Ridgefield and Norwalk are ranked sixth and ninth, respectively, in the most recent GameTimeCT.com/New Haven Register Boys Soccer State Coaches Class LL-L Poll which was released Oct. 2.
E.O. Smith, with a 7-0 record by the end of last week, received 15 of the 16 first-place votes.
Guilford (8-0) is ranked second, Newtown (7-0-1) received the other first-place vote to grab No. 3 and was followed by Joel Barlow (7-0-1) and Hall (5-0-2).
The last two polls give credence to the strength and balance of the FCIAC with its better teams as there was a bit of a shakeup in the most recent two polls involving the conference teams.
Ridgefield did not receive any votes in the previous poll but the Tigers utilized two big wins, outscoring their opposition by a combined 8-1 margin, including a 2-1 victory over a solid Bridgeport Central team, during the week of Sept. 25-30 to improve to 6-2 and soar up to No. 6 in this most recent poll.
Glastonbury (5-1-1) and Masuk (7-0-1) are currently ranked seventh and eighth, respectively.
Norwalk was the highest-ranked FCIAC team in the previous poll at No. 2 and was a recipient of four first-place votes with a 4-0 record at that point when the voting took place.
But coach Chris Laughton’s Bears went 1-1-1 last week with a 2-1 win at Trinity Catholic, a 1-1 tie at home against Bridgeport Central and then a 1-0 loss at Staples so they are now No. 9. Norwalk had a 5-1-1 record by the end of last week.
South Windsor (5-1) rounded out the Top 10.
The FCIAC has received enough respect from the pollster coaches that six conference teams have received points in the polling. Four of them are among the nine teams in the “Others receiving votes” category.
Stamford received the 13th most points in the polling, coach Dan Woog’s Staples Wreckers caught his fellow voting coaches’ attention with the big win over Norwalk to garner the 15th most points, Trumbull had the 16th most and Bridgeport Central the 19th most points.
Woog, Laughton and Wilton’s Jim Lewicki are the three head coaches from the conference among the 16 voters for the Class LL-L poll.
There are 12 voters who vote on the Class M/S state poll and there are no FCIAC teams in that poll, not surprising given that most of the schools from the FCIAC are large schools in terms of boys’ enrollment which decides the classifications of teams.
