Daniel Hand High School of Madison is your newly crowned No. 1 high school football team in Connecticut.
The Tigers whupped up on No. 1 Xavier 40-20 on Friday in the Game of the Century and earned 20 of 26 first-place votes to leapfrog Staples into the top spot.
Apparently, the voters believe in the Quickening: Beating their No. 1 on the field means bestowing the No. 1 on the vanquisher.
There can be only one.
Anyway, Xavier drops slightly to No. 4 as it prepares to play Amity this week (as an Amity alum, I can say I wouldn’t want to be my Spartans. Good luck with a ticked off Falcons team, boys).
Ansonia also moved up to take Hand’s spot at No. 3. Everything remained pretty much the same. Southington jumps into the No. 10 spot ahead of Berlin.
ADD: The Day of New London coaches poll went a slightly different route. Instead of Staples at No. 2, Ansonia remained ahead and took the No. 2 spot.
Semantics, I say.
Anyway, here you go. Your NEW No. 1 and all the trimmings:
NHR State Media Poll
Dropped Out: Berlin (10).
Other teams receiving votes: Berlin (5-0), 252; Newtown (5-0), 240; Hillhouse (4-1), 170; Middletown (5-0), 164; North Branford (4-0), 143; St. Joseph (4-1), 97; Norwich Free Academy (5-0), 92; Fairfield Prep (4-1), 70; Trinity Catholic (5-0), 44; Farmington (5-0), 18; Hyde (5-0), 14; Wolcott (5-0), 11; New London (4-1), 7.
The following voted: Marc Allard, Norwich Bulletin; Bob Barton, New Haven Register; Bill Bloxsom, Hersam-Acorn; Sean Patrick Bowley, Connecticut Post; Don Boyle, Sporting News CT; Jim Bransfield, Middletown Press; Kyle Brennan, Waterbury Republican-American; Chris Brodeur, Danbury News-Times; Bryant Carpenter, Meriden-Record Journal; George DeMaio, WELI; Mike DiMauro, The Day of New London; Matt Doran, MSG Varsity; Tom Evans, Norwalk Hour; Noah Finz, WTNH-8; Ned Griffen, The Day of New London; John Holt, WFSB-3; Mark Jaffee, Waterbury Republican-American; Ken Lipshez, West Hartford News/New Britain City Journal; Mike Madera, Elm City Newspapers; Joe Morelli, New Haven Register; Dave Phillips, Shore Line Newspapers; Mike Pucci, New Haven Register; Dave Ruden, Stamford Advocate; Tom Yantz, Hartford Courant; Mike Wollschlager, New Haven Register; Jimmy Zanor, Shore Line Newspapers.
The Day Coaches’ Poll
Also receiving votes: Southington (5-0), 112 points; Middletown (5-0), 100; Hillhouse-New Haven (4-1), 83; Newtown (5-0), 79; St. Joseph-Trumbull (4-1), 68; Trinity Catholic-Stamford (5-0), 44; Norwich Free Academy (5-0), 43; Tie, Fairfield Prep (4-1) and New Canaan (4-1), 32; North Branford (4-0), 19; Avon (5-0), 14; Derby (4-1), 9; Barlow-Redding (5-0), 8; Tie, Hartford Capital/Classical/Achievement (5-0) and Wolcott (5-0), 7.
The following coaches voted: Tom Brockett, Ansonia; Jim Buonocore, Ledyard; Craig Bruno, Bunnell-Stratford; Dave Cadelina, Bridgeport Central; Steve Filippone, Hand-Madison; Rob Fleeting, Windsor; Tanner Grove, Montville; Jude Kelly, St. Paul-Bristol; Tim King, Valley Regional-Deep River; Sean Marinan, Xavier-Middletown; John Murphy, Masuk-Monroe; Marce Petroccio, Staples-Westport; Bob Zito, Maloney-Meriden.
was at the hand xavier game. no doubt that hand is the number 1 team in the state right now. dont be surprised to see staples at number 1 at the end of the year.
Using the poll mentality at this time next week West Haven will be #1
Dave: Wake up please!
Hand’s reward for beating X, now they get a talented Westies team, followed by a State Contender North Haven, then ND, and Shelton. How delightful. The SCC is a meat grinder!!!!
What about what Xavier has left:
Amity 2-3
Hillhouse (3 pm Friday) 4-1
Shelton 3-2
West Haven 5-0
Middletown 5-0
SCC stands for “State Championships Conference”
Just saying…….
Hold on… stop everything:
Nobody’s said anything about how awesome it was that I threw I Highlander reference (and video!) in this post to describe Hand’s No. 1 ranking.
C’mon people! That’s sick. Totally apropos. No?