With the recent dominance of Staples and Greenwich, FCIAC football seasons have been largely anti-climactic, with a handful of big games. One of the two schools has appeared in the league title game the last nine years, and last season the two teams met on Thanksgiving morning for the title, denying fans of other schools playing that day the chance to watching the championship game.
Could this be the second year in a row this happens? And could we end up with a New Canaan-Darien final, one of the FCIAC’s biggest rivalries.
There is a long way to go, but fans in both towns have to at least be dreaming a little following the Blue Wave’s 31-25 upset of Greenwich today, which ended the Cardinals’ 15-game winning streak. With New Canaan routing Ridgefield on Friday night, 40-13, after two weeks the two schools are thus far the class of the league.
The fallout from Greenwich’s loss will be felt all week. But don’t book your calendars just yet. The FCIAC season is a marathon, not a sprint. Both Darien and New Canaan still have to play both Staples and Wilton, two schools that could also have a say in the playoff race. And don’t write off Greenwich just yet. New Canaan, in one of the many quirks in this year’s schedule, plays 2-0 Danbury at home next week, its third straight game at Dunning Field, then is on the road for six straight weeks (Stamford plays its first four games on the road — who made these schedules?).
It takes at least three weeks to get a real feel for the league, and right now this could be the most wide-open playoff race in recent memory.
But as we close the book on Chapter 2, a Darien-New Canaan FCIAC final that would be heavily trumpeted and draw a huge crowd at this point looks like a real possibility.
What do you think? Post your thoughts.
