It is on.
The races are now coming down the homestretch of the regular seasons in the field hockey, girls volleyball, girls soccer and boys soccer fall high school sports seasons and teams will be racing after either the higher seedings or to snatch some of the final playoff spots for the upcoming FCIAC tournaments.
All four of those sports have the same formats. Eight teams qualify for the conference tournaments with all of them playing in the opening quarterfinal rounds.
The next couple weeks are the final two weeks of the regular seasons. The FCIAC tournaments commence in late October.
There are anywhere from four to eight games or matches remaining for teams in their regular seasons, dependent on the sport, after the games and matches played through Oct. 10.
There will be a several upcoming showdowns involving top teams trying to earn the No. 1 seed in a couple sports.
The Darien field hockey team, Fairfield Warde girls volleyball team, St. Joseph girls soccer team and Staples boys soccer team all had the best records in their respective sports as of all the games and matches which took place and were reported as of Oct. 10.
Darien’s field hockey team and St. Joseph’s girls soccer team are defending FCIAC champions and in very good position to earn No. 1 seeds.
In field hockey: Darien had a 10-0-0-0 record for 20 points and had three points more than Staples, which had the second most points (17) with an 8-0-0-1 record.
Darien’s senior captain Blake Wilks fired in the goal to give the host Blue Wave a 3-2 overtime victory at home over Staples on Oct. 2 after her junior teammate, Kate Bock, scored a goal early in the fourth quarter to tie it up at 2-2.
That exciting game was a rematch of last year’s FCIAC championship which Darien won, 3-0, for its fifth consecutive conference crown.
Ridgefield was one point behind Staples with 16 points (8-1-0-0) for the third most points and those two teams will face off in the last game of the regular season at Ridgefield on Oct. 24.
New Canaan (7-4-0-0) had the fourth most points with 14 points and was followed by Wilton (12 points with a 6-4-0-0 record, Greenwich (11, 5-2-0-1), Trumbull (10, 5-4-0-0), and Norwalk (4-4-0-0) and Fairfield Ludlowe (4-5-0-0) each had eight points.
In girls volleyball: Fairfield Warde had a 13-0 overall record, defending FCIAC champion Darien was undefeated in 10 matches, and Greenwich was 11-1. Those three teams have yet to play each other.
Darien was lined up for two big matches in a row next week as the Blue Wave will host Greenwich on Monday (Oct. 16) and Fairfield Warde on Wednesday (Oct. 18).
Warde will host Greenwich on Oct. 27 in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Trumbull had a 10-2 record for the fourth best record while the seven other teams contending for a conference playoff berth included Staples (8-2), St. Joseph (7-4), Westhill (6-5), Ridgefield (5-4), Brien McMahon (6-6), Wilton (6-6) and New Canaan (5-5).
The girls volleyball teams had either seven or eight matches remaining in the regular season as of Oct. 10.
In last year’s FCIAC final top-seeded Darien won a 3-2 thriller over second-seeded Trumbull.
In girls soccer: St. Joseph had a 10-0-0 conference record to lead the FCIAC with 30 points.
Staples (8-1-2) had 26 points for the second most as girls and boys soccer teams are awarded three points for a win and one point for a tie.
St. Joseph’s potent Cadets were 11-0-0 overall as of Oct. 10 with an average of 6.2 goals per game, having outscored their opposition by a 68-4 margin with eight victories via shutout.
St. Joseph will play at Staples on Wednesday (Oct. 18) in a rematch of last year’s FCIAC championship which St. Joseph won, 3-1.
St. Joseph (Class L) and Staples (Class LL) then went on to win their state tournaments and were voted No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the Class LL/L category of the final Connecticut Girls Soccer Coaches Polls of the 2022 season. St. Joseph was No. 1 and Staples No. 3 in this season’s latest poll released Oct. 10.
Trumbull, which had 24 points (7-1-3) for the third most in the FCIAC this season, was set to host Staples on Oct. 12.
Fairfield Ludlowe had a 7-2-1 record and 22 points for the fourth most. Greenwich (6-1-3) and Ridgefield (6-2-3) were tied for fifth with 21 points, Brien McMahon’s 5-4-2 Senators had 17 points for the seventh most and were just one point ahead of Darien (5-4-1), New Canaan (5-4-1), and Wilton (5-4-1).
In boys soccer: Staples had 26 points with its 8-1-2 record and was just one point ahead of defending FCIAC champion Trumbull and Greenwich, which had identical 8-2-1 records as of Oct. 10.
Brien McMahon (19 points with a 6-4-1 record) had the fourth most points and was one point ahead Fairfield Warde (18, 5-3-3).
Danbury and Darien both had 4-3-4 records and were tied for the sixth most points with 16 apiece.
Stamford and Westhill were both 4-3-3 and tied for eighth with 15 points.
Staples was unbeaten in its first 10 games before getting shut out at Fairfield Ludlowe, 2-0, on Oct. 10. That huge upset victory by Ludlowe’s 4-5-2 Falcons gave them 14 points for the 10 th most and kept their hopes alive for snatching a final FCIAC playoff berth.
Ridgefield (3-4-4) and Wilton (4-6-1) each had 13 points.
Most FCIAC boys soccer teams have about four or five games remaining in the regular season.
In a big game that has major implications toward securing the top seed in the conference tournament, Staples hosts Trumbull on Saturday (Oct. 14) at Wakeman Field at 10:30 a.m.
Staples shut out Greenwich, 2-0, at home on Sept. 28 and two days later Greenwich’s Cardinals rebounded with a 3-2 home victory over Trumbull.
Trumbull won its fifth FCIAC championship in the previous 11 years with a 4-1 victory over Darien in last year’s final.