Defending state Class L champion New Canaan is ranked No. 1 while leading a trio of FCIAC teams ranked in the top three spots, and there are four conference teams among the top five in the GameTimeCT 2024 Preseason Top 10 Football Poll which was released Sept. 8.
Darien and defending state Class LL champion Staples are ranked second and third, respectively, while Greenwich is No. 5 as that fourth FCIAC team in the top five.
West Haven is ranked fourth as the highest-ranked team not in the FCIAC while the five teams ranked 6-10 are North Haven, Maloney, Windsor, Daniel Hand, and Bloomfield.
There were 23 voting members of the media who ranked their own top 15 teams in order and the teams compiled their points on a 30-28-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-11-10-9-8-7 basis.
Thirty teams statewide received votes, including three teams from the FCIAC who were among the 20 teams in the Others Receiving Votes category. Wilton received the 16 th most polling points, Stamford got the 24th most and Trumbull the 29th most.
This year’s preseason poll was an example of the difficulty of ranking teams for a preseason poll with the varying amount of diversion regarding how far up and down the polls many respective teams were ranked.
There was irony in that New Canaan got the No. 1 ranking although the Rams received just three of the 23 first-place votes cast, which was much less than the next two teams.
New Canaan collected 632 polling points. Second-ranked Darien received eight first-place votes and 584 points, while No. 3 Staples had the most first-place votes with 10. But there were enough voters who had the Wreckers a bit further down on their ballots that Staples got 541 points.
Fourth-ranked West Haven had 473 polling points, No. 5 Greenwich received one first-place vote and 445 points, just one more point than No. 6 North Haven (444 points), while No. 7 Maloney (438) was the recipient of the other first-place vote.
Such is the nature and disparity of a preseason poll which is basically one that serves as a foundation for the rest of the season’s polls until the season rolls on and the voters gain more clarity regarding who’s who and what’s what for the rest of the 2024 high school football season in Connecticut.
Last year New Canaan finished 12-1 with its 28-21 victory over Darien in the championship game of the 2023 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class L Football Playoffs.
Coach Lou Marinelli’s Rams came back from a 21-14 deficit midway through the fourth quarter by scoring 14 points in the last five minutes of the game.
New Canaan quarterback Luke Robinson fired a 12-yard touchdown pass to Will Langford to help pull the Rams into a 21-21 tie with 5:03 remaining and Alex Benventuro scored the game-winner on a 6-yard TD run with 2:33 left. Darien finished 9-4.
Staples also finished 12-1 with three victories in the state playoffs, culminating with the Wreckers of fourth-year coach Adam Behrends holding off West Haven to win a 21-20 thriller in the CIAC Class LL final. After West Haven’s Blue Devils scored a touchdown very late in the game, they went for a potential game-deciding two-point conversion. They completed a pass a few yards short of the end zone and Max Maurillo, then a senior defensive back for Staples, pounced quickly and made the big tackle for the Wreckers.
Staples was ranked No. 1 and New Canaan was No. 2 in last year’s Final 2023 GameTimeCT Top 10 Football and in the final Hartford Courant Top 10 State High School Football Coaches’ Poll.
New Canaan and Staples are both looking for their 13 th straight win in Friday night’s season openers because they both lost their opening games last year and then reeled off a dozen straight victories en route to their state championships.
The high school football season in the state officially begins with a handful of upstate games Thursday, none of them involving a team from the FCIAC.
The 16 FCIAC teams all open their seasons in 16 separate games, 14 of them Friday night and the other two Saturday, because they are all non-conference games designated as Connecticut High School Alliance games.
Fairfield Ludlowe, Staples, Norwalk, and Darien are the only four FCIAC teams playing their opening games at home on Friday night. Ludlowe hosts Norwich Free Academy, with kickoff scheduled for 6 p.m.
In three games with 7 o’clock kickoffs: Staples hosts Hamden, Darien hosts Cheshire, and Norwalk hosts New Milford at Norwalk’s new home field at Brien McMahon High School due to the construction of a new Norwalk High School over the next handful of years.
Ten FCIAC teams are taking road trips on Friday. Danbury plays at Manchester, Brien McMahon visits New Britain, and Greenwich travels to West Haven in the three games with kickoffs scheduled for 6 p.m. New Canaan travels to Maloney (6:30 p.m.) and Westhill visits Wilbur Cross (6:30 p.m.).
In the five games involving FCIAC teams on the road for 7 o’clock kickoffs: Wilton plays at Masuk, Trumbull is at Notre Dame-West Haven, St. Joseph is at North Haven, Ridgefield is at Hall, and Fairfield Warde is at Warren Harding.
In Saturday’s games in which both FCIAC teams open at home, Bridgeport Central hosts Enfield at 11 a.m., and Stamford hosts Newtown at 1 p.m.