New Canaan maintained its No. 1 ranking and Greenwich is right behind the Rams at No. 2 again as those two teams lead a group of five FCIAC teams ranked in the current GameTimeCT Top 10 Football Poll which was released Oct. 6.
Staples is ranked No. 5, while St. Joseph is No. 8 and Darien is No. 9.
The possibility existed for some potential movement up and down the poll among conference teams given that last week featured two showdowns on Oct. 4 involving four of those FCIAC teams ranked in the Top 10.
New Canaan traveled up to St. Joseph where the two perennial strong programs got involved in quite the great defensive battle.
The top-ranked Rams emerged with a 7-3 victory in which the game’s lone touchdown was scored by the New Canaan defense – a 62-yard interception return by Andrew Esposito.
Esposito had great anticipation when he perfectly in cut in front of the receiver along the sideline to pick off the pass, continued his sprint down the sideline and across the goal line with just 3.2 seconds left in the first half.
New Canaan improved to 4-0. Although St. Joseph dropped to 2-2, the Cadets have lost twice to ranked teams, so they earned enough respect from the 22 voting members of the media with the tough challenge they gave New Canaan that they remained in the same No. 8 spot where they were ranked in the previous poll.
Staples played at Darien in the other big matchup of ranked FCIAC teams and that is where some movement up and down the poll occurred after the Staples Wreckers’ impressive 31-6 victory over the host Blue Wave.
The Wreckers ascended one spot from No. 6 in the previous poll to their current No. 5 ranking, which is where Darien was ranked, and the Blue Wave dropped four spots to No. 9.
After Mickey Ross kicked a 43-yard field goal to open the scoring for the Wreckers early in the second quarter, Staples quarterback Nick Weil fired a 23-yard touchdown pass to Jake McGeehan and a 54-yard TD pass to Justin Halky to stake the Wreckers to a 17-0 halftime lead. Weil then scored on touchdown runs of 5 yards and 2 yards in the second half.
Staples, now under the guidance of first-year head coach Matty Jacowleff, was ranked 10th in the GameTimeCT preseason poll. The Wreckers have continued to work their way forward and their defense was downright dominant against a very good Darien team.
New Canaan received 17 of the 22 first-place votes. Second-ranked Greenwich and No. 3 Killingly each got two first-place votes.
Daniel Hand, the other ranked team which defeated St. Joseph, is ranked fourth. Staples is No. 5, sixth-ranked Windsor got the other first-place vote, and all top six teams are undefeated at 4-0.
Fairfield Prep (3-1) moved up two spots to No. 7 and is followed by St. Joseph (2-2), Darien (3-1), and Bunnell (3-1).
New Canaan and Greenwich have been ranked 1-2 in every one of this season’s five GameTimeCT state polls, beginning with the pre-season poll.
The both have been ranked there in the last six polls, actually, because that is exactly where they were also ranked in that same order in the Final 2024 GameTimeCT Top 10 Football Poll after coach Lou Marinelli’s New Canaan Rams won the 2024 CIAC Class L state championship with a 35-21 victory over Darien and coach Anthony Morello’s Greenwich Cardinals shut out West Haven, 14-0, to win the CIAC Class LL title on Dec. 14, 2024.
This weekend’s schedule includes eight games of FCIAC teams playing against fellow conference teams. Five of those games are Friday night and the other three are on Saturday.
In the two Friday night games in which the opening kickoff occurs at 6 o’clock: New Canaan (4-0) plays at Danbury (2-2), and Norwalk (2-2) travels to Fairfield Ludlowe (3-1).
In the trio of Friday night contests with 7 o’clock kickoffs: Wilton (4-0) plays at Staples (4-0), Westhill (0-4) visits Brien McMahon (1-3), and St. Joseph (2-2) travels to Ridgefield (3-1).
In Saturday’s action: Darien (3-1) plays at Bridgeport Central (1-3) at 11 a.m., Fairfield Warde (3-1) travels down to Stamford (0-4) for a noon kickoff, and Greenwich (4-0) hosts Trumbull (2-2) at 2 p.m.
The Wilton at Staples matchup of undefeated bordering town rivals is a big one because it will also affect rankings and eventual seedings for their respective state tournaments.
Eight teams qualify for state tournaments in each of the six classifications of Class LL, Class L, Class MM, Class M, Class SS, and Class S.
Several variables such as teams’ overall records along with the strength of schedules which include records of opponents are utilized mathematically to accumulate points totals and points averages which eventually determine the top eight teams after the Thanksgiving Day games to fill out the state tournament fields.
The FCIAC has nine teams ranked among the top eight in four of the state tournament classes, and the defending state champion St. Joseph Cadets are currently ninth in Class M behind five teams with 4-0 records and three teams with 3-1 records.
Coach Joe DellaVecchia’s Cadets are 2-2 going into Friday night’s game at Ridgefield. But because those two losses were to top-ranked New Canaan and No. 4 Daniel Hand in the state poll, it is plausible for them to work their way back toward the opportunity to defend the state title they captured last year with a thrilling 21-20 victory over Brookfield.
Staples and Greenwich are ranked 1-2, respectively, atop the CIAC Class LL Tournament Rankings. Trumbull is eighth and Danbury is ninth.
New Canaan is ranked first and Darien third while leading a group of five FCIAC teams ranked among the top eight in Class L. Ridgefield is fifth, while Fairfield Ludlowe and Fairfield Warde are ranked seventh and eighth, respectively.
Wilton is ranked No. 1 as the only FCIAC team out of the 22 total in the Class MM rankings.
The FCIAC consists mostly of larger-sized schools along with a couple mid-sized schools so there are no conference teams in Class SS and Class S.
All 16 FCIAC teams are idle during the Oct. 17-18 weekend with their midseason byes.
The second half of the regular season includes seven more games which are head-to-head matchups involving the five FCIAC teams ranked among the top nine in the current GameTimeCT Top 10 Football Poll.
When the conference teams all return to action during the Oct. 24-25 weekend the possibility exists for a No. 1-versus-No. 2 matchup when New Canaan hosts Greenwich in a Friday night showdown on Oct. 24 at Dunning Stadium at 7 p.m.
In the rest of the season’s other six games pitting two of the top five teams in the current state poll playing against each other: Darien plays at St. Joseph on Oct. 25, Staples travels to St. Joseph on Nov. 1, New Canaan visits Staples on Nov. 7, Darien travels down I-95 to Greenwich on Nov. 14, and the Thanksgiving Day date of Nov. 27 is especially significant for the eventual state tournament rankings with New Canaan hosting Darien, and Greenwich hosting Staples.