The masses have spoken on this Week 7: You want me at Bethel-Masuk.
Ask and you shall receive! …But this appearance comes with a warning.
Bethel has to show up, and I mean not be down by 3 TDs at halftime. It has to compete and give mighty Masuk a run. Otherwise I’m slinking off to catch Derby-Ansonia (which is really where I should go anyway). Deal? Deal.
Here’s the Friday Night/Saturday Primer. No long-winded speeches today. Just the bare essentials.
We’re keeping an eye on a few games tonight. Of course, we’ll see if Bethel can take down its second heavyweight of the season. …We’ll see if Derby/O’Brien Tech can keep its win streak going and shock the state by beating rival Ansonia. …We’ll see if West Haven coach Ed McCarthy can inch closer to Bill Mignault‘s record 321 victories with his milestone 300th (and, more importantly, if the Westies can keep pace in Class LL) when Hand comes to town. …We’ll be keeping an eye on Central-Stamford, even though it become increasingly apparent neither will be making a state playoff trip (especially the loser of this game) …We’re watching to see how Trinity Catholic fares against giant-killing North Haven (a good ol’ FCIAC vs. SCC tilt) … We’re watching if No. 1 Xavier will be able to brush the sleep from its eyes for a 2:30 p.m. matchup with Hillhouse at Bowen Field. …We’ll be watching Fairfield Prep vs. Hamden, and anxiously waiting to see if the Jesuits’ can get their first SCC Division I victory in two seasons.
On Saturday, we’ll be watching a lot of FCIAC games (What is this? 1998). No mega-matchups out there, unless somebody (Wilton? McMahon? Danbury?) decides to get up an knock one of the frontrunners off its perch.
The Elite 8 - Week 7
Derby/O’Brien hopes to Spring Upset of Ansonia | FCIAC Notes: Central visits Stamford | SWC Notes: Revived New Fairfield takes shot at Newtown
ON THE AIR
FRIDAY
Wilbur Cross at Notre Dame-WH, 7 — Sportingnewsct.com or Gogreenknights.com
Hand at West Haven, 7 (Eddie McCarthy going for victory No. 300) — WELI 960-AM
Sacred Heart at Holy Cross, 7 — WATR 1320-AM
SATURDAY
Ludlowe at Staples, 10 am — WWPT 90.3-FM
Greenwich at Westhill, 1:30 — WGCH 1490-AM
Ridgefield at Norwalk, 2 — WSCT 1400-AM / WNLK 1350-AM
THE LIVE SCORING BLOG
Programming note on how the live scoring blog works: We allow comments, especially if you seem to have a score we don’t have. But since this is monitored by editors hard at work producing a daily newspaper, we typically can’t get to every comment.
What you see scrolling across on this live update window is, in fact, Twitter. Contrary to the opinion of the unsavvy among us (who think of it as being just some hourly update of what you had for breakfast, lunch and dinner), Twitter is a valuable source of information posted online on an infinite message board. Newspapers and reporters use to report breaking news. It’s what you see scrolling on the right-hand side of this blog.
For us, we use it as a universal scoring blog. So, while many of you have a buddy at some other game text-messaging updates, we use our phones to send our “text messages” to Twitter for everybody to see.
I’ve gone on ad nauseum about this, so just click here to see how it works
sean most competitive of night will be at Ken Strong.Those other games will push 50 pt rule
Sean- A scheduling question for you. If Masuk and Newtown qualify for the SWC championship game, do they still play their annual Thanksgiving eve game? If not, they could be playing twice in less than a week, Friday and Wednesday.No one has the definitive answer. We were hoping they would combine the games like the FCIAC has done in the past.
They’ll play again swoboda…its happened between these teams before and will happen again if the SWC doesn’t change that policy soon.
@Swoboda – Yes. It’ll be a double dip. Which makes no sense except to say it’s basically the SWC stealing your money.
@carl c – That’s my fear. Problem is, WH and Hand are slightly out of the core area for our coverage. Gotta appease the masses.
Just to answer your questions on the SWC Champ….. It will be a one game deal if the situation calls for it. It will be played on their yearly scheduled thanksgiving date. League changed it this past offseason.
@Clarificator — If that’s the case, nice for the league to make the announcement. I’ll get the official word tonight.
Just to put the finishing touches on the whole Lou Marinelli going for two debacle. Yes, it was the wrong move….all of us New Canaan fans on the hill said so BEFORE the touchdown was even scored. Anyway, it would have been VERY INTERESTING to see what Lou would have down IF there was still no overtime periods in high school. A smart fan (who vales a state tournament berth more than the FCIAC tournament berth) would have kicked the PAT and gone for the TIE. I would like to think Lou would have done the same, as the New Canaan program values state titles more than FCIAC titles. But, that’s niether here nor there, because there are no longer ties in high school. (Something I happen to disagree with). It cost Lou a few years ago by going for two against Ridgefield, before the days of overtime (the Rams didn’t convert)….and he went for two last year against Greenwich. So I think it’s more of a reflection on Lou just wanting to be a rebel or being an aggressive coach. But he’s failed in 2 of 3 of those situations.
Well, I hope NC wins out, because they are going to need to. Lou is a GREAT coach and has been excellent for NC over the past 30 years…..but I strongly disagree with his end-game 2-point choices.
Go Rams!
Sean, I would think just the opposite. Why not see just how good WH and Hand are compared to a team like Masuk which is well-known to you. This will help you be more objective (or perhaps subjective) when talking about the relative competitiveness of the teams in this area.
Taking out common opponents – it comes down to these teams to decide who Mausk wil play in the SWC champ game
Pomp Newtown
Bethel – 4 wins Immaculate – 0 wins
New Milford – 1 win Oxford- 4 wins
Weston – 3 wins Bunnell – 4 wins
Projecting out it looks like it will come down to Weston v Oxford on 11/13, Saturday 1:00 pm.
I agree with jeff. The Masuk game is going to be terrible
Curly, if I coached a (former) Class M team in the FCIAC with (other) great programs like Staples, Greenwich, Ridgefield, Central, Trumbull, etc., I’d care more about state titles as well. Lou said in Sean’s video he was concerned about having just given up a big TD return and wanted to take a shot at winning while he had it. As it’s a gut feel and he knows his kids better than anyone (including those on the hill), we can’t blame him… unless we want to play the role of Captain Hindsight (South Park reference).
Curly…
GREAT post. Clearly your opinion, based on facts, with a little history thrown in for perspective. It’s posts like this that keep me refreshing this page too many times per day.
Sean…thanks again for providing this great resource. It’s always entertaining, sometimes educational and thought provoking…and….every once in awhile…both.
With that said, have fun visiting us in Ansonia tonight!
Jeff,
What is wrong with trying to win the game in overtime? Why take the chance for the two point conversion when the percentages are against you. In the pros I have never seen a team go for the win in that situation. They always go for the tie and then the win in OT.
I remember when Coach Vito Montelli , the basketball coach of St. Joesephs, was playing in his first FCIAC championship basketball game. He was asked the importance of the FCIAC title game and his response was ” He and his team have their sights set on a bigger prize”. Truer words were never spoken. Take the SWC, NVL and the FCIAC title game and place it where it belongs-In the GARBAGE.
Please tell me that Staples,Ridgefield, DArien, CEntral Greenwich, and New Canaan would rather win the states rather than the Fciac. If Ansonia had tthe mentality that the NVL is the do all to end all, the people in the Valley would disown them.
hindsight is 20/20. there are a lot of things should have done differently. i have no problem with the decision for going for 2. i do have a problem with letting joes return the kick 91 yards. that us like the 4th time this season. fix that for gods sake
Of course a state title is higher on the totem pole than a conference title. But as pertains to the FCIAC as opposed to other conferences with title games, as has been pointed out numerous times, a disproportionate number of the top LL schools are FCIAC teams. That’s why winning this particular conference is meaningful to the teams in it.
If we accept the logic that if one title matters and another does not, then why end the season with rivalry games? Tell Army beating Navy is meaningless, or Yale that beating Harvard is so-what. Devaluing anything by finding something of greater value is a fool’s argument. For example, are CT state football titles rendered meaningless because we can argue that countless teams in other states, with 300 lb linemen and D1 caliber running backs, could whoop them? Of course not.
So everyone just lighten up and let our state’s kids have more reasons to feel proud of their accomplishments, not less.
Great win by Masuk. How did West Haven lose to Hand? I thought that they had so many great athletes and speed.
xavier is the number 4 team in the state
I keep saying West Haven is overrated. No defense. If Cheshire had any sort of defense they’d have easily won last week. I said they’d lose to Hand and people said that was impossible in West Haven. Wrong. However, I think West Haven will run it up on Xavier next week too high for Xavier to recover with their methodical running game. Masuk looks like the clear #1 based on results but I’m unsure they’ve played a really competitive team yet.
To the posts regarding the importance of the FCIAC championship. It has always been more important to an FCIAC coach to win the league title and it always will be.
Well I think if the SWC title game is between Masuk & Newtown the league should move it to Thanksgiving instead so there would not be a double dip.The crowd it would draw on Thanksgiving would be far greater than if we see another Masuk blow out the week before turkey day.
As a grandson to the legendary Pop Shortell I would have to say that last nights Ansonia/Derby game would have been one for the ages for the Big Guy! He definately gave Dobbs that push for the two point conversion
I’m surprised by the Hand-West Haven outcome, only because ND-WH lost to the Westies but put a beating on Hand. I guess that’s life in the SCC (and makes one wonder about what could have been with ND). I wouldn’t be surprised if the Westies beat Xavier. They haven’t been playing well.
@ Scott
I agree with you somewhat on West Haven.I,like you,thought that Cheshire and Notre Dame would defeat West Haven.But after 6 weeks I decided to give the Westies the benefit of the doubt and thought they would defeat Hand.An educated fan always knew that the competition in the SCC leads to these competitive battles almost weekly.To answer #19 Hand is a very good team.Maybe not a top 5 or 10 in the state but if you do not play an “A” game against them a defeat may be in yourloss column.This is why I give alot of credit for SCC teams with 1 loss or zero losses with close margins of victory.
@ titletown
Great man that “Pops”.Always remembering hearing about him when I was growing up.Loved the stories about him as an Ansonia Fan/Legend/Person.They don’t make people or fans like him him anymore.
Mr.S,
Let me get this straight—You feel that teams like Greenwich, New Canaan, Central and Staples would rather win the league title over a State title. Shame on you and anyone else that thinks that way. I strongly disagree with that statement.