That perennial FCIAC football strength was prevalent again with five teams being ranked among the top nine in both final state football polls – specifically highlighted by Staples and New Canaan winning state championships in the two largest state class football playoffs and being ranked 1-2 in both polls.
The Staples Wreckers of fourth-year coach Adam Behrends lost their opening game to West Haven, then won their next 12 games and avenged that only loss with a dramatic 21-20 victory over West Haven in the championship game of the 2023 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Football Playoffs.
It was in 1982 when a young head coach, Lou Marinelli, guided New Canaan to the first state championship in school history with a 20-12 victory over Naugatuck in the Class L-II final. And it was 41 years later, on Dec. 9, when Marinelli’s Rams defended their CIAC Class L title with a 28-21 victory over Darien to give Marinelli his 14th state championship.
Staples and New Canaan both rebounded with opening-week losses and finished their seasons with 12-game winning streaks and 12-1 records.
More evidence of the strength of FCIAC football this year was the fact that two more conference teams – Darien and Wilton – each won two games to advance to the finals in their respective state class playoffs.
Staples, New Canaan, Greenwich, Wilton, and Darien were those five FCIAC teams ranked among the top nine in both polls.
Staples received nine of the 13 first-place votes and 380 polling points to be voted No. 1 in the final Hartford Courant Top 10 State High School Football Coaches’ Poll. New Canaan received two first-place votes and 362 polling points, and No. 3 North Haven (11-2) got the other two first-place votes and 348 points.
Staples received 21 first-place votes and 770 points from the 24 voting media members to get the No. 1 ranking in the Final 2023 GameTimeCT Top 10 Football Poll. New Canaan got the other three first-place votes and 718 polling points to finish with 40 more points than Class MM state champion North Haven.
The coaches’ poll and the media poll both had the same top six teams in the same exact order, concluding with Greenwich ranked No. 6.
The two Top 10 polls were not in agreement on any of the final four spots and it was a vice-versa situation involving Wilton and Darien as they both were ranked seventh in one poll and ninth in the other.
The final Hartford Courant Top 10 State High School Football Coaches’ Poll, in order, was: Staples (12-1), New Canaan (12-1), North Haven (11-2), West Haven (10-3), Maloney (10-2), Greenwich (10-2), No. 7 Wilton (10-3), Windsor (10-2), Darien (9-4), and Class M state champion Daniel Hand (12-1).
The order of the Final 2023 GameTimeCT Top 10 Football Poll was: Staples, New Canaan, North Haven, West Haven, Maloney, Greenwich, No. 7 Darien, Daniel Hand, Wilton, and Class S state champ Bloomfield (11-1).
Greenwich’s Cardinals won the Class LL state championship last year with a 37-17 victory over Fairfield Prep. They were voted No. 1 in the final GameTimeCT poll for 2022, voted No. 1 again in this season’s preseason poll and they maintained that ranking all year until their 24-13 home loss to Staples on Thanksgiving. Greenwich was eliminated by West Haven, 26-13, in this year’s Class LL semifinals.
Staples was voted No. 1 in both of this year’s polls just before the state playoffs and New Canaan was ranked third in the coaches’ poll and fourth in the media poll behind No. 2 North Haven.
This year’s thrilling Staples-West Haven Class LL championship game at Central Connecticut State University’s Arute Field was pretty much decided on one play, an attempt of a two-point conversion with 1:15 remaining in the fourth quarter. Armani Reid’s 2-yard TD reception from quarterback Nick Conlan on fourth down cut West Haven’s deficit to 21-20 and gave coach Rich Boshea the choices of either attempting a PAT kick which could have tied the game or trying to convert a two-point conversion. Boshea was all in on going for the win. Conlan completed a pass to Reid a few yards away from the goal line on the two-point conversion attempt and Staples senior defensive back Max Maurillo made the big stop when he tackled Reid a yard short of the end zone. Soon after the Wreckers recovered the onsides kick to secure their fourth CIAC state championship and first one since the 2005 Wreckers defended their Class L crown. Staples defeated Seymour, 35-14, in the 2002 Class MM final.
Staples quarterback Caleb Smith rushed for 96 yards on 18 carries against West Haven in this year’s Class LL final and scored all three touchdowns on runs of 7, 2 and 9 yards. After that third TD run from 9 yards out cut the Staples deficit to 20-19 in the fourth quarter, Smith completed the two-point conversion pass to Sam Petrosino for the eventual game-winning points.
Top-seeded Staples nipped No. 8 Fairfield Prep, 13-12, in this year’s Class LL quarterfinals and advanced to the final with a 41-0 shutout over fifth-seeded Southington.
New Canaan had quite the rally late in the Class L championship game as the Rams overcame their 21-14 deficit to Darien midway through the fourth quarter and scored 14 points in the last 5:03 for their 28-21 victory at Rentschler Field in East Hartford.
Alex Benevento, who caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from Luke Robinson to give New Canaan a 14-7 lead in the second quarter, scored the game-winning TD on a 6-yard run with 2:33 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Charlie Thom had a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs for Darien. His first one pulled the Blue Wave into a 14-14 halftime tie and his second one on the first play of the fourth quarter staked Darien to its 21-14 lead. Robinson fired a 12-yard TD pass to Will Langford with 5:03 left in the fourth quarter and Tucker Stevens converted the PAT kick to tie it up at 21-21.
Darien was deep in its own territory and New Canaan’s Ryan Barnard then came up big when his tackle forced a fumble which he recovered at the Darien 16-yard line to set up Benevento’s game-winning 6-yard TD run.
Briggs McGuckin opened the scoring on a 3-yard touchdown run which gave the Blue Wave a 7-0 lead. Darien tight end Kevin Roche caught 12 passes for 135 yards, Thom had nine receptions for 106 yards, and quarterback Ben Rolapp threw for 249 yards.
New Canaan’s second-seeded Rams began their defense of their Class L crown with a 49-14 victory over No. 7 seed Killingly on Nov. 28. Five days later Stevens kicked the Rams into the championship game when was dead-solid perfect on his game-winning 37-yard field goal attempt as time expired in their 11-8 semifinal victory over No. 3 seed Maloney.
Darien went into the CIAC Class L Playoffs seeded No. 8 after its 31-17 loss at New Canaan on Thanksgiving. Coach Andy Grant’s Blue Wave stunned No. 1 seed Naugatuck with a 42-28 quarterfinal victory and then shut out No. 4 seed Newtown, 21-0, in the Class L semifinals.
Coach EJ DiNunzio’s third-seeded Wilton Warriors opened the Class MM playoffs with a 35-14 victory over sixth-seeded Platt and they followed that up with an impressive 35-10 victory over second-seeded Masuk to advance to the final, where they lost to fifth-seeded North Haven, 21-0. Most of the game was close until defending Class MM champion North Haven scored the final 14 points in the fourth quarter after two Wilton turnovers.
The five FCIAC teams ranked in the final polls were five of the seven conference teams which qualified for the CIAC playoffs. The FCIAC fared very well in having a combined 11-5 record for a .688 winning percentage in the three class playoffs. Staples and New Canaan both had 3-0 records, Wilton and Darien were each 2-1, Greenwich had a 1-1 record, and Stamford and St. Joseph both lost their opening quarterfinal games in their respective class playoffs.
Staples and New Canaan never played each other but there were six games during the regular season involving matchups of those five FCIAC teams ranked among the top nine in both final state polls.
Prior to Staples traveling down to Greenwich for that pivotal 24-13 road victory on Thanksgiving, the Wreckers improved to 4-1 with a 29-22 victory at Wilton’s Tom Fujitani Field on Oct. 14.
New Canaan’s Rams improved to 5-1 on Oct. 21 with their 20-13 home victory over Wilton and they ended their regular season with that 31-17 victory over Darien in their annual Turkey Bowl game on Thanksgiving on their own Dunning Field.
Greenwich improved to 5-0 with a 30-14 home victory over Darien on Oct. 14. Wilton and Darien both had a very challenging three-game stretch from Oct. 14-27 which culminated with their showdown against each other. Wilton’s Warriors snapped their two-game losing streak (Staples and New Canaan) and improved to 5-2 with a 24-10 victory at Darien on Oct. 27.
NOTES: Staples was voted No. 1 in the final state poll for the first time since 1975, which was the last year in which there were no state playoffs. The New Haven Register conducted the voting of sports writers and released its final Top 10 poll after Thanksgiving games and conference championship games 48 years ago. Coach Paul Lane’s undefeated ’75 Staples Wreckers won the 10th FCIAC championship game with a 21-7 victory over Brien McMahon to finish 9-0 and maintain the No. 1 ranking they had since Week 7. The first four state championship games took place in 1976 in the LL, L, M and S classes. Fitch defeated Trumbull, 29-7, in the first state Class LL championship game. The following year Jerry McDougall, Trumbull’s legendary coach, guided his ’77 Eagles back to the Class LL championship game and they became the conference’s first state championship team with their 21-20 victory over Hamden.