St. Joseph and Staples, a pair of defending state champions, are ranked 1-2 in the latest girls soccer state coaches poll while leading a group of half dozen FCIAC teams ranked in the top 10 going into the conference tournament.
All six of those teams – St. Joseph, Staples, fifth-ranked Greenwich, No. 6 Ridgefield, No. 8 Fairfield Ludlowe, and No. 10 Trumbull – are in the 2023 FCIAC Girls Soccer Tournament which was set to commence Thursday (Oct. 26) at the home fields of the four highest-seeded teams.
Staples ascended one spot from the previous state poll, flip-flopping rankings with current No. 3 Mercy, mainly because coach Barry Beattie’s host Wreckers came back from a 1-0 halftime deficit and tied undefeated St. Joseph, 1-1, on Oct. 18.
St. Joseph’s superb junior, Alexa Pino, scored her 24th goal of the year on an assist from Julia Nunes to give the Cadets their 1-0 halftime lead. Natalie Chudowsky of Staples set up Annabel Edwards to score the tying goal with 16:14 remaining in the second half.
Coach Jack Nogueira’s St. Joseph Cadets (14-0-1) were a unanimous No. 1 in the previous state poll. They received 10 first-place votes from the 12 voting coaches in this current poll and 118 polling points.
Second-ranked Staples (11-1-3) got 102 points and third-ranked Mercy was three points behind Staples and the recipient of the other two first-place votes.
Notre Dame-Fairfield received 69 points to earn the No. 4 ranking and is followed by FCIAC teams Greenwich (65 points) and sixth-ranked Ridgefield (61).
The final four teams in the state top 10 poll, in order, are No. 7 Sacred Heart Academy (37 points), Fairfield Ludlowe (33 points), Northwest Catholic (30), and Trumbull (12).
There are no FCIAC teams among the five teams in the “Others receiving votes” category.
Fairfield Warde coach Kim Rasmussen, Ridgefield coach Iain Golding, Beattie, and Nogueira are the four FCIAC coaches among the 12 voters on the state poll.
The first kickoff of the FCIAC tournament was scheduled for 2:30 on Thursday afternoon at St. Joseph. The Cadets earned the top seed with their 14-0-1 record and were set to host No. 8 New Canaan. New Canaan’s Rams and Brien McMahon tied for eighth place in the conference standings with identical 7-5-3 records. The Rams snatched the final playoff berth via the heads-up tiebreaker of their 2-1 victory at McMahon on Oct. 5.
In the three other quarterfinal games of the conference tournament: Second-seeded Staples (11-1-3) would host No. 7 Trumbull (7-4-4) at 3:30 p.m., No. 3 Greenwich (10-1-4) was set to host No. 6 Darien (8-5-2) at 4 p.m., and No. 4 Ludlowe (10-4-1) would host No. 5 Ridgefield (8-2-5) at 4:30 p.m.
New Canaan High School will host both semifinal games and the championship game. Kickoff for the opener of the Oct. 30 semifinal doubleheader is scheduled for 5 p.m., and followed by the second game at 7 p.m. The final is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on Nov. 2, a Thursday evening.
St. Joseph won last year’s 2022 FCIAC Girls Soccer Tournament with a 3-1 victory over Staples in the championship game. The Cadets then double-crowned themselves a couple weeks later when they defended their state championship with a 3-0 victory over Notre Dame-Fairfield in the 2022 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class L Tournament final.
Staples also won a second straight state title last year with a 4-1 victory over Cheshire in the CIAC Class LL Tournament championship game. The 2021 Wreckers were co-champions two years ago after they and fellow FCIAC member Wilton played in regulation and overtime to a scoreless tie in the Class LL state final.