St. Joseph’s 14-0 shutout victory at home over second-ranked Darien last Saturday during the opening weekend of the high school football season impacted the second GameTimeCT Top 10 Football Poll significantly.
Two things which remain the same are that Greenwich remains No. 1 and the FCIAC still has the state’s top two ranked teams, with New Canaan ascending two spots up to No. 2.
But the big difference in this week’s poll from the previous preseason poll is that St. Joseph is now in the Top 10 and Darien is out.
St. Joseph, which received the 15th most polling points in the preseason poll, vaulted up six spots to No. 9 and even received a first-place vote from one of the 24 voting members of the media.
Darien received the 11th most polling points.
The FCIAC has four teams in this week’s Top 10 as Trumbull is ranked eighth.
Greenwich senior Jack Wilson scored three touchdowns on 1-yard quarterback sneaks and Jack Konigsberg had a pair of touchdown runs to help lead coach Anthony Morello’s Cardinals to a 34-14 Friday night victory at Newtown. Greenwich received 22 first-place votes and 710 polling points.
New Canaan got 598 polling points while moving up to No. 2. Hunter Telesco scored all four touchdowns, three of them rushing, to lead coach Lou Marinelli’s Rams to a 31-0 victory at Xavier.
Shelton moved up five spots to No. 3 after its impressive 55-14 victory at home over Ridgefield.
Killingly moved up two spots to No. 4 and received a first-place vote after its 48-0 victory over Montville.
Maloney (1-0), Fairfield Prep (0-1) and Southington (1-0) are ranked 5-7, respectively.
Rowan Johnston scored seven touchdowns and his sixth rushing TD from 3 yards out with 0:03 left in the game gave Trumbull an exhilarating 49-43 victory at Masuk after the host Panthers scored on a two-point conversion to take a 43-42 lead with 0:26 . Coach Marce Petroccio’s Eagles climbed up one spot from last week’s poll to No. 8.
St. Joseph and Darien shut each other out through the first three quarters before St. Joseph quarterback Will Singewald threw a pair of touchdown passes to Brandon Hutchinson to give coach Joe DellaVecchia’s Cadets the big 14-0 victory which catapulted them up to No. 9.
Ansonia (1-0) follows St. Joseph as the final team in the Top 10.
Darien, the fifth FCIAC team among the state’s top 11, is the only conference team among the 19 total teams in the “Also receiving votes” category.
This week the conference season begins in earnest as all 16 FCIAC teams play against another conference opponent in the eight games.
There are six more matchups this season involving those five FCIAC teams now ranked among the top 11.
St. Joseph plays all three of the other teams after having that big opening home win over Darien.
Top-ranked Greenwich has three consecutive showdowns among the other top teams from Oct. 14-29.
Those six showdowns, in the order of the dates they’re scheduled, include St. Joseph at Greenwich on Oct. 14 (7 p.m.), Trumbull at Greenwich on Oct. 20 (7 p.m.), St. Joseph at New Canaan on Oct. 28 (7 p.m.), Greenwich at Darien on Oct. 29 (2 p.m.), and the two annual Thanksgiving Day rivalry games on Nov. 24 in which New Canaan travels southbound across the town border to Darien (10 a.m.) and Trumbull plays at St. Joseph (10:30 a.m.).
Listed below is this week’s schedule of the eight FCIAC games:
Friday
New Canaan at Brien McMahon, 7 p.m.
Norwalk at Fairfield Warde, 7 p.m.
Stamford at Danbury, 7 p.m.
Wilton at Fairfield Ludlowe, 7 p.m.
Greenwich at Ridgefield, 7 p.m.
Saturday
Staples at St. Joseph, 1:30 p.m.
Bridgeport Central at Darien, 1:30 p.m.
Trumbull at Westhill, 2:30 p.m.