Last week, when Darien was ranked very high in both the state’s coaches and media high school football polls, the Blue Wave took to the road to take on an excellent St. Joseph team which was No. 1 in both polls. Darien was most impressive and emerged with a 22-7 victory. Saturday at St. Joseph’s Dalling Stadium.
So, as expected, coach Rob Trifone’s Darien Blue Wave has leap-frogged over St. Joseph and Greenwich and into the top spot in both of the Week 4 polls.
Darien, which has won the previous three state Class LL championships, improved to 3-0 this season.
Saturday’s game was a showdown of No. 1 vs. No. 2 from the coaches poll as the host Cadets and Darien were ranked first and second, respectively, in The Day of New London Top 10 Coaches Poll.
Darien was ranked third in last week’s Week 3 GameTimeCT/Register Top 10 Football Poll behind second-ranked Greenwich, which was third in the coaches’ poll.
Greenwich (2-0), which was idle last weekend, is now No. 2, and St. Joseph (2-1) slipped back three spots to No. 4 in both polls.
Darien received 11 first-place votes and Greenwich got the other two in the coaches’ poll, in which four FCIAC teams are ranked among the top six.
Daniel Hand (3-0) is ranked third, Shelton (3-0) is just behind St. Joseph and ranked fifth while New Canaan (2-1) is that fourth FCIAC team among the top six.
Newtown (3-0) is ranked seventh and followed by East Hartford (3-0), Ansonia (3-0) and Southington (3-0) in the coaches’ poll.
Darien received 17 of the first-place votes to lead a contingent of three FCIAC teams in the top four, and four conference teams in the top seven in the Register poll, voted on by 31 members of the media.
Greenwich received 10 first-place votes and third-ranked Hand got the other four first-place votes in the media poll, which was identical to the coaches’ poll with the top five teams.
East Hartford is No. 6 and New Canaan is No. 7 as the fourth FCIAC team among the top seven in the media poll.
Newtown is eighth and followed by Naugatuck (3-0) and Southington in the media poll.
Staples improved to 3-0 with a 38-14 home victory over Brien McMahon. The Wreckers received the 21st most points in the coaches’ poll, the 23rd most points in the media poll and they are the only other team from the FCIAC which received votes in both polls.