New Canaan and Greenwich did it again.
With what has transpired in the last four high school football seasons in Connecticut, it is not an embellishment to state that New Canaan and Greenwich are both amid a bit of a dynasty run with the state championships they’ve collected in the early- to mid-2020s.
Those two perennially powerful FCIAC programs have combined to win seven state championships in their different and respective state class tournaments from 2022-25.
The top-seeded New Canaan Rams won their fourth consecutive state championship with a 34-13 victory over third-seeded Cheshire in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class L Football Tournament final on the Saturday afternoon of Dec. 13 at Veterans Stadium in New Britain.
On that same day on that same field in the following state championship game, Jack Kelly scored four touchdowns to help lead defending champion and third-seeded Greenwich to its third state title in the last four years with its 45-6 victory over fourth-seeded Southington in the CIAC Class LL Football Tournament.
New Canaan was unanimously voted No. 1 in both final state polls, the coaches’ poll and the media poll, while Greenwich was ranked No. 3 behind Class MM state champion Daniel Hand in both polls.
Coach Lou Marinelli’s Rams were ranked No. 1 in the two preseason polls and that’s where they stayed all season because they ran the table and finished with undefeated 13-0 record, including a 14-7 victory at home on Oct. 24 over Greenwich, which finished the season 11-2 and with a five-game winning streak since its 7-3 loss Nov. 7 at Wilton.
New Canaan junior Finn Mocco averaged 7.7 yards per carry when he rushed for 162 yards, including touchdown runs of 19 yards and 4 yards, and junior teammate Jackson Crowell’s 46-yard interception return touchdown late in the first half broke things open for the Rams as they took a 28-7 halftime lead in their eventual 34-13 victory over Cheshire in the Class L state championship game.
Placekicker Neel Arora scored 10 points by kicking field goals of 31 yards and 28 yards in the second half after he was a perfect 4-for-4 on his PAT kicks in the first half.
After Cheshire pulled into a 7-7 tie midway through the first quarter, New Canaan’s Bennett Heagle broke the tie with a 4-yard touchdown run late in the quarter to begin New Canaan’s run of 21 unanswered points within a span of 10:56 to seize that 28-7 halftime lead. Crowell’s 46-yard interception TD return culminated that run with 2:22 remaining in the first half.
It was a terrific defense throughout the year that was vital toward New Canaan winning the school’s 16thstate championship to pull into a tie with St. Joseph for the second most in the state. Ansonia has the record with the 22nd state title the Chargers won in the 2024 Class S final.
New Canaan’s Rams averaged 33.7 points per game and limited their 13 opponents to just 6.9 points per game.
They had two shutout victories and limited their foes to seven points or less in nine of their victories. Two opponents scored 10 points in a game, and another pair of teams had 13, the most points scored in a game against New Canaan all year.
New Canaan defeated eighth-seeded Darien, 42-7, in the opening quarterfinal round of the Class L state tourney and the Rams advanced to the final with a 43-6 triumph over fourth-seeded Weaver/Hartford Public.
Marinelli, New Canaan’s head coach for the last 44 seasons, has guided the Rams to all 16 of the school’s state championships since he won his first title in his second year at New Canaan in 1982 with at 20-12 victory over Naugatuck.
This year’s success made it the third time New Canaan has had a run of winning four straight state championships as Marinelli’s contingent of Rams achieved that from 2006-2009 and again from 2013-16.
Coach Anthony Morello’s Greenwich Cardinals got on quite a roll down the homestretch as they won the program’s 11th state championship in dominant fashion in all three of their victories in the Class LL state tournament.
They began with a 41-7 victory over third-seeded Staples and then defeated second-seeded Fairfield Prep, 31-10, before they defended their championship with that impressive 45-6 victory over Southington in the final.
Kelly caught a 13-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Philip Tarantino to stake Greenwich to a 29-0 halftime lead after he scored on TD runs of 1 and 8 yards in the first quarter and before he got his third rushing touchdown from 2 yards out in the third quarter.
Also for Greenwich: Hector Lopez rushed for 110 yards on 17 carries, including a 1-yard TD run, Tarantino completed 10 of 14 passes for 110 yards and tacked on Greenwich’s final TD on a 14-yard run, and placekicker Michael Galano kicked a 27-yard field goal.
The final New Haven Register / GameTimeCT Top 10 Football Poll and Hartford Courant Top 10 State Football Coaches Poll agreed on the same top four teams in the same order.
All 21 voting members of the media in the GameTimeCT poll voted New Canaan No. 1 and the Rams were also the unanimous top choice among the 13 voters in the Hartford Courant’s coaches’ poll, which included St. Joseph coach Joe DellaVecchia and Trumbull coach Marce Petroccio on the voting panel.
Those top four teams in both polls were No. 1 New Canaan (13-0), Class SS state champion Daniel Hand (12-1), No. 3 Greenwich (11-2) ascended three spots from both previous polls, and Windsor vaulted up five spots to No. 4 in both polls after winning the Class MM state championship with a 23-13 victory over Bunnell.
The teams ranked 5-through-10 in the coaches’ poll, in order, were Class SS runner-up Killingly (12-1), Class M state champion Berlin (13-0), Class S state champ Sheehan (11-2), No. 8 St. Joseph (9-3) from the FCIAC, Class M runner-up Brookfield (10-3), and Class LL runner-up Southington (9-4).
The teams ranked 5-through-10 in the media poll were Berlin, Killingly, Southington, No. 8 Fairfield Prep (9-3), Brookfield, and Bunnell (10-3).
St. Joseph received the 11th most polling points while fellow FCIAC member Wilton got the 12th most in the GameTimeCT media poll, and Wilton’s 10-2 Warriors got the 12th most in the coaches’ poll.
Both of those teams won a quarterfinal game and were eliminated in the semifinals of their respective state tournaments.
Coach DellaVecchia’s top-seeded St. Joseph Cadets began defense of their Class M state title with a 37-0 victory over WCA before losing a 6-3 defensive battle to fifth-seeded Brookfield in the semifinals.
Coach E.J. DiNunzio’s second-seeded Wilton Warriors cruised to a 48-6 quarterfinal victory over Torrington before they were nipped by third-seeded Bunnell, 21-20, in the semifinals.
There were 40 players selected to the 2025 All-FCIAC Football First Team and many of them also were on All-State teams chosen by the CHSCA and GameTimeCT.
New Canaan, Greenwich, St. Joseph and Wilton each had four players selected to the all-conference first team while Darien, Fairfield Ludlowe, Ridgefield, and Staples had three apiece.
Andrew Esposito, Ryan Brooks, Adrian Delicata, and Mike Hiraman were the four New Canaan players on the All-FCIAC First Team.
The four Greenwich Cardinals were Hector Lopez, Jack Kelly, Santi Parra and Colin Falla.
Jamar Bailey, Will Zaccagnino, Jake Rios and Kyle Wicker were St. Joseph’s selections, while the four Wilton Warriors who were all-conference first-teamers were Charlie Calabrese, Dennis Dustin, Curtis Jackson, and Peter Swierczynski.
Justin Halky, Chaz Darby and Nick Weil of Staples; Darien’s Ryan Gately, Ryan O’Malley and Jack Hanley; Fairfield Ludlowe’s Liam Bond, Ryan Love and Holt Lahey; and Ridgefield’s Dylan Bean Crooker, Chris Colsey and Mike Salimbene were their teams’ selections to the All-FCIAC First Team.
The other dozen all-conference first-team selections were Naz Shoffner-Obas and Fabian Reynoso of Danbury, James DellaVolpe and Andrew Shelov of Fairfield Warde, Kevin Gordon and Easton Pace of Norwalk, Ryan Mullen and Brayden Jaco of Trumbull, Bridgeport Central’s William Bramwell, Brien McMahon’s Justin Daniel, Stamford’s Isaiah Stephens, and Westhill’s Dalton Olechnowich.
All 16 FCIAC teams were represented on the 2025 All-FCIAC Football First Team.