It is another year and another annual rite of spring with the usual scenario in which the quality of boys’ lacrosse in the FCIAC is excellent.
Yes, indeed, such is the case yet again in this 2025 season.
The FCIAC always has many of the best teams in the state, substantiated by the fact that the conference has had at least six teams ranked among the top nine in the four previous Final GameTimeCT Top 10 state polls since 2021. There were seven FCIAC teams among the top nine last year and in 2021.
The FCIAC is just as strong as ever this year as coach Will Koshansky’s top-ranked Staples Wreckers lead the large group of eight FCIAC teams in the latest GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Lacrosse Poll which was released May 12.
A couple of things for certain are that the 2025 FCIAC Boys Lacrosse Tournament will feature great competition with several teams having legitimate aspirations of winning a conference title, and soon after there should be plenty conference teams making deep runs in the Class L and Class M state tournaments.
The opening quarterfinal round of the FCIAC tournament is Friday, May 23, at the home fields of the four highest seeded teams.
The two semifinal and championship games will take place at Wilton High School’s Tom Fujitani Field. The May 27 semifinal doubleheader begins with the opener at 4:30 p.m., with the second game scheduled for 7 p.m. The championship is Thursday, May 29, at 6:30 p.m.
The regular season in the FCIAC was scheduled to conclude May 19 and May 20 with the teams having their final games.
The eight-team FCIAC tournament consists of all six Tier One teams, also known as the FCIAC West Division, and the top two teams in the FCIAC East Division which has the conference’s other nine teams designated as the Tier Two teams.
The seedings are established by the records of each team within their respective divisions. All six Tier One teams will be seeded 1-through-6. The Tier Two champion will be seeded No. 7 and the runner-up No 8.
Staples and New Canaan were tied for first place with 3-1 divisional records in the FCIAC West Division standings updated through Thursday, May 15.
If Staples and New Canaan both win their respective final divisional games Monday, the Staples Wreckers will be seeded first in the FCIAC tournament via the No. 1 tiebreaker criteria of their 7-6 victory at New Canaan on April 24.
Ridgefield was in third place at 2-1 and followed by Darien (2-2), Greenwich (1-3) and Wilton (0-3).
Wilton was scheduled to play at Ridgefield on Saturday (1 p.m.) in the first of the two remaining divisional games for both, and the other four teams each have one final divisional game.
In the last three FCIAC West Division matchups: Staples hosts Darien and New Canaan hosts Ridgefield on Monday, May 19; and Greenwich hosts Wilton on May 20.
The Staples Wreckers lost their only divisional game on April 9 at home to Greenwich, 7-5.
Although there were no games involving Tier One teams matched up against each other on May 15, there were four Tier Two showdowns Thursday which were consequential toward the race for the FCIAC East Division championship and runner-up spot, and those accompanying last two berths for the FCIAC tourney.
Fairfield Ludlowe and St. Joseph both had impressive wins which set up the probability that coach Steve Swett’s Ludlowe Falcons appear destined to become division champions and the No. 7 seed in the FCIAC tourney, and coach Brendan Talbot’s St. Joseph’s Cadets are positioned very well for the runner-up spot and the No. 8 seed.
Fairfield Ludlowe remained unbeaten and in first place in the FCIAC East Division after improving to 6-0 with its 21-2 victory at Danbury, while St. Joseph improved to 6-1 and remained in second place with its 19-3 victory at Westhill.
St. Joseph’s Cadets suffered their only East Division loss on April 12 at Fairfield Ludlowe, 6-3, so that is beneficial to Ludlowe’s Falcons, and St. Joseph benefits from its 20-5 victory over Trumbull in any potential tiebreaker situations.
Trumbull remained in third place as the Eagles finished 6-2 in the FCIAC East Division after Thursday’s 13-5 victory at Brien McMahon.
Stamford remained in fourth place after improving to 5-2 in the division with its 10-7 victory at home over Fairfield Warde, which dropped to 3-4 and remained tied with Brien McMahon for fifth place.
Staples and New Canaan were ranked 1-2, respectively, while Ridgefield was No. 4 and Darien No. 5 in the latest GameTimeCT Boys Lacrosse Top 10 Poll.
The Wreckers were voted No. 1 for the third consecutive week after snatching that ranking in the state poll released April 28. They were No. 1 by just five polling points over No. 2 Fairfield Prep in that poll as they received five first-place votes and defending CIAC Class LL state champion Fairfield Prep got four first-place votes.
Staples was a unanimous No. 1 in this current poll after receiving all 11 first-place votes and the maximum 110 polling points from the six coaches and five media voting members. The Wreckers improved to 11-3 with their 24-2 victory over Danbury on May 13.
Coach Chip Buzzeo’s New Canaan Rams received all 11 second-place votes and 99 polling points with the points being accumulated in the 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 format.
The Rams improved to 13-1 with their 18-2 victory on May 13 over Brien McMahon and have won seven consecutive games since that 7-6 loss to Staples on April 24.
Among those recent wins was a 12-8 home victory on May 10 against Fairfield Prep, now No. 3 with 83 polling points and just one more point than No. 4 Ridgefield.
Ridgefield’s 9-6 home victory over Darien on May 8 was the key reason why coach James Goldmann’s Tigers flip-flopped rankings with No. 5 Darien. Ridgefield improved to 12-2 overall with its 18-6 victory over Stamford on May 13.
Coach Jeff Brameier’s fifth-ranked Darien Blue Wave improved to 9-6 on May 15 with a 13-4 non-league victory over Bishop Guertin High School (NH).
Glastonbury was ranked No. 6 and the Top 10 was completed by FCIAC teams Greenwich (8-5 overall), Fairfield Ludlowe (10-4), Wilton (5-8) and St. Joseph (9-5) being ranked 7-10, respectively.
Brameier is the FCIAC representative among the six coaches on the voting panel which also includes Brian Adkins of Foran, Scott Hinchey of Glastonbury, John Mathews of Greens Farms Academy, Ken McCarthy of Somers and Graham Niemi of Fairfield Prep.
Fairfield Prep won last year’s first CIAC Class LL state tournament with a 9-7 victory over Darien as last year was the first season which expanded to four state class tournaments after the previous 18 seasons of having L, M and S tournaments from 2006-23.
Darien, New Canaan, Ridgefield and Staples were ranked 2-5, respectively, while Wilton, Greenwich and St. Joseph were ranked 7-9 in the Final 2024 GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Lacrosse Poll.
So, the FCIAC had seven of the top nine teams in last year’s final state poll to follow up on the conference having six of the top nine teams in 2023, six of the top seven teams in 2022 and seven of the top nine ranked teams in the final 2021 state poll.
Staples won its second consecutive Class L state championship with a 13-6 victory over Fairfield Prep and was again ranked No. 1 in 2023. Darien, New Canaan, Wilton and Ridgefield were ranked 4-7, respectively, and St. Joseph was No. 9.
The 2022 Staples Wreckers won the first state title in school history with a 12-3 victory over Darien and the FCIAC had the state’s top four ranked teams in the final poll in Staples, No. 2 Darien, Class M state champion Wilton, and Ridgefield. Greenwich was No. 6 and No. 7 New Canaan was that sixth conference team among the top seven.
Ridgefield was No. 1 in the final 2021 state poll after its 8-5 victory over Fairfield Prep in the Class L final. FCIAC champion Darien was No. 2. Wilton, Staples, Greenwich, and New Canaan were ranked 4-7 and St. Joseph was No. 9.
Staples won last year’s FCIAC championship with a 7-6 overtime victory over Darien. Staples defeated New Canaan, 11-5, and Darien nipped Ridgefield, 9-8, in the semifinals.
In the 2024 FCIAC quarterfinals: Staples beat Wilton, 9-1; Darien defeated St. Joseph, 20-6; New Canaan advanced to the semifinals with a 13-1 victory over Fairfield Ludlowe and Ridgefield advanced with a 13-3 victory over Greenwich.