Darien the new (and unanimous) No. 1 in The Day's Top 10
Nov. 1—There are multiple stories to tell about The Day's Top 10 state football coaches' poll this week.
The first is that Darien emphatically proved its worth as the No. 1 team in the state when it thrashed St. Joseph 42-14 last Saturday The Blue Wave received all 13 first-place votes.
St. Joseph (6-1) had been No. 1 all season and Darien (7-0) was second.
The second story is that voters had to decide what to do with Greenwich after it lost to New Canaan last Saturday (14-7). The Cardinals (4-3) were ranked third last week despite their record because, at the time, they and St. Joseph were the only two teams with two wins over Top 10 teams. They beat Ridgefield, 42-34, on Sept. 18. They also beat Fairfield Prep, 14-7 on Oct. 2.
All of the Greenwich's losses have been to Top 10 teams, too — Shelton (35-14, Sept. 24), St. Joseph (24-20, Oct. 16) and New Canaan.
Voters had to decide, then, whether to vote Greenwich below a team such as Prep (6-1), even though it won on the field and had played one of the state's toughest schedules.
But Greenwich wound up dropping out of the Top 10. Only three coaches voted the Cardinals in the Top 10 and three left them off their ballots.
One voter said he didn't want to drop Greenwich too far, believing it was still better than most teams, but that he had to move it down because of its record.
One voter who left Greenwich off his ballot believed the Cardinals would beat most anyone in the state, but it was hard to vote for a three-loss team, especially if they ended up missing the state playoffs.
Two other Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference teams also fell out — Ridgefield and Norwalk. Former No. 8 Norwalk (5-2) lost to Staples 20-14 last Friday. Ridgefield (4-3), which was ranked fifth last week, lost to Wilton 14-7 on Saturday.
The final storyline is that Wilton (5-2) and Maloney (6-1) make their season debuts at No. 7 and 10, respectively. Ansonia (7-0) also moved back into the Top 10 at No. 9 after being pushed out last week when Shelton moved into the Top 10.
Wilton made the leap up to seventh after huge wins the past two weeks. It beat New Canaan (20-17) for the first time since 1995 on Oct. 23. Its win over Ridgefield last Saturday was its first since 1993.
The Warriors also led Darien early in the fourth quarter on Oct. 16 before the the Blue Wave scored 21 unanswered points and pulled away for a 56-36 win.
Hall (7-0), Fairfield Prep, New Canaan (6-1), Shelton (6-1) are ranked third through sixth, respectively, and Southington (6-1) is eighth.
Killingly (6-0) is the only Eastern Connecticut Conference team that received votes and is 12th.
There will be two games this Friday between ranked teams — Maloney at Hall and Shelton at Prep.
