, Derby 0
   1983: Ansonia 32, Stamford Cath. 0
   1984: Ansonia 56, Putnam 6

   Cuoz – I’m with you – the 2 years that you mention are one of the most quirky and exciting factoids of CT HS football… I was a young kid but was at the Amity-Ansonia game @ Bowen Field!

   Is there actually an official CIAC rule that prohibits a team from “playing up”?

   I always just assumed that teams would rather stay where they are and raise banner after banner than play up and make uber-fans like us happy with some epic games. (Not to pick on Ansonia, this point goes for every lower division dynasty.)

   To this very day, these 2 attempts by Ansonia are one of my favorite things about the Chargers (or wait, is it that I hate Ansonia for never trying it again a la a couple years ago vs Greenwich?? lol)

   Comment by FauxRealism — November 12th, 2009 @ 6:24 am

8. Now imagine if all 32 of those teams played in one big bracket, OMG it would be an orgy of Football in CT

   Comment by Greenwich — November 12th, 2009 @ 8:40 am

9. FauxRealism,
   Yes, there is a rule. Please see page 13 in the “tournament packet” below….”Schools will not be permitted to request a change of division.”

   http://www.casciac.org/tournament_packets/fb0910.pdf

   However, in basketball a team may request a change of division, but only to LL. SJ does this regularly, Trinity Catholic usually chooses not to.

   http://www.casciac.org/tournament_packets/bbb0910.pdf

   Comment by Dr. Von Nostran — November 12th, 2009 @ 12:25 pm

10. Nice that you guys picked up on the Ansonia LL move. Some Historians in the Fold. SPB that would be a good little historical piece to right about. You ever consider writing a CT High School football book?

    Comment by John D — November 12th, 2009 @ 1:48 pm

11. write not right, that was stupid of me.

    Comment by John D — November 12th, 2009 @ 1:48 pm

12. I think Central coach Dave Cadelina was a freshman on Bill Johnson’s Amity over Ansonia championship team. One of my best friend’s brothers played on that team, too.

    Comment by Sean Patrick Bowley — November 12th, 2009 @ 1:50 pm

13. The original Mud Bowl.I must admit I was NOT one of the 50,000 at the Amity/Ansonia game at Bowen Field.Just kidding about the 50,000 but most people that were old enough to see that game were apparently there.The attendance for that 1978 LL Title Game has definitely grown over the years !!

    Comment by cuoz18 — November 12th, 2009 @ 2:31 pm

14. SPB, I’m all for a revision in the CIAC’s classes and playoff system, but wouldn’t these games go pretty deep into basketball season? I’m sure there are a lot of 2-sport athletes on those championship game teams.

    Comment by Lavender — November 12th, 2009 @ 2:36 pm

15. Yes. One week. I say deal with it. Every other state does.

    Comment by Sean Patrick Bowley — November 12th, 2009 @ 2:42 pm

16. Ansonia is 1-2 when moving up in class. 1979 is the year missing above for Ansonia that you are all forgetting.

    Ansonia moved up in class to “M” to beat Seymour 28-14. You made that decision to move up before the season started and Ansonia moved up to LL in 78 and 80 assuming they would play the best team in the state.
    In 79, they had the same reasoning and chose M because they believed Seymour would be the best team in the state, being as that they had Edward Esson who ended up going to Missouri, and decided accordingly.

    Also, I am not sure what year the CIAC banned moving up in class but in 94, 03, and 07 Ansonia would have probably done so to face Cheshire, New Britian, and Greenwich.
    And those Bloomfield teams in 98, 99, and 00 were only S and if given the chance to move up I am sure Cochran would have and destroyed everyone.

    Comment by Chris — November 12th, 2009 @ 3:03 pm

17. Ansonia also elected to move up in 1979.

    They won their first, and only, Class M title that year.

    Comment by Rob — November 12th, 2009 @ 3:07 pm

18. I love the history lesson going on here. Let me add to it.

    Ansonia felt compelled to move up in class in 1978, 1979, and 1980 because of what happened to them in the years immediately preceeding this.

    In 1976, Ansonia beat Derby twice in one year (when this was actually a big accomplishment) and won the Class S title. They felt they were the best team in the state but finished #2 in the final poll.

    In 1977, Ansonia was ranked #1 going into championship Saturday. They beat Stamford Catholic (now Trinity Catholic) 20-7. But when the final poll came out, they were jumped by LL winner Trumbull. Ansonia finished #2 and felt robbed again.

    So in 1978, Ansonia made the decision to move up. They again felt they had the best team in the state and played that epic game against Amity. Talk to old school Ansonia people today, and they still feel confident in that move and feel that they win that game against Amity on most days. But the Spartans won the battle. Amity finished #1 in the final poll and Ansonia again finished #2.

    In 1979, Ansonia moved to Class M. I think they were a little annoyed that they might have to share headlines with another Valley foe. They defeated Seymour in the title game and captured their only title that was not S or SS. They finished #3 in the final poll.

    In 1980, Ansonia moved up for the final time and got beat by Newington in the LL title game.

    Comment by the rock — November 12th, 2009 @ 3:56 pm

19. Chris I’m not sure they would have moved up, but I do remember 92 or 93 when Ansonia played Cheshire in a huge game to see who the best team in the state was, Big crowd and I think Cheshire won and maintained their winning streak! If somebody could get some more details on that game for me it would be much appreciated. I remember Bloomfield always wanting to play those fantastic Fitch teams at the begining of this decade, but we never did get to see Cochran play them. 97 Bloomfield team was prob the best team ever to play HS Football in CT and they didn’t even finish first in the state that year, that was a complete sham. Hand was good but not Bloomfield good!

    Comment by John D — November 12th, 2009 @ 4:04 pm

20. The 97 Bloomfield team beat a fantastic Darien team that year 39-20 I think. That’s when Darien use to own the FCIAC.

    Comment by John D — November 12th, 2009 @ 4:07 pm

21. great blog rock

    Comment by ray brown — November 12th, 2009 @ 4:10 pm

22. for you greenwich fans was there a reason for not scheduling naples in a rematch? i would have loved to see the birdies vs.bloomfield in the freeney -pinnock days why didnt any fciac people clamor for a bloomfield–greenwich matchup back then?

    Comment by ray brown — November 12th, 2009 @ 4:16 pm

23. I guess there are many persons besides myself that would like to see the best 8 teams playoff on the field of play.SPB ,I agree with the new proposal being much better than the current one but the big schools are not necessarily better and a lot of times in the last 15 years finish behind lower class schools in the Final polls.

    Comment by cuoz18 — November 12th, 2009 @ 4:17 pm

24. Cuoz, I agree that the largest schools aren’t always better and I know you want to see the best 8 but… it would be just too convoluted to get from point A to point B on that. If we have an open division, no one will really give a rat’s rear about anybody else. I mean, take a look at what happened to the Division I basketball. With all of the biggies out of the mix in the other division, all of those other divisions were absolute scraps left over and nobody cared. We can’t have that, otherwise, what’s the point? Thave to look at the big picture. The big picture says like-sized schools play for their own championships. Spread it out. I’d rather see three, but if the want four, fine. It’s just not gonna happen.

    Comment by Sean Patrick Bowley — November 12th, 2009 @ 4:24 pm

25. John D,

    Ansonia and Cheshire have never played. How you can mistakenly think such a huge game was even played, and it was not, is kind of shocking.

    Comment by Chris — November 12th, 2009 @ 5:01 pm

26. John D, Cheshire started the streak in 1992 when they upset Notre Dame-WH (who had not lost a game in two years) in the Class L final. I don’t remember Cheshire playing Ansonia, but if they did it must have been in 1993 at the earliest.

    Comment by roto — November 12th, 2009 @ 5:14 pm

27. And in a related note, were those Fitch teams really that fantastic? I mean when they weren’t playing ECC teams? An unheralded ND-WH team mopped the field with them in 2001.

    Comment by roto — November 12th, 2009 @ 5:17 pm

28. the 2000 Shelton team finished second in the polls to Fitch. Fitch ran up the score against weak ECC teams while Shelton beat the likes of Greenwich, New Britian, Cheshire, West Haven etc. Coach Benanto whould have loved to play Fitch.

    Comment by Dave k — November 12th, 2009 @ 9:20 pm

29. Cheshire never played Ansonia in the early 1990’s.Although the New Haven Register put out a small special section about this “Dream Matchup”.I was asked by the Register Reporter who I thought would win this matchup.I was nicknamed “Super Fan” for this article.

    Comment by cuoz18 — November 12th, 2009 @ 9:32 pm

30. john d-check your meds—–ansonia and cheshire never played——–but if you did see that game send me some of those cigarettes

    Comment by ray brown — November 12th, 2009 @ 10:21 pm

31. I was young at the time and remember reading something about this game in the early nineties. I must be wrong, and maybe just remember reading the dream matchup article. I appologize for the mistake. You guys love hating on Eastern CT teams, Fitch was pretty good! They won two state Championships back to back you have to give them a little credit for that!

    Comment by John D — November 12th, 2009 @ 10:37 pm

32. Fitch has had some great squads – if i remember correctly, they throttled New Canaan on opening day in 93 (like 40-0) and NC did not lose again that year – think that was the year silvestri and that big line went crazy for NC

    Comment by fan — November 12th, 2009 @ 11:59 pm

33. I remember those Fitch teams well.Anthony Wilson,Mike Jones.I watched them come down to New Canaan and give New Canaan their only loss that year.New Canaan had Chris Silvestri and the Rams went on to win the State title defeating Hand at Ken Strong Field.One of those years Fitch did not qualify for the state playoffs with an undefeated record.We could of had a Fitch vs Cheshire final.

    Comment by cuoz18 — November 13th, 2009 @ 12:58 am

34. Ansonia never played Cheshire

    Comment by Rob — November 13th, 2009 @ 1:47 am

35. Couz, the year fitch was undefeated was 95, the ciac ended changing the playoff system for that reason.

    Comment by John d — November 13th, 2009 @ 7:17 am

36. Fitch played Staples 1-1 in the playoffs, they lost in a fantastic game in 97, Mac DeVito ran 60 or 70 yards with about 18 seconds left to win the game! That was Marce first appearance in the playoffs with Staples. Great game!

    Comment by John d — November 13th, 2009 @ 7:23 am

37. john d check those cigarettes your smokin

    Comment by ray brown — November 13th, 2009 @ 8:12 am

38. The reason the CIAC decided to do away with smaller classes moving up was because Trumbull High went undefeated and were crowned the #1 team in the state and did not qualify for the state tourney. The state only selected two teams that year and when Ansonia chose to move up they had more points than Trumbull and Trumbull was left out.
    The following year the Ciac stopped it and also added semi-final games. (4 teams)

    The year Fitch came down to New Canaan they beat them by two touchdowns-I think the score was 38-24. Silvestri hardly carried the ball that day because they ( New Canaan) underestimated how good of a player Silvestri was at the time. Fitch had an excellent team and NC jelled after that game and dominated the Fciac and the state .

    Comment by jjs — November 13th, 2009 @ 8:24 am

39. I’m sorry Couz it was 94, I did some fact checking so I wouldn’t look dumber than I all ready have. Simsbury snuck past them.

    Comment by John D — November 13th, 2009 @ 9:38 am

40. I’m not smoking anything Ray,cut me some slack man, I made a mistake : ), If you read my original blog I asked people if they knew more about the game. Like I said I remeber reading about it when I was young, and heck it was like 15 years ago. I could have sworn it happend, but I must be wrong there are some pretty sharp historians on this blog, and they would def know about it, if it ever happend.

    Comment by John D — November 13th, 2009 @ 10:23 am

41. Simsbury had a nice team those years and I believe faced Cheshire in back to back finals.One was close and one was not.I still would have preferred a Cheshire vs Fitch Final.

    Comment by cuoz18 — November 13th, 2009 @ 10:24 am

42. also, at that point of the season, Silvestri was only splitting carries with Howes i think – howes ended up breaking his neck a few games later (Harding maybe?) and Silvestri took over as the workhorse

    He was unbelievable that year – he had three or four games in a row where he ran for 250+

    McMahon was the team to beat that year and NC undressed them in NC – shut Idris Price down and Silvestri ran wild – i remember having to walk a country mile from where i parked – a lot of poeple at that game

    Comment by fan — November 13th, 2009 @ 10:31 am

43. Great work everyone, very interesting thread.

    JJS – not sure about the link between team moving up and the addition of the semi-final games.

    As we’ve seen, Ansonia moved up in class in ‘78, ‘79, & ‘80. (BTW, has any other football team done it?)

    However, the semi-finals games began in 1995.

    I seem to recall that there were a couple years where a few years where undefeated teams that did not qualify which made people unhappy so you right about that.

    Comment by FauxRealism — November 13th, 2009 @ 10:51 am

44. jjs, the CIAC didn’t introduce semifinals until 1995, more than 10 years after the Ansonia-Trumbull scenario you described.

    Comment by roto — November 13th, 2009 @ 11:10 am

45. I stand corrected. Thank you!

    Comment by jjs — November 13th, 2009 @ 11:52 am

46. The Semi-final games were added after a strong undefeated Fitch team was left out in the cold.

    Comment by John D — November 13th, 2009 @ 12:01 pm

47. JJS I think what you meant was that division were added. I’m pretty sure it went from four to six.

    Comment by John D — November 13th, 2009 @ 12:02 pm

48. Silvestri ended up with 2, 300 plus games and a little over 1800 yards, a fantastic season.

    Comment by John D — November 13th, 2009 @ 12:04 pm

49. Speaking of the 90’s, I remember that big upset, Killingly over NC in the states in 96′. Nobody saw that one coming.

    Comment by John D — November 13th, 2009 @ 12:17 pm

50. Just received some info through the game vine that the 32 team 4 class proposal has passed. Yey !

    Comment by Brian — November 13th, 2009 @ 12:35 pm

51. Passed in the football committee… long way to go

    Comment by Sean Patrick Bowley — November 13th, 2009 @ 12:46 pm

52. that NC team in 96 was not a prime NC Team – they were the first NC team that was a product of the playoff system – NC finished 3rd or 4th in their class a lot in the early 90s – wonder how they would have stacked up to other NC teams from earlier in the decade (I think NC only lost to Darien and Greenwich in 91 – both went on to states)

    Comment by fan — November 13th, 2009 @ 1:16 pm

53. Did Killingly end up winning the title?

    Comment by fan — November 13th, 2009 @ 2:06 pm

54. SPB you should pick your four of five favorite bloggers for the year and do a special State Championship blog with them. Some of these guys are pretty sharp. Bay, Fan, Faux, Dr. Von and JJS.

    Comment by John D — November 13th, 2009 @ 2:50 pm

55. it’s been thought of

    Comment by Sean Patrick Bowley — November 13th, 2009 @ 3:13 pm

56. Killingly beat them in the championship game in 96

    Comment by John D — November 13th, 2009 @ 3:47 pm

57. sort of like an SPB Fan Round Table

    Comment by fan — November 13th, 2009 @ 3:58 pm

58. I would be curious to see if New Caanan played in the SCC Div 1 East Schedule would they be as good. Shelton, Xavier, West Haven, Cheshire, Hamden Norte Dame, Hand would give them all tight games. Personally, the FCIAC schedule with the exception of Greenwich,Staples,Central and maybe Ridgefield is not that good. I would like to see New Caanan travel to Xavier or Hamden for that matter they would not win.

    Comment by Matt C — November 13th, 2009 @ 4:41 pm

59. john d not remembering a game is one thing—————-being at a fictional game is disturbing

    Comment by ray brown — November 13th, 2009 @ 6:48 pm

60. Matt C, I don’t see much difference. The FCIAC has an equal (if not greater) number of good teams – they just don’t always play each other. The solution is a power conference. That way, squads like Staples – no disrespect intended to Wreckers fans – don’t traipse through absurdly easy pre-FCIAC Championship schedules.

    Comment by John — November 13th, 2009 @ 9:30 pm

61. Hey prophet, darien boy and whomever, NCHS got an ass-kicking. Go Central! Win the state. And remember losing to King in a scrimmage so not real.

    But King can play with anyone and has the best players in the Area!

    Comment by Read8834 — November 13th, 2009 @ 11:33 pm

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