SPB's High School Football

It give me great pleasure to let the cat out of the New Haven Register‘s double-secret state writers final poll bag…

This comes as no shock: New Canaan is No. 1

For the first time in school history the Rams have been voted the No. 1 team in Connecticut following a 13-0 season, including the school’s first FCIAC championship in eight years, a third-straight Class MM championship and the seventh state championship in school history (all under coach Lou Marinelli – pictured above with quarterback Nate Quinn). The honor was announced on the New Canaan website.

They are the first No. 1 FCIAC team since Darien in 1992 and the 11th in the league’s history, joining, Trumbull (three times), Stamford (twice), Staples, Darien, Rippowam, Stamford Catholic and Roger Ludlowe.

Despite a broken-down bus, whose faulty hydraulics pushed their anticipated rematch with Darien to 4 p.m., New Canaan beat the Blue Wave 26-7 for the second time in 10 days to finish as one of only two unbeaten teams in Connecticut.

New Canaan beats out Glastonbury, which finished 13-0 with a Class LL victory over Cheshire for the top spot.

TuesdayUpset
Team……………………………….. Points….Last
1. New Canaan (13-0) (20)………….656…….1
2. Glastonbury (13-0) (2)……………618……..3
3. Masuk (12-1)……………………….546…….7
4. New London (12-1)………………..478…….8
5. Brookfield (12-1)…………………..461……10
6. Darien (11-2)……………………….432…….5
7. Cromwell (12-1)……………………386……NR
8. Hillhouse (11-1)……………………364…….2
9. Cheshire (10-3)……………………308……..9
10. Ansonia (12-2)……………………295…….4
Dropped out: Seymour (6).
Others receiving votes:
11. Seymour (11-2),
12. 240; Ledyard (10-3), 206;
13. Hamden (9-3), 195;
14. Crosby (9-2), 142;
15. Newington (10-3), 77;
16. Greenwich (8-3), 47;
17. Bunnell (9-2), 40;
18. Ridgefield (8-3), 27;
19. North Branford (10-2), 21;
20. Rocky Hill (10-2), 20;
21. Newtown (9-4), 14;
22. Hand (7-4),
T23. Montville (9-3)
T23. New Britain (8-3), 8;
T24. Shelton (7-4)
T24. Southington (7-4), 7.
The following voted: Bob Barton, New Haven Register; Bill Bloxsom, Hersam-Acorn; Sean Patrick Bowley, Connecticut Post; Don Boyle, SportingNewsCT.com; Bryant Carpenter, Meriden-Record Journal; George DeMaio, WELI; Mike DiMauro, The Day of New London; Matt Doran, Norwalk Hour; Scott Ferrari, Greenwich Citizen; Noah Finz, WTNH-8; Brian Girasoli, Norwich Bulletin; 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; Paul Nichols, Middletown Press; Mike Pucci, New Haven Register; Dave Ruden, Stamford Advocate; Tom Yantz, Hartford Courant; Jimmy Zanor, Shore Line Newspapers.

6:30 p.m.

COACHES POLL: New Canaan is No. 1
And here’s coaches poll…. an interesting one. A complete flip-flop between Ansonia and Cromwell. Seymour stays in. Hillhouse sticks around at 10. Not bad, though.

Team (first place) record……………Pts…….Last
1. New Canaan (11) 13-0…………….386………1
2. Glastonbury (2) 13-0……………….360………3
3. Masuk 12-1………………………….328………5
4. New London 12-1…………………..288……..10
5. Cromwell 12-1………………………260……..NR
6. Brookfield 12-1……………………..259……….9
7. Darien 11-2………………………….222……….7
8. Cheshire 10-3……………………….191………8
9. Seymour 11-2………………………183……….6
10. Hillhouse 11-1…………………….180……….2
Dropped out: Ansonia (4).
Also receiving votes:
11. Ansonia (12-2), 160
12. Ledyard (10-3), 123
13. Hamden (9-3), 101
14. Crosby (9-2), 58
15. Bunnell (9-2), 33
16. North Branford (10-2), 32
17. Greenwich (8-3), 24
18. Montville (9-3), 21
19. Newtown (9-4), 19
20. Newington (10-3), 18
21. Weaver (8-4), 17
22. Rocky Hill (10-2), 15;
T23. Simsbury (9-3), 8;
T23. Windsor (9-3), 8
T25 Hyde (9-3), 7
T25.Northwest Catholic (8-2), 7
T25. Southington (7-4), 7.
The following coaches voted: Tom Brockett, Ansonia; Jim Buonocore, Ledyard; Dave Cadelina, Bridgeport Central; John DeCaprio, Notre Dame-West Haven; 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.

And so football ends after another crazy football day at the CIAC state championships.

Here’s our coverage of the finals:

Class SS: New London 27, Seymour 18 Seymour can’t beat New London in Sponheimer’s final game

Class MM: New Canaan 26, Darien 6: The New Canaan bus breaks down, delays the championship game, but the Rams finish 13-0, unbeaten for the first time in 40 years.

Class L: Masuk 56, Newington 13 Masuk destroys Newington 56-13 to wins its first title since 1998

Class M: Brookfield 16, Ledyard 14 Brookfield’s Scott Nick Cacace kicks the Bobcats to their first title since 1995.

Class S: Cromwell 14, Ansonia 12 Cromwell rallies to upset the two-time defending champion

Class LL: Glastonbury 28, Cheshire 14. Jordan Brown runs for 208 and Glastonbury defeats Cheshire.

Rank your top 10, including your pick for No. 1.

Congratulations to all the winners, especially our locals, New Canaan, Brookfield and, of course, Masuk. Congrats to everyone else on fine seasons.

Let’s take it easy on the gloating. Like New London’s Richie Vitale said, this is great but it’s only high school football.

We’ll have wrap up columns later. For now, lets just exhale and reflect on a pivotal 2008 year.

SPB

Here’s all we have to offer for this year’s championship slate. The Masuk bus incident kinda put a crimp in our plans, but considering the tragic situation there, we can count ourselves fortunate to be playing, coaching, reading and covering high school football games.

Without further ado, here’s the run-down. And, if you’re stuck home, you can listen to all the games online at sportingnewsct.com (Cheshire-Glastonbury, Masuk-Newington, Seymour-New London, Brookfield-Ledyard), WAVZ 1300-AM (Seymour-NL; Ansonia-Cromwell) and at WSTC 1400-AM/WNLK-1350-AM (New Canaan-Darien).

You can also catch live scoring updates (and all of our stories) at Connpost.com/highschoolfootball.

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Bridgeport is now looking for two head football coaches, not just one.
Bassick coach Dennis Wanzie submitted his resignation Friday, a week after Trent Allen announced his intentions to retire.
Jim Denton, the Bridgeport citywide athletic director, said officially collected both letters of resignation Friday.
Wanzie leaves Bassick just two seasons after taking over for George Loughrey. Last year, Wanzie coached the program to a 1-9 record, including a 20-18 win over Harding for its first victory in 63 games. Bassick went 2-9 this year, its first two-win season since 2001, when it was 2-7-1.
Allen leaves five seasons after taking over for Damon Lewis. He was 5-45, including 1-9 this year. The Presidents snapped a 19-game losing streak with a late-season win over Bullard-Havens.
“I’m burned out,” Allen said two weeks ago, echoing the departing statement of his predecessor. “Now I know what Damon meant.”
Denton declined to comment on Wanzie’s reasons for leaving.
Denton did saythe district has already heard from a number of “highly qualified” candidates, although none who are currently head coaches elsewhere.
“I’ve been very impressed with a number of the people who have been in contact with me for these two jobs,” Denton said.

The state championship games are indeed just 24 hours away. Now that we’ve made our humble picks (and this time we picked them all), what about you?

And, while we’re at it, who fill finish your No. 1 in your picks?

Whaddya got for us?

CLASS LL
No. 1 Glastonbury (12-0) vs. No. 3 Cheshire (10-2), 2 p.m.
at Willowbrook Park, New Britain, 2 p.m.

CLASS L
No. 1 Masuk (11-1) vs. No. 3 Newington (10-2)
at Ken Strong Stadium, West Haven, 7 p.m.

CLASS MM
No. 1 New Canaan (12-0) vs. No. 3 Darien (11-1)
at McDougall Stadium, Trumbull, 2 p.m.

CLASS M
No. 1 Brookfield (11-1) vs. No. 2 Ledyard (10-2)
at Municipal Stadium, Waterbury, 2 p.m.

CLASS SS
No. 1 New London (11-1) vs. No. 2 Seymour (11-1)
at Ken Strong Stadium, West Haven, 2 p.m.

CLASS S
No. 2 Ansonia (12-1) vs. No. 1 Cromwell (11-1)
at McDougall Stadium, Trumbull, 7 p.m.

Read more here on the Connecticut Post Football Page

A school bus carrying members of the Masuk football team has been in an accident on Route 111 near the Route 25 intersection in Trumbull.
The accident occurred some time before 5 p.m. Masuk coach John Murphy didn’t give many details when reached by phone at 5:08, but said his players were being taken to the hospital for examination and would have more details later.
The accident was being covered live on WTNH Channel 8 on the 5:30 news broadcast. A gray pickup truck appeared to have broadsided a school bus on Monroe Turnpike near Trefoil Drive. WTNH reported that there were 37 students on the bus.
It was not known how many buses the team was taking, or if anybody was seriously hurt.
Chris Everone, West Haven’s field manager, said a representative from the coaching staff alerted him to the incident.
“Their coach told me everybody was OK, but they would not be coming down tonight,” Everone said.
Traffic appeared backed up for miles around the interchange.
Masuk’s football team is scheduled to play Newington in the Class L championship game Saturday night at West Haven.

Update: Masuk coach John Murphy said the players involved were examined at the scene and were unharmed.

The driver of the pickup was reportedly in critical condition.

SPB

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The CIAC pairings have been announced and the CIAC looked like it was scrambling for sites this season because Southern Connecticut State backed out earlier this season. A Boyle Stadium rematch of Darien-New Canaan was ultimately nixed, apparently, because of money issues.

Cheshire coach Mark Ecke, at the CIAC luncheon today, made it known he wasn’t happy with the CIAC football committee’s decision to ship his team to New Britain, a CCC town, to play Glastonbury, a CCC school… on a grass field no less.

And Brookfield is headed to Waterbury, which has a new field but virtually no seating at Municipal Stadium.

Oh, and four of the six games are being played in the afternoon at the same time: LL, MM, M and SS. That leaves Ansonia-Cromwell and Masuk-Newington as the only nightcaps.

Other than that, people seemed pretty pleased. More later. Here are your sites.

CLASS LL
No. 1 Glastonbury (12-0) vs. No. 3 Cheshire (10-2), 2 p.m.
at Willowbrook Park, New Britain, 2 p.m. Driving Directions.

CLASS L
No. 1 Masuk (11-1) vs. No. 3 Newington (10-2)
at Ken Strong Stadium, West Haven, 7 p.m. Driving Directions.

CLASS MM
No. 1 New Canaan (12-0) vs. No. 3 Darien (11-1)
at McDougall Stadium, Trumbull, 2 p.m. Driving Directions.

CLASS M
No. 1 Brookfield (11-1) vs. No. 2 Ledyard (10-2)
at Municipal Stadium, Waterbury, 2 p.m. Driving Directions.

CLASS SS
No. 1 New London (11-1) vs. No. 2 Seymour (11-1)
at Ken Strong Stadium, West Haven, 2 p.m. Driving Directions.

CLASS S
No. 2 Ansonia (12-1) vs. No. 1 Cromwell (11-1)
at McDougall Stadium, Trumbull, 7 p.m. Driving Directions

Just like that, we go from Thanksgiving straight to Tuesday’s semifinals and now… we have reached the final day in the 2008 Connecticut high school football season.

The state championship match ups are set. Lots of new faces. Plenty of old faces. Overall, it’s a tremendous field… especially the rematch between You-know-who.

All sites and times will be posted Wednesday morning before noon on the CIAC site here.

And here’s how it all went down…

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