Overtime

The Staples High School boys soccer team improved to 20-2 this afternoon with an impressive 3-0 shutout of Amity in the quarterfinal round of the CIAC Class LL Tournament.

One of the architects of the Wreckers’ success this season has been Alan Reiter, a center midfielder who is as consistent as a metronome, excellent at both ends of the field and an assured leader.

Reiter was a key to the Wreckers repeating as FCIAC champions and has again played a major role on a talent-laden team that is now two wins away from its 12th state title and first since 1993.

I caught up with Reiter after today’s game, when he discussed the reasons for the Wreckers’ strong performance against Amity and looked ahead to Wednesday’s big showdown with Glastonbury, the team that bounced Staples in last year’s semifinals by overcoming a 1-0 lead on two goals in the final 10 minutes.

Three days later, New Canaan High School football coach Lou Marinelli is still trying to come to terms with one of the worst defeats in his nearly three decades at the school.

The 42-7 loss to Bridgeport Central Friday night cost the Rams their No. 1 ranking in the state, their 24-game winning streak and the chance to defend their FCIAC title.

Central will meet Staples in Friday night’s final at Trumbull.

“I thought it was bad the night of the game, but after looking at the film it was worse that I thought,” Marinelli said this morning. “There was not an aspect of the game we weren’t beaten in. It was an ass-kicking. We lost 55-6 to Jack Cochran in a state final, but this was a physical beating. This exposed a lot of things, and nothing seemed to go right.”

Marinelli said he has second-guessed himself for the way he prepared the team for the game.

“I don’t know if we were tired,” he said. “Maybe I overworked them. I did work them very hard. Maybe it was my fault.”

I was at New Canaan shooting a video with Marinelli last Thursday afternoon, and I said to him as crazy as it seemed given what was at stake, I thought there was the possibility his team could have a letdown. It was coming off a dramatic 35-34 win over Greenwich on a two-point conversion in the final minute in a game that had been hyped all that week. Now his players had to face an unfamiliar opponent they had little history with: the last game between Central and New Canaan was five years ago.

“I didn’t think that was going to be the case, but in retrospect there might have been a hangover from (the Greenwich) game,” he said. “Maybe it was. I was getting dressed in the locker room before the game and a lot of the kids hadn’t gone out yet to stretch. They were talking about things that had nothing to do with the game.”

Marinelli said none of this is meant to take anything away from Central, which was magnificent on both sides of the ball.

“They had the game of their lives that night,” Marinelli said. “It will be interesting to see if they can duplicate it Friday night.”

And where do the Rams go from here? They have their annual Turkey Bowl with Darien on Thanksgiving, and then the Class MM Tournament, in which they will be a decided favorite to win their fourth straight state title, assuming they can regroup from Friday night.

“We have given them a few days off and we will come back Wednesday and really find out what they are made of and what this coaching staff is made of,” he said.

And then there were two.

In one corner is Staples, one of the FCIAC’s perennial powers, owner of a 9-0 record and the league’s best defense.

In the other corner is Bridgeport Central, this season’s darling, coming off a 42-7 rout of defending champion New Canaan, owner of an 8-1 record and the league’s best running attack.

Something has to give.

This poll is pretty simple, who do you think is going to win the title, Staples or Central.

This will be open until Friday at noon. Please feel free to add your comments as well to explain your selection.

Let the countdown to Friday night at Trumbull begin.

The FCIAC decided Saturday morning to move the conference championship football game between Staples and Bridgeport Central from Wilton to Trumbull High School. The contest will still be played Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

League executive secretary John Kuczo said Saturday afternoon that once Boyle Stadium, which usually hosts the game annually, became unavailable because of repairs in the stands, the initial plan was to play at Trumbull’s McDougall Stadium. However, according to Kuczo, Trumbull athletic director Mike Herbst said the field was not an option because of renovations at the school.

The game was then scheduled for Wilton High School.

Once the two spots in the final were wrapped up by Staples and Central on Friday, Kuczo said there were several factors involved in moving the game again. The first, he said, was that Herbst told the league his field was now available. Trumbull can hold around 5,000 people, Kuczo said, about 1,400 more than Wilton.

Kuczo said there were several other considerations involved. Trumbull is more centrally located for the two finalists and, he said, will make it easier for Central’s fans to get to the game. Kuczo also said the setup at Trumbull makes it easier to handle admissions and ticket sales for the large crowd expected.

“Wilton is a great location and they have done a great job with the field there,” Kuczo said. “We just believe there are a number of advantages to playing the game in Trumbull once the field there became an option.”

Central (8-1) secured a berth in the final with a 42-7 win over New Canaan, the No. 1 team in the state and defending league champion, on Friday night. The Hilltoppers barely edged the Rams (8-1) on a points system. If Greenwich had not held off St. Joseph and Stamford not rallied to defeat Trinity Catholic in the final minutes on Friday, New Canaan would have beaten out Central and the league would have had a public relations nightmare.

Staples (9-0) earned a berth with a 34-0 win over Trumbull.

The FCIAC football championship may have been moved to Wilton because of repairs on Boyle Stadium, but Stamford ended up having a prominent say in the title game, particularly by saving the league from what would have been a huge embarrassment.

To get into the final, Bridgeport Central needed to defeat New Canaan tonight and have two of the following four teams win: Greenwich, Stamford, Danbury and Westhill.

The Hilltoppers more than took care of business with their shocking 42-7 rout of the state’s No. 1-ranked team.

Danbury lost to Warde, and Westhill is a decided underdog against Ludlowe tomorrow. But Greenwich held off St. Joseph and Stamford rallied to defeat Trinity Catholic, giving the Hilltoppers just enough bonus points to edge New Canaan for the second spot in the final.

Staples earlier Friday night clinched a berth by defeating Trumbull to remain unbeaten.

If Central had lost out to New Canaan, can you imagine the outcry that would have started tomorrow afternoon? The current FCIAC format at best is an imperfect solution to having a 19-team league. The many flaws would have again been placed under the microscope.

Instead, the Hilltoppers deservedly will be going back to the final for just the second time. It lost to Greenwich in 2004, 42-27.

Hopefully Central’s success will put that microscope where it truly belongs, and that is on Central coach Dave Cadelina. Is there a more underrated coach in the league? In the state?

Cadelina has done an outstanding in building the Hilltoppers into a formidable program since taking over 13 years ago, with a 79-52-1 mark. His teams never underachieve, and give him talent to work with, like this year, and, well, good things happen.

Central was confident it could run the ball against the Rams, was helped by weather conditions ill-suited for New Canaan’s passing attack, and rolled to 333 yards on the ground.

If there was one scene tonight that was indicative of the kind of person Cadelina is, it came in the closing minutes as Central was running out the clock. Several players started to chant “Overrated,” loudly from the sideline.

Cadelina came over and told his team to shut up.

“Win with class,” Cadelina said.

Such words out of his mouth were only fitting.

New Canaan vs. Bridgeport Central
Staples vs. Trumbull
Greenwich vs. St. Joseph
Ridgefield vs. Wilton

Tonight the FCIAC football playoff picture should be finalized.

If the weather is going to deter you from heading out to a game, come back here at 6 p.m. for your constant updates of scores and news, from pregame warmups until the final whistle.

For the past two seasons, the New Canaan High School football team opened with a relatively unknown cast of unproven players and uncertain expectations.

And thus far no one has been able to stop the Rams. They are currently riding a 24-game winning streak, have won three straight state titles and are the defending FCIAC champions.

With a win tomorrow over Bridgeport Central, the Rams will return to the conference final and clinch a state tournament berth. The two teams have not met in five years — Central won and made its only trip to the FCIAC title game.

Coming off a dramatic 35-34 win over Greenwich, the Rams are again faced with another critical contest.

I caught up with Marinelli before today’s final practice for tomorrow night’s game, and he discussed the win over the Cardinals, his decision to go for what proved to be the winning two-point conversion, and what it is going to take to defeat Central.

While football players Silas Redd, Kevin Pierre-Louis and Eric Joyner generate most of the attention, King has a female athlete of equal repute.

Briana Brown has been a star for the Vikings’ volleyball and basketball teams, drawing attention from colleges in both sports. Brown decided she wanted to continue playing basketball, and after initially considering accepting a scholarship to Marshall, Brown changed her mind and will now attend St. John’s.

The 5-foot-9 Brown will now be able to stay close to home, and will get to play with Keylantra Langley, a childhood friend now playing at Lauralton Hall, who also committed to St. John’s, and former Trinity Catholic star Da’Shena Stevens, who is about to start her sophomore season.

Brown signed her National Letter of Intent this afternoon in a ceremony in the King gymnasium. I caught up with her afterword to discuss her decision.