Greenwich has maintained its season-long hold on the No. 1 ranking while fellow FCIAC teams New Canaan and Staples are also ranked among the top five in both the media and coaches Top 10 state high school football polls which were released Nov. 20.
Greenwich, New Canaan, Staples and fellow conference members Wilton and Darien have already secured their postseason berths in the upcoming state playoffs.
Fifteen of the 16 teams in the FCIAC did not play last weekend and they will play their final games of regular season this week, with a dozen of those teams playing in their annual Thanksgiving Day rivalry games Thursday morning with 10 o’clock kickoff times scheduled for all six games.
The outcomes of the Thanksgiving Day games will determine the final seedings for the state playoffs. There will be 48 teams in the state playoffs – eight in each of the six classes.
Greenwich coach Anthony Morello’s defending state Class LL champion and undefeated Cardinals (9-0) were unanimously voted the No. 1 team by all 13 coaches for this current Hartford Courant Top 10 State Football Coaches’ Poll and they received 25 of the 26 first-place votes from the media pollsters in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Football Poll.
Maloney is ranked second in both polls. The 8-1 Spartans lost their only game to Greenwich, 30-28, on their own Falcon Field in Meriden on Sept. 22.
Coach Lou Marinelli’s defending Class L state champion New Canaan Rams (8-1) are ranked No. 3 in the coaches’ poll and No. 4 in the media poll. West Haven (8-1) is third in the media poll and fourth in the coaches’ poll.
Each voter in both polls selects their top 15 teams, in order, and points are tabulated on a 30-28-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-11-10-9-8-7 basis. New Canaan accumulated 306 points and West Haven had 300 in the Courant’s coaches’ poll, while West Haven had 648 points and New Canaan 586 points in the GameTimeCT media poll.
The 8-1 Staples Wreckers of coach Adam Behrend are ranked No. 5 in both polls, having received 566 points in the media poll and 288 in the coaches’ poll. North Haven is ranked No. 6 in both polls.
The FCIAC has four teams among the top eight in the coaches’ poll as coach EJ Dinunzio’s Wilton Warriors catapulted themselves up to No. 8 with a pivotal and very impressive 28-7 victory at Shelton last Friday night which clinched them their berth in the state Class MM playoffs.
The teams ranked 7-10 in the coaches’ poll, in order, are: Windsor (9-1), No. 8 Wilton (8-2), Ansonia (9-0), and Newtown (8-1).
The teams ranked 7-10 in the media poll are: Newtown, Ansonia, Windsor, and Cheshire (7-2). Undefeated Ansonia was the recipient of the one first-place vote not cast for Greenwich.
Wilton received the 11th most polling points in the media poll.
Darien, already in the state Class L playoffs, received the 15th most points in the coaches’ poll and 16th most in the media poll as the FCIAC had two teams in the “Others receiving votes” category in the media poll. St. Joseph tied for the 21st most polling points in the coaches’ poll and the Cadets are ranked 11th in the Class M playoff rankings.
Wilton does not have a Thanksgiving rivalry foe, so the Warriors had to conclude their regular season last Friday. They certainly made the most of the opportunity to qualify for the state Class MM playoffs with a great defensive performance in their 28-7 road victory over a Shelton team which took to its own field with the No. 7 ranking in the previous week’s media Top 10 state poll. Wilton linebacker Todd Woodring contributed to that stellar defense, and on offense and he happened to plow into the end zone for three 1-yard touchdown runs.
Ridgefield travels to Danbury for the only Wednesday night (6 p.m.) rivalry game in the FCIAC.
As for the six Thanksgiving morning rivalry games involving 12 FCIAC teams with 10 o’clock kickoffs: Staples visits Greenwich, Darien plays at New Canaan, Fairfield Ludlowe is at Fairfield Warde, Westhill is at Stamford, St. Joseph is at Trumbull, and Brien McMahon is at Norwalk.
There are three conference teams ranked among the top seven in the CIAC Class LL rankings to determine the seeds for the state playoffs. Greenwich is ranked No. 1 with an average of 166.1 points, Staples (153.3) is No. 3 with 153.3 and Stamford is No. 7 with 98.9.
Several variables are factored in to calculate the teams’ total points – including a team’s overall record, strength of schedule, opponents’ overall team records – and that total is divided by games played to calculate the Points Average which determines the eight playoff qualifiers in each class. For instance, Greenwich’s points total of 1,495 divides to 166.1 and Stamford’s 890 total divides to 98.9.
Coach Donny Panapada has guided quite the resurgence of Stamford’s program the last few years. The Black Knights won one game in Panapada’s first year there two years ago, last year they were 4-6, and if they should improve by three more victories for the second consecutive year with a victory over Westhill (0-9) to improve to 7-3 they will clinch their berth in the Class LL playoffs.
New Canaan (156.7 points average) is ranked second behind Naugatuck (161.7) and Darien (131.7) is No. 5 in the Class L rankings. The New Canaan-Darien game is always special and among the reasons is that it usually determines where one, or both, of these perennially strong programs get seeded for the state playoffs.
Wilton’s Warriors (168.5) finished 8-2 overall to clinch their return trip to the CIAC Class MM Football Playoffs and they are currently ranked No. 2 behind Windsor (163.5) and are just 0.2 of a point ahead of 8-1 Platt (158.3). Eighth-seeded Wilton lost, 14-7, in last year’s Class MM semifinals to a fifth-seeded North Haven team that won the championship with a 51-34 victory over third-seeded Killingly.
Last year Greenwich defeated Fairfield Prep, 37-17, in the 2022 CIAC Class LL Football Playoffs championship game and New Canaan’s Rams captured their title with a 16-13 victory over Maloney in the Class L final.
This year’s quarterfinals take place five days after Thanksgiving on Tuesday, Nov. 8. The semifinals are Dec. 3, a Sunday, and the championship games are Dec. 9, a Saturday.
Greenwich and Staples are already assured of playing at home in the first round of the Class LL playoffs.