SPB's High School Football

Pomperaug and Masuk have both qualified for the SWC Football Championship.

(That was easy.)

Nov. 19 at Arum Field in Southbury, 7 p.m.

I was a tad perplexed by the venue change to Pomperaug. More on that in a bit.

Meanwhile, Let the hype begin.

Update: From Dave Johnson, the Bunnell Athletic Director and one of the SWC’s chairmen:

He says the SWC has three championship sites it likes to rotate between (to keep the title game in-house and not at a foreign school): Bunnell, Brookfield, Pomperaug.

When the Brookfield field issue from last year was corrected, the SWC ADs scheduled the game for Brookfield. However, the Brookfield board of education had booked parent-teacher conferences on the same night as the SWC title game a long time ago. It wasn’t noticed until recently. If anybody knows, cars representing every child will be at those two schools on that night. Not ideal by any stretch, especially at Brookfield, where cars cram along the narrow road for a big game.

They would have gone to Bunnell, but it also has parent-teacher conferences that night, so that plan was nixed.

Pomperaug was available. They put it back at Pomperaug. Johnson said he has heard no complaints, especially from Masuk. “None at all,” he said.

First thing’s first on this Monday morning afternoon is to get the FCIAC football championship scenario out of the way.

It looked pretty simple and, for the top two teams it really is: win and get in.

But in the interest of keeping everybody interested in their team’s possibilities, I stayed up to figure this whole thing out. And it got more and more convoluted as the minutes, and hours ticked away.

By the time I was done, waaaay past my bedtime and, by the time 3 a.m. rolled around I think my brains were oozing out of my ears. (Yeah, I know. Boo hoo.)

So with that self sacrifice, we can finally take a good look at the FCIAC playoff standings going into the ninth and final week of the league regular season is as follows:

FCIAC PLAYOFF STANDINGS

Here’s the Week 9 FCIAC schedule:

FRIDAY
Darien at Norwalk, 6
New Canaan at Central, 6
Ridgefield at Wilton, 6
Fairfield Warde at Danbury, 7
St.  Joseph at Greenwich, 7
Staples at Trumbull, 7
Trinity Catholic at Stamford, 7

SATURDAY
Fairfield Ludlowe at Westhill, 1:30 p.m.

MONDAY
Harding at Bassick, 4 p.m.

The FCIAC title game will be played Friday, Nov. 20, 7:30 p.m. at Fujitani Field in Wilton.

THE SCENARIOS…

Here’s  the short, short version of what needs to happen:

The bottom three teams have been eliminated (ok, duh).

1. NEW CANAAN: Win and it gets in.

New Canaan also gets in with a Staples loss (Ridgefield, Staples and St. Joseph t be able to catch the Rams in points.

2. STAPLES: Win and it gets in.

A Staples loss puts New Canaan in.

A loss, and Staples would need New Canaan to win and St. Joseph to lose. A St. Joseph win would eliminate Staples. If St. Joseph loses and Ridgefield wins, the Wreckers can outpoint Ridgefield if either Trinity or Westhill win.

3. CENTRAL: Needs to win. Then they need either a Staples loss (clinch), or two victories from the following teams: Stamford, Westhill, Greenwich or Danbury to clinch.

4. ST. JOSEPH: Needs to beat Greenwich and then have New Canaan win and Staples lose. In that case, the Hogs would only need Wilton to beat Ridgefield, or get one win from Darien, Stamford or Ludlowe to clinch over the Tigers.

5. RIDGEFIELD: The Tigers need New Canaan to win, Staples to lose, St. Joseph to lose and then must get wins from both Stamford and Ludlowe to outpoint Staples.

If Staples and New Canaan both lose, New Canaan and Central will qualify and play again. (Staples, Ridgefield and St. Joseph can’t catch 1-loss Central or New Canaan in points).

Everybody got that?

Good.

Now all of this will go to waste when New Canaan and Staples both win. But whatever. At least we know.

New Canaan's QB Turner Baty pushes through a tackle by Greenwich's Colin Bawol during first half action as Greenwich High hosts New Canaan High in a football game Friday night, Nov. 6, 2009.

New Canaan's Chris White (9) jumps for joy after New Canaan came back to beat Greenwich 35-34 at Cardinal Stadium Friday night. New Canaan rallied from a two-touchdown deficit to extend its winning streak to 24 games.

Thrills! Chills! Spills! Dominating performances. Quick strikes. Big Stops. Clutch comebacks.

And — what can I say? — one crazy, gutsy, ballsy play call by New Canaan. Down 34-33 with a minute left, they go for two and then get it on one of the wildest pass plays you’ll ever see:

A flea flicker (I guess, it was more of a second handoff) from (quarter?) back Willie Ouelletteto QB Turner Baty, who threw to wide open Kevin Macari in the right end zone for the go-ahead score.

It was a play Lou and Crew stole from the Paul Lane years at Staples. “Paul used to beat us all the time with that stupid play,” coach Lou Marinelli said.

Wow.

But wait…

…this one wasn’t over.

Greenwich had three time outs and drove right back down the field and into New Canaan territory with half a minute left for a winning field goal attempt.

That’s when this classic took a slight turn toward infamy… at least, that was my initial impression.

Just has being pushed hard out of bounds by two defenders, back Camryn Ferrara appeared to retaliate with a sharp shove to a New Canaan player’s facemask. He was hit with a personal foul, which was met with obvious scorn from Greenwich coach Rich Albonizio. Then another player muttered something to the referees and — bang — another penalty, this time killer personal foul. They set the stunned Cardinals back 30 yards and all but deflated their comeback hopes.

A few incomplete passes and a sack later touched off a wild New Canaan celebration on Greenwich’s turf.

It was the No. 1-ranked, defending FCIAC and three-time defending Class MM state champion Rams’s 24th consecutive victory and its first over Greenwich in four tries.

Not only did Greenwich — which pretty much dominated the first three quarters and led 34-21 with 8:29 remaining — lose its first home game since Staples on Thanksgiving 2006, but it also saw its FCIAC and (perhaps worse) Class LL playoff hopes vanish in a puff of smoke.

On second glance at the penalties, they were both justified. The first, an intentional jab to a facemask, was worth the flag. The second, an inappropriate comment directed toward the head referee, was a loss of composure and definitely worth another flag.

So the Cardinals have now lost two games this year… by one point each.

Crushing, to say the least.

As for New Canaan, well they’re on the fast track to a second-consecutive FCIAC playoff berth. They travel to Bridgeport next Friday to take on 7-1 Central. Winner likely plays for an FCIAC title (St. Joseph and Ridgefield are behind in points).

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We’ll have an expanded highlight reel later. But here’s an exclusive look at the final 8:29 of the game (Channel 12 and 3 bolted after the third quarter, MSG’s highlights wont be up until later).  Also included are interviews with many of the key players in this absolute classic encounter between two of the FCIAC’s most storied programs.

(This clip consists of the final four drives of the game, beginning with New Canaan. A word of advice, you may want to have your finger on the pause button to catch down and distance on some of these situations. Also, I was cutting tape after every Greenwich play, so most of the first crucial Greenwich penalty is cut.)

Behold…

(By the way, I absolutely love MSG’s Gene Golda in the background during the New Canaan timeout: “They’re not going to go for two…”)

Anyway, looking at the CIAC Playoff Points through Friday night, Greenwich is all but out. Though Newtown lost to New Fairfield (big win for the Rebels), many other 1-loss teams did not.

Central won, Ridgefield won, Hamden struggled but eventually put Lyman Hall away. Xavier plays 0-7 Fairfield Prep tonight. Cheshire, as we know, had its key game with West Haven postponed to Nov. 21.

Of the Class LL’s only two remaining unbeatens, Glastonbury won and is now practically untouchable at 8-0; Staples (7-0, and also a frontrunner for the FCIAC title game) plays Wilton this afternoon.

It’s going to be real tight, if those two win out. Ridgefield has winnable games vs. Danbury and Wilton, but is woefully short on points. Central, of course, has its huge game with New Canaan next week. A win would pretty much give the Hilltoppers a playoff spot. Then there’s Hamden, which will probably need to beat Notre Dame-WH, and Xavier, which will need to beat West Haven. A Staples loss to Greenwich on Thanksgiving would knock the Wreckers into a dogfight for that final spot.

Foof, my head hurts.

Bethel's Brandon Schmidt pulls away from Masuk defenders on a long gainer during their SWC football game Friday night at Bethel High.

The Wildcats trailed by just 35-34 midway through the fourth quarter. It couldn’t seal the deal. Casey Cochran, who had an absolute monster night with 400+ passing yards, threw a 32-yard TD pass to Anthony Giaimo to put the Panthers up 42-34. After Bethel failed to convert a fourth and long, it got the ball back with just over a minute left. But Jon Testani picked off Bill Ramirez to seal up an 8-0 Masuk record.

Unless Barlow can somehow derail Pomperaug today, it looks more and more like that SWC showdown will happen in two weeks. Bethel (6-2) is down, but not out in the Class M playoff race. Needs to win and hope for now.

Ansonia stayed frosty in Class S with a big win over St. Paul. Biggest play in that game? Montrell Dobbs knocking the ball out of a St. Paul receiver’s hands – Don Bebe v. Nate Newton style — right as he was about to cross the goal line with a long touchdown pass. Took all the intrigue out of what was a 45-29 Ansonia win. The Chargers are now No. 4 in Class S.

Finally, it was an offensive showcase over at Law Field, where Geremy Grate of Platt Tech and Justin May of Bullard-Havens ran up and down the field, scoring six TDs EACH in their game. But Bullard-Havens won, 54-42 in a CSC barnburner.

That heat St. Joseph feels on its neck are the rolling Tigers. Now just points behind the Cadets. While the Tigers get Wilcox Tech and Bassick to end their year. St. Joseph gets Greenwich and Trumbull.

The Hogs couldn’t get any help from Seymour, which had Wolcott beat until it succumbed to fourth-quarter scoring barrage.

…St. Joseph is going to have to take care of business on the field, it appears.

That’s all for now. A couple of intriguing games today. Look back here for our live scoring blog around noon.

Until then.

So I’m sitting there with a the Guide to the Games, right? It’s filled with all but one game.

Randolph (N.Y.) at Fairfield Ludlowe. So I do a Google search, and come up with a Randolph waaaaay up in Cattaraugus County — its a town of, something like 3,000 people. I mean this place is closer to Erie, Pennsylvania than anywhere else. So I scratch my head, do another Google search and find the school’s website.

Ah, here it is. The varsity football team is … playing in the Sectional Finals Friday vs. Maple Grove? This can’t be the right school. So I check MaxPreps … nothing the quell the controversy there. I check Ludlowe’s website. Sure enough, it says right there: Saturday, 3 p.m. vs. Randolph, N.Y.

Flummoxed, I finally did what any good reporter should have done in the first place: Call head coach Matt McCloskey.

“No, no,” McCloskey says. “We’re playing the Harlem Hellfighters. …Don’t you ever watch ESPN?”

Sorry. I must have missed… what are you saying?

And then Matt launches into a brief history of his team’s Saturday opponent and… woah, it caught my attention.

It’s an inner city co-op football team, named after the 369th Infantry Regiment of New York, the first African-American regiment of World War I. It was started in 2002 by a former NFL receiver named Duke Ferguson and consists of kids from all over Harlem and upper Manhattan.

“Do a Google search, you’ll find out all about them,” McCloskey says.

I do, and voila! There it is, all the information I’ll ever need, including a feature-length documentary on the fledgling program — which I’d actually seen on MSG a few years ago. (Had I done a Google search on Randolph High School New York, by the way, I would have found it. Randolph, aka A. Philip Randolph Campus High School is the Hellfighters’ current affiliation in New York, used by the CIAC to get an appropriate class size.)

Here actually, is a CBS report on the Hellfighters and the documentary’s filmmaker from two years ago:

Oh yeeeah… The Harlem Hellfighters.

They’re coming to Ludlowe?

Well, apparently McCloskey couldn’t find a good opponent in Connecticut, so he asked around and, with some help from Ludlowe AD Dave Schulz and New Canaan coach Lou Marinelli, he was put in touch with Ferguson, whose team hadn’t played a game in almost two seasons because of an ongoing battle with New York’s PSAL.

They needed a game, Ludlowe needed a game. Now, on Saturday, we have a game — Harlem’s first since 2007

So, if you’re not busy on Saturday, this would be a great chance to see this intriguing clash of cultures. If anything, come see The Harlem Hellfighters’ triumphant return to the gridiron.

Welcome back to the live high school football scoring update portion of site. This week is a pretty big one, too. Not as big as Week 9 should be, but pretty close what with New Canaan taking on Greenwich and Masuk traveling to Bethel.

We’ll be out and about, too, trying to get you updates from these and all of the other regional games we’re covering. Of course, as you all should know by now: We can’t be everywhere. We need your help.

So, here’s the drill. If you are at a high school football game (preferably one we aren’t covering) and want to send updates it’s pretty simple if you have a mobile phone.

1. Get a Twitter account (go to Twitter.com).
2. “Tweet” scoring updates (not play-by-play) from your game.
3. Add the following at the end of your tweet: #ctfb.
4. Send your tweet and it will show up on the live blog.

If you have internet capabilities from your phone, great. But you can also tweet using text message. Just go to “settings” and then hit the “mobile” tab on the Twitter webpage and give them your phone number. Then text your update to 40404 and it will show up.

I know. Lots to digest, but give it a try and you’ll find it’s pretty easy.

Now, let’s get down to brass tax for Week 8:

Here’s your CIAC scoreboard

Here are all the radio/internet broadcasts for Friday night (if the updates aren’t showing up below, be our guest and Tweet what you hear on the internet).

Law at Branford, Friday, 7 p.m. — WAVZ 1300-AM (ESPNRadio1300.com)
New Canaan at Greenwich, Friday, 7 p.m. — WGCH 1490-AM (WGCH.com) or Wstcwnlk.com (WSTC 1400-AM and WNLK 1350-AM) (foof, that’s going to be one crowded press box).
Notre Dame-WH at Foran, 7 p.m. — Sportingnewsct.com
Shelton at Amity, 7 p.m. — Sportingnewsct.com
Naugatuck at Woodland, 7 p.m. — WATR 1300-AM (watr.com)

Cheshire’s football team is out of commission this week.

About “half” of the Rams have come down with as-yet unidentified illness, according to SCC Commissioner Al Carbone, who spoke to Cheshire officials today.

Cheshire’s Friday night football game at West Haven has been postponed to Saturday, Nov. 21 (also at 7 p.m.).

Carbone said Cheshire High is dealing with this on a team-by-team basis. So far only the football team has been affected. All other athletic events are still on as scheduled.

Looks like we have ourselves a new playoff proposal in the works from your friends, and mine, on the CIAC football committee.

The Connecticut football think tank, headed by playoff maven Steve Filippone of Hand-Madison, took this refurbished proposal to the rest of its peers on the football committee (minus a few absentees) Tuesday night and laid out their latest terms:

I don’t have the hard numbers here, but from what I’m told, this is what it entails: One more week. Four more teams. Two less champions.

Hmmmm, now that sounds oddly familiar.

It sounds just like something we here on the Connecticut Post and Friends football committee have been proposing for at least two seasons now.

It sounds just like our Playoff Neighborhood of Make Believe which first appeared here in 2007 and, a year later, culminated with this post in 2008

Remember this rallying cry? “One more week! Three state championships!”

The only difference in the latest proposal? It asks for four, not three, divisions.

OK, I’m all for compromise. Just call me Virginia.

Everything else looks like the same: The regular season would end Thanksgiving, placating everyone looking for those huge gates and keeping it the greatest day in Connecticut sports. Then teams would go, Tuesday, Saturday, Saturday for the playoffs.

I’m sold.

Back it. Push it through. Give this to us.

Now.

First of all, we’ll get more participation (a key point in Filippone’s playoff philosophy) 32 up from 24. …We’ll lost two irrelevant bowls and have four pretty legit champs And we’ll get lots more playoff intrigue. Plus we’ll get an extra week of football.

Feel free to start the hockey and basketball seasons at the same time, during state championship week. There will be only eight schools missing players. I know you don’t like overlap, but this is no big deal, CIAC.

In the interest of helping push this through, we’re going to publish hypothetical new proposal playoff standings if they existed now.

So what we did was throw all 142 Connecticut football teams back into the pot and then divided them equally into four classes as best we could. Then we took the current 2009 playoff points and applied them to the new divisions.

Now, this hypothetical is imperfect. The playoff points under the new system will be slightly different than the ones you see here because the point structure will be different under four divisions. (In the current system, Class SS and S teams get 120 points for beating Class L and LL schools, and 110 for beating Class MM and M schools; Class MM and M schools get 110 points for beating Class L and LL schools. This will have to be changed under the new format.)

But whatever. It’ll only be a difference of a few points and, maybe, a couple of spots.

Besides, we’re all about the broad picture. We can deal with the specifics once we push this bad boy through.

First off… here is how the Classes would look, more or less. There are 142 schools, so two divisions are going to need one less. We went 36, 36, 35, 35 then adjusted around the divisions. Class LL got 35, Class L 36, Class M 35, Class S 36. Not sure how the CIAC does it, but here’s what we came up with.

LIST OF THE HYPOTHETICAL FOUR CIAC FOOTBALL DIVISIONS
Team, 2008 enrollment, current playoff class

The final step is to take playoff points from this year and then adjusting to see where the teams, more or less, would stand through Week 7 under the new proposal.

Here’s what we came up with:

CLASS LL

So… if the season ended today (and remember, this is through Week 7 … so it wouldn’t end today), here’s what you would get in Class LL:

No. 8 Newtown at No. 1 Glastonbury
No. 5 Cheshire at No. 4 Simsbury
No. 7 Central at No. 2 Staples
No. 6 Hamden at No. 3 Xavier

CLASS L

So… if the season ended today, here’s what you would get for Class L:

No. 8 East Lyme at No. 1 Pomperaug
No. 5 Conard at No. 4 Masuk
No. 6 St. Paul at No. 3 Vinal Tech
No. 7 Notre Dame at No. 2 New Canaan

CLASS M

So… if the season ended today, here’s what you would get in Class M

No. 8 Ledyard at No. 1 New London
No. 5 Bethel at No. 4 Berlin
No. 7 Foran at No. 2 Avon
No. 6 Coventry at No. 3 Wolcott

CLASS S

So… if the season ended today, here’s what you would get in Class S

No. 8 Cromwell at No. 1 Holy Cross
No. 7 Bullard-Havens at No. 2 Bloomfield
No. 6. NWCatholic at No. 3 Montville
No. 5 East Catholic at No. 4 St. Joseph

I can’t stress this enough: this is what the playoff races would look like with three weeks to go and not a picture of the finish line. Many more teams are involved, all with a legit chance to perhaps capture the No. 7 or 8 spots. We’d have a few clinchers already, but they’d still be battling for seeding, which becomes very important in most classes.

By the way, I don’t see many 0ne-loss teams fearing for their playoff lives in this. Class LL is an exception, but with three weeks left, it’s of minor concern. Once you see the season shake out, you’d see most deserving teams getting in.

Questions? Concerns? I’d love to hear them.

Personally, I love this.

Let’s do it.

After a week hiatus, we’re coming back with the live chat tonight, this time at 7 p.m. to avoid bumping into Game 6 of the World Series.

Since Dave will be busy watching FCIAC soccer, I’ll be going it alone again. This means be patient with your questions, only the best ones will be chosen. Lots to talk about with New Canaan-Greenwich, Ridgefield-Trumbull and Masuk-Bethel coming up this week.