Defending Class LL state champion Greenwich has maintained its No. 1 rankings in the two current high school football state polls while defending Class L state champion New Canaan and Staples are ranked among the top seven in those coaches and media polls.
Fourteen of the 16 FCIAC football teams and many other teams statewide had a midseason off week last weekend.
The top five teams in both the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Football Coaches Poll and the GameTimCT Top 10 Football Poll repeated being in the same exact rankings where they were in the previous week’s two polls.
Greenwich’s 4-0 Cardinals were one of those idle teams for Week 5 last weekend. They were voted No. 1 by a wide margin in both polls and followed by West Haven (5-0), No. 3 Cheshire (5-0), Maloney (4-1), and Newtown (4-0).
That one loss for Maloney’s fourth-ranked Spartans was a 30-28 loss to Greenwich on Sept. 22 on their own Falcon Field in Meriden on Sept. 22.
Greenwich defeated Fairfield Prep, 37-17, in last year’s championship game of the 2022 Connecticut Interscholastic Conference Class LL Football Playoffs. New Canaan won the CIAC Class L state title with a 16-13 victory over Maloney.
Greenwich’s Cardinals were voted No. 1 by 24 of the 26 media pollsters in the current GameTimeCT Top 10, and in the CHSCA Coaches Football Poll they got first-place votes from 11 of the 13 coaches.
It was the No. 6 and No. 7 rankings involving two FCIAC teams which were different from both polls.
New Canaan junior quarterback Luke Robinson threw four touchdown passes, two of them to Andrew Esposito, and Robinson also had a 3-yard TD run to lead the Rams to a 45-7 victory at St. Joseph this past Saturday. That impressed the media voters enough that New Canaan leapfrogged over Staples to move up one spot to the No. 6 ranking and Staples dropped down one spot to No. 7.
That positioning was flip-flopped in the coaches’ poll. The 3-1 Staples Wreckers were idle last week but they moved up one spot to No. 6 and New Canaan’s 4-1 Rams advanced two spots up to No. 7.
Bloomfield (4-0), North Haven (4-1), and Ansonia (5-0) were ranked 8-10 in the CHSCA Football Coaches Poll.
The FCIAC has four teams ranked among the top nine in the current GameTimeCT Top 10. Darien, idle last week with its 4-0 record, advanced one spot up to No. 9.
One voting member of the media voted Ansonia No. 1, which helped the Chargers remain No. 8, and Bloomfield is 10th in the GameTimeCT Top 10.
Along with being ranked ninth in the GameTimeCT Top 10, Darien received the 15th most polling points in the CHSCA Coaches Football Poll.
In addition to Greenwich, New Canaan, Staples, and Darien receiving votes in both polls, Wilton received votes from both polls and three FCIAC teams got votes from one of the polls.
Wilton’s undefeated Warriors (4-0) received the 11th most polling points in the coaches’ poll and 14th most in the media poll.
As for the three other FCIAC teams receiving votes in either of the two polls: Trumbull (2-2) tied for the 18th most polling points out of the 21 teams which received votes in the CHSCA Coaches Poll, while St. Joseph (3-2) got the 21st most and Fairfield Ludlowe (3-1) tied for the 25th most points out of the 26 total teams getting votes in the GameTimeCT Top 10.
In the 2023 FCIAC Football Standings with the overall records for the other eight conference teams: Stamford and Brien McMahon each have 2-2 records, Norwalk and Danbury are 1-3, and Ridgefield, Westhill, Bridgeport Central and Fairfield Warde are 0-4.
Two big games this Saturday with 2 o’clock kickoffs involve four FCIAC teams which received votes in both polls. Darien travels down I-95 to Greenwich and Staples travels northbound across the town border to Wilton High School’s Tom Fujitani Field.
This weekend’s other five conference games include Trumbull at Fairfield Warde (6 p.m.), Ridgefield at Fairfield Ludlowe (6 p.m.), Westhill at Brien McMahon (7 p.m.), and Norwalk at Danbury (7 p.m.) on Friday night, and Stamford travels up to Bridgeport Central for an 11 o’clock Saturday morning kickoff.
Listed below are the results of two previous games and schedule of the 13 upcoming games involving the head-to-head matchups of the eight FCIAC teams which received votes in either of the two current polls:
Friday, Sept. 29
New Canaan 43, Fairfield Ludlowe 0
Saturday, Oct. 7
New Canaan 45, St. Joseph 7
Saturday, Oct. 14
Darien at Greenwich, 2 p.m.
Staples at Wilton, 2 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 20
Greenwich at Trumbull, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 21
Wilton at New Canaan, 2 p.m.
Fairfield Ludlowe at Darien, 1:30 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 27
Wilton at Darien, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 28
Greenwich at St. Joseph, 1:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 3
Trumbull at Staples, 7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 10
St. Joseph at Staples, 7 p.m.
Fairfield Ludlowe at Wilton, 7 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 23
Staples at Greenwich, 10 a.m.
Darien at New Canaan, 10 a.m.
St. Joseph at Trumbull, 10 a.m.