St. Joseph’s Jaden Shirden rips through New Canaan’s defense in his team’s 28-0 victory on Saturday. St. Joseph earned the No. 1 spot in the Week 2 GameTimeCT / Register Top 10 (Photo Krista Benson / For Hearst Connecticut Media.)
St. Joseph’s student body celebrates a touchdown during the Hogs’ 28-0 victory over No. 1 New Canaan (Photo Krista Benson / For Hearst Connecticut Media)
It was deja vu all over again as St. Joseph topped preseason No. 1 New Canaan on the opening week of the Connecticut high school football season.
But, this time, the Hogs put forth an even more convincing 28-0 victory in front of a packed house at Dalling Field Saturday afternoon.
The performance convinced enough voters to cast their lots with St. Joseph as the No. 1 team in the state heading into Week 2.
The Hogs, who’d received three first-place votes in the preseason, came in with 12 this week after their smackdown of the Rams — the first New Canaan shutout since 2006. It helped St. Joseph edged No. 2 Greenwich by 18 points (880-862) for the top spot.
As far as our records can tell, this is St. Joseph’s first No 1 ranking since the opening week of the 1991 season. Coincidentally, St. Joseph started that season No. 1, but coach Christy Hayes’ squad lost to Darien 27-13 on opening week.
It was far from unanimous, however. Greenwich earned 10 first-place votes and Darien, which quietly dispatched of Ridgefield claimed five first-place votes and came in at No. 3.
No. 4 Hand earned three first-place votes and Killingly, at No. 8, once again earned one.
Meanwhile, New Canaan was still given the benefit of the doubt by voters and remained in the Top 10 at No. 7.
Windsor, which lost to Maloney 26-20, dropped out of the Top 10 after debuting at No. 7. Filling the vacancy is Bloomfield, which comes in at No. 10 behind No. 9 Naugatuck.
The Week 2 GameTimeCT / Register Top 10 Football Poll
TEAM (1st place votes) | REC | PTS | LAST | CLASS |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 1. ST. JOSEPH (12) | 1-0 | 880 | 3 | M |
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| Last Week: Def. No. 1 New Canaan 28-0. This Week: Friday, at Fairfield Warde (1-0), 7 p.m. The Bottom Line: Jaden Shirden ran for 108 yards and two touchdowns and the Hogs' defense flexed their collective muscles to earn the first shutout of New Canaan since the 2006 FCIAC Championship game vs. Greenwich (28-0). |
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 | 2. GREENWICH (10) | 1-0 | 862 | 2 | LL |
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| Last Week: Def. Trumbull 42-7. This Week: Saturday vs. Trinity Catholic (0-1), 4 p.m. The Bottom Line: A.J. Barber -- whose father, Tiki, was a pretty good back in his day -- had a fine varsity debut with three TD catches in the first half as John Marinelli's Cardinals ruined Marce Petroccio's coaching debut at Trumbull. |
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 | 3. DARIEN (5) | 1-0 | 806 | 4 | LL |
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| Last Week: Def. Ridgefield 30-6. This Week: Friday, at McMahon (0-1), 7 p.m. The Bottom Line: New QB Cooper Hancock had an exceptional debut with two touchdown passes and setting up two more TDs with strikes as the Blue Wave dispatched of Jackson Mitchell and Ridgefield on the road. |
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 | 4. HAND (3) | 1-0 | 766 | 5 | L |
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| Last Week: Def. Hillhouse 43-6. This Week: Friday, at New Fairfield (0-1), 7 p.m. The Bottom Line: New RB Colin McCabe ran for three touchdowns and Phoenix Billings tossed a pair as the defending Class L champs kicked off the season in style by slaying Hillhouse at Bowen Field. Might want to leave now for New Fairfield. |
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 | 5. SHELTON | 1-0 | 621 | 6 | LL |
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| Last Week: Def. Cheshire 17-10. This Week: Thursday vs. Xavier (0-1) at West Haven, 6 p.m. The Bottom Line: The Gaels survived a sketchy opening vs. determined Cheshire thanks to Jake Falanga's late-game heroics: a fumble recovery to set up a Jake Roberts TD with a minute to go and, seconds later, the clinching interception. |
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 | 6. EAST HARTFORD | 1-0 | 573 | 8 | LL |
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| Last Week: Def. South Windsor 41-7. This Week: Friday vs. Conard (0-1), 6:30 p.m. The Bottom Line: Highly-touted QB Raquan Tompkins didn't disappoint by running for 167 yards and five touchdowns as the Hornets swept past South Windsor in a match between last year's CCC Class LL playoff participants. |
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 | 7. NEW CANAAN | 0-1 | 453 | 1 | LL |
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| Last Week: lost to St. Joseph, 28-0. This Week: Friday vs. Danbury (1-0), 7 p.m. The Bottom Line: There's some soul-searching to be done after the Rams suffered their worst loss since a 42-7 rout at the hands of Bridgeport Central in 2009 and their first shut out since the 2006 FCIAC Championship game. They won't have much room for error the rest of the way. |
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 | 8. KILLINGLY (1) | 1-0 | 426 | 9 | M |
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| Last Week: Def. Plainfield, 49-6. This Week: Friday at Griswold (1-0), 6:30 p.m. The Bottom Line: Nsaiah "Thunder" Harriet, all 6-foot-3, 240 pounds of him, did his best Spencer Lockwood impression by running for two long touchdowns on his first two touches of his life, 41 yards and 80 yards. He finished with 121 yards on three carries. Oof. Look out, Griswold. |
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 | 9. NAUGATUCK | 1-0 | 361 | 10 | L |
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| Last Week: Def. Wolcott 14-0. This Week: Friday, vs. Crosby (0-1), 7 p.m. The Bottom Line: The Greyhounds' offense had its issues but did just enough. Fortunately for coach Dave Sollazzo's squad, the Hounds' defensive line dominated as Naugy allowed just 123 yards of total offense. |
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 | 10. BLOOMFIELD | 1-0 | 330 | NR | S |
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| Last Week: def. Plainville, 53-0. This Week: Friday at Rocky Hill (1-0), 7 p.m. The Bottom Line: With its pass game thrown off-sync, the Warhawks turned to bruising back Ky'Juon Butler who promptly ripped off a 70-yard touchdown run, then added TDs of 21 and 20 yards in an outstanding senior season debut. |
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| Dropped out: Windsor (7) First-place votes in parentheses and points tabulated on a 30-28-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-11-10-9-8-7 basis. |
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| Others receiving votes: Southington (1-0), 328; Maloney (1-0), 314; Ansonia (1-0), 230; Newtown (1-0), 228; Berlin (1-0), 210; North Haven (1-0), 133; Fairfield Prep (1-0), 104; Middletown (1-0), 63; Windsor (0-1), 58; Norwich Free Academy (1-0), 44; Sheehan (1-0), 25; Brookfield (1-0), 23 ; RHAM (1-0), 21; Cromwell/Portland (1-0), 9; Hamden (1-0) and E.O. Smith (1-0), 8; New London (1-0), Seymour (1-0) and Valley Regional/Old Lyme (1-0), 7. | ||||||||
| The following voted: Bob Barton, New Haven Register; Nate Brown, Fox61; Bill Bloxsom, Hersam Acorn Newspapers; Sean Patrick Bowley, GameTimeCT; Kyle Brennan, Freelance; Doug Bonjour, Connecticut Post; Gerry deSimas Jr., Collinsville Press; Mike DiMauro, The Day of New London; Erik Dobratz, WTNH-8; Scott Ericson, Stamford Advocate; Ned Griffen, The Day of New London; Shelby Iava, New Britain Herald; Mark Jaffee, Republican-American of Waterbury; Ryan Lacey, Danbury News-Times; Kyle Maher, Journal-Inquirer of Manchester; Shawn McFarland, Hartford Courant; Pete Paguaga, GameTimeCT; John Pierson, WTNH-8; Noah Finz, CT Sports Now; Mike Madera, Walter Camp Football Foundation; Joe Morelli, New Haven Register; John Nash, The Hour of Norwalk; Keith O’Brien, GameDay CT Sports; Dan Orecole, Bristol Press; Dave Phillips, Shoreline Newspapers; Marc Robbins, CT Sports Now; Dave Ruden, The Ruden Report; Mike Suppe, Hersam-Acorn Newspapers; Rich Zalusky, The Chronicle of Willimantic; Jimmy Zanor, Norwich Bulletin; Joe Zone, WFSB-3 | ||||||||
Quick question – what are the “tie breaker points” on the CIAC football rankings, and how are they calculated?
You post all the time on this high school football blog and seriously don’t know this? Sad. But not surprised.
http://content.ciacsports.com/tp/fb1819.pdf
g. The following five steps will be used in breaking ties in pairings if two or more schools finish with the same point
value in the same division.
1) In the event there are exactly two schools tied at the point value and the two schools have met during the
regular season, the winner wins the position in question (head-to-head).
2) The wins and ties of each of the opponents are added (2 points per win and 1 point per tie) and the team with
the greatest number of points wins the position in question. This includes each opponent regardless of
whether the game was won or lost.
3) The team that defeated the highest rated (CIAC point system) team wins the position in question.
4) The team with the best winning percentage wins the position in question.
5) Each team will be assigned a computer-generated random “tiebreaker number” two weeks prior to the end of
the season. If there is still no winner after the first ten criteria in this section are applied then the team with
the highest random tiebreaker number will be the winner of the position in question.
Thank you Dr. V.N.! #2 was the answer I was looking for, I’d heard it before and forgotten it. Try and find that info on the CIAC website…
Hard to figure how they put a number in that column in week one, nobody’s played anybody yet! Presume they must calculate from a team’s entire schedule from week one, as it’s not dependent on whether or not a team beats another team, just on how a team’s scheduled opponents perform week in and week out.
Nice to know there is at least one category in the CIAC rankings that reflects strength of schedule.
Has anyone heard any quotes on round-trip airfare to New Fairfield ? It’s close to Poughkeepsie…
They are ready when ever you show up!
Nice poll but West haven lost by one in what was a very very close game is not mentioned. Really would not put many mentioned over the Westie group. Others for me should be after Bloomfield; North Haven, West Haven, Fairfield Prep, Cheshire, Staples, Southington, Newtown, Middletown, Ridgefield, Brookfield, Ansonia and for whatever falls after falls. Just a view point.
West haven overrated every yr
I predict West Haven loses to Hamden Friday night.
SCORCHING hot take there MR.
Westie, if I’m right, we may want some extra EMT’s onsite. There may be quite a few cases of hear failure in West Haven. 🙂
Mr Wallace something tells me every week you’ll be telling us that Hamden is going win.. Am I right or am I right ?
Roll Tide, not true. But so far I am 100% correct. LOL I only call it week to week. Don’t like looking ahead. Depending on what I see this Friday will tell me if I think Hamden has a chance against Daniel Hand which is next week.
Roll Tide, here you go…….If Hamden can stop Hand’s running game tomorrow night, Hamden wins. I don’t believe Hand can throw on Hamden. We’ll see what happens. I like Hand, they are a solid team. Would be a great notch in Hamden’s belt if they win this one!
Killingly v New London in two weeks, I’ll hold judgement til then. Killingly did look strong again, but in Eastern Ct, New London is the standard. Should be a great game.
ideally would like new London v killingly to be a close game however I don’t believe new London will be close in game. Killingly is reloaded and has the brilliant mind of jack Cochran as an assistant.
The rather glaring overrate of Naugatuck remains puzzling here. They barely survived a meh Wolcott team, which should have been a red flag to anyone who didn’t get it before.
In comparison, the coaches’ poll has Ansonia at No. 8 and Naugatuck at 16. That feels much more accurate.
Definitely more accurate. Not to say that Naugatuck won’t be good but I don’t believe they’re a top 10 team.
I need to see dominant teams against the solid NVL teams and then for them to beat Ansonia.
I agree with Bloomfield. They’re a solid team and I believe they will be in Class S final.
Force, I’m with you (pun intended).
I agree that Naugatuck may turn out to be very good. It’s just that they’ve done nothing to warrant a Top 10 inclusion at this point. They need to earn their way in. Being a little better than the team that got handled by Ansonia and South Windsor last year isn’t enough.
Also agree on Bloomfield. They look to have athletes all over the field and are likely to be Ansonia’s big challenge in Class S.
Wow, Voice of Reason thinks Ansonia should move up, shocker.
Naugatuck has no business being in the top ten but now VOR can experience what everybody gets to see with Ansonia every year. Start the season in the top ten and play nobody so they’ll stay there until Thanksgiving because they haven’t lost. Ansonia played one of the weakest teams in the state according to Calpreps, so they really haven’t proven anything either, and won’t because they don’t have any tests either. New Canaan should have dropped out in my opinion, at least until the Greenwich game. If they win that, obviously they would move back in.
1. Greenwich
2.Darien
3.Hand
4.ST.Joes
5.East Hartford
6.New Canaan
7.Ansonia
8.Shelton
9.Killingly
10.Southington
Can’t put St. Joes first until they beat Darien.
I don’t value the N.C. win as high as others.N.C. had no quality wins last year and Got beat up by Masuk team in States and don’t think they are better this year.Hand is very good and will go unbeaten.
Naugy and Bloomfield top 20 maybe put not top 10.
And form what I saw Ansonia better then Shelton so have to be in front of them.
TCAT
You are out of your mind putting Ansonia anywhere near the Top 10. Beating the Little Sisters of the Poor, and middle school teams does not merit being a top 10 team.
They played Shelton and Notth Haven in scrimnages, during the season they would lose by 2-3 TDs.
Hey ?, not a shock perhaps, but also not a shock that the state’s coaches agree with me. They appear to put some stock in Ansonia’s track record vs that of, say, Naugatuck. Some of them also probably noticed how Ansonia looked against three SCC teams in the preseason.
Suppose the plus side is that this could make for one hell of an “upset” on Turkey Day.
I hear what you’re saying about New Canaan. Maybe they did get the benefit of past accomplishment, however.
VOR,
You want to know why Naugy was put in top ten and in front of Ansoni?Just ask your head coach,he’s the one who said Ansonia lost everyone and Naugy was loaded.
He’s trying to build up Naugy so that when Ansonia beats them it will seem like a quality win.
The scores will tell you everything when Naugy struggles with some teams but still go into Ansonia game 9-0 and Ansonia will blow everyone out again.
Ansonia by far is best team in NVL and Class S.
Too much Talent.
Yet again we see things totally different.Polls are not worth the Recognition if strength of Schedule and Quality wins are not considered.I will not rehash why certain games are scheduled,league restrictions is not valid argument when teams have 0% chance of victory and make a mockery of the sport year after year after year.FYI :New Canaan handed Middletown and Darien(Shorthanded} there only losses in 2017.Arguably the best team in the state{St Joseph’s} and defeating the Current #1 ranked Team in the State by 28 points plus returning a good amount of starters{St Joseph”s} from a 2017 Class S Champion is far more than needed to gain the #1 spot.Unlike others with #1 Aspirations,St Joe”s regular Season Schedule especially ,will afford them to prove it on the Field of play.
I have tons of respect for Lou and New Canaan, but if you get blown out 28-0, would it be so hard to give one other team a moment in the spotlight inside this Top Ten? Could the good football people of New Canaan handle the “severe” consequence of being rated , say, 11th, or 12th in the state until they win a few for a week or two or three?
Is that really so tough?
Just sayin’ fellas…..a few other teams had nice openers, New Canaan may earn it’s way back. That’s kind of the American way – earning your way into the top 10, instead of living on reputation.
I guess the voters didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feeling in New Canaan, but really, most of them feel they need to get back on track.
So, let’s see: you think voters didn’t want to hurt New Canaan’s feelings by keeping them in… but you’d prefer voters to “give one other team a moment in the spotlight” by dropping them out.
Kind of the same feel-good idea, no?
What Team would you put in the top 10 ? Almost all teams you put it will not play a team the Quality of Saint Joseph’s so name that team and please let us know when that team will be challenged and by what team and how late in the season.
Sean,
How do you e-mail this article to someone? Is it possible??
Coincidentally, I went to college with your MoM. NOt that techy savy.
Oh, at southern? that’s funny. My mom’s a whirlwind.
Anyway, you can just copy this and paste it onto an email https://www.gametimect.com/the-week-2-gametimect-register-top-10-football-poll-st-joseph-is-no-1/
New Canaan may have 3 losses and not make playoffs and still be top ten team.
They can lose to Darien and Greenwich put still would deserve top ten because they will still be better then teams like Killingly and Naugy.
Fciac teams will beat up on eachother this year and the only undefeated teams will be Hand and Ansonia at end of year.
Hand #1 in state.
Due to the lack of Competitive scheduling and the Four Class Champions,it is close to the time to have Four seperate Polls.Each Poll for Class{Enrollment} Division.Due to Leagues protecting their Top Dogs and the Antiquated CIAC mind set,in Football,of not creating an Open Division it is impossible for anyone to connect the dots between certain teams.I wish the Basketball committee would take over Football.
Agree if Hand stays healthy the are the best in the state
I opened a can of worms with my New Canaan commentary. I’m kind of surprised by the pushback. St.Joes is a tough squad, but New Canaan got blown out – 28-0 is a butt kicking. I think you are top ten worthy when you play a tough team close. By November, New Canaan may be 8-2 and ranked 3rd. But 28-0? Putting them as a top 10 is based on performances from other seasons, with players currently in grad school, or working on Wall Street .
For the record, I love this venue. I’m so happy to have this excellent coverage I wish I could go back in time to the 1970s when I played high school football! And I fully understand strength of schedule. New Canaan will play one of the toughest schedules in the state, but 28-0? I’m done. Keep up the good work.