Darien and Greenwich are ranked first and second, respectively, for the eighth consecutive week in the Week 11 GameTimeCT/Register Top 10 Football Poll.
The results have been extremely close between Darien and Greenwich, a pair of powerful and proud programs from the FCIAC, for the last six of these state high school football polls voted on by 29 media members.
Darien has gotten either just one or a few more first-place votes and a minimal amount of points more than Greenwich since the Week 6 poll.
Darien received 13 first-place votes and totaled 828 points while Greenwich received 12 first-place votes and 824 points in this most recent poll which was released Nov. 12.
Daniel Hand received the other four first-place votes and 780 points to earn the No. 3 ranking for the eighth straight week.
Darien, Greenwich and Daniel Hand all have 9-0 records going into the final games of the regular season. Most of the Top 10 teams are idle this week and will play their last games of the regular season on Thanksgiving (Nov. 22).
Greenwich, which had a bye in the season’s fifth week, improved to 9-0 and secured a berth in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Football Playoffs with a 38-7 home victory Wednesday (Nov. 14) over Xavier.
Shelton (8-0) is ranked fourth while St. Joseph (8-1) is fifth as the third FCIAC team among the top five.
The other five teams in the top 10, ranked in order 6-through-10, are: Southington (9-0), Newtown (9-0), Berlin (9-0), Naugatuck (9-0) and New Britain (8-1), which flip-flopped spots with Ansonia (9-0) to crack the Top 10 for the first time this year.
New Canaan and Staples are both 7-2 as the two FCIAC teams among the 15 other teams in the “Others receiving votes” category in this latest Top 10 poll. New Canaan received the 14th most points (233) and Staples tied with Killingly for the 16th most (65).
Darien was ranked No. 3 in the Week 3 poll. And then coach Rob Trifone’s Blue Wave improved to 3-0 with a 22-7 victory at top-ranked St. Joseph and that catapulted Darien to No. 1 and dropped St. Joseph to No. 4 while Greenwich remained No. 2 in the following Week 4 poll.
Darien, Greenwich, Daniel Hand, Shelton and St. Joseph have been the same top five teams in the Top 10 since then.
Darien, Greenwich and Hand have remained in that same exact 1-2-3 order for eight consecutive weeks.
Shelton leapfrogged over St. Joseph into the fourth spot in the Week 8 poll so the top five, in order, of Darien, Greenwich, Hand, Shelton and St. Joseph has remained in that same exact order for the last four weeks.
Shelton is on top in the current CIAC Real-Time Qualifying Tables for the Class LL playoffs with 150 points.
Darien, which is looking to capture its fourth consecutive Class LL state championship, is second with 142.22 and followed by Greenwich with 141.25 points, though that figure did not account for Wednesday’s victory over Xavier.
Southington is fourth with 140 points and followed by Newtown (138.70), Fairfield Prep (126.67), New Britain (120), New Canaan (103.33) and Staples (102.22) in the Class LL rankings.
St. Joseph and Berlin are ranked first and second, respectively, in Class M as they both have 141.11 points. St. Joseph defeated Ansonia, 42-36, in last year’s Class S championship game.
Trifone’s 2015 Blue Wave won the Class LL championship with a 39-7 victory over Shelton. Darien defended its title with a 28-7 victory over fellow FCIAC member Ridgefield in 2016, and last year Darien three-peated with a 31-22 victory over Greenwich.
Thus far this year Darien has scored 316 points for an average of 35.1 points per game and has allowed an average of 6.66 points per game as opponents have totaled 60.
Coach John Marinelli’s potent Greenwich Cardinals have racked up 417 points for an average of 46.33 points per game and allowed an average of just 4.55 points per game (41 total).
St. Joseph has scored 42 points or more in six games and totaled 331 points (36.8 ppg). Coach Joe DellaVecchia’s Cadets have shut out five foes and allowed an average of 5.33 points per game (48 total).
There will be three more GameTimeCT / Register Top 10 football polls this season. The next one will be released early next week prior to the Thanksgiving games. That will be followed by a postseason poll and then the Final Top 10 after the state championship games.