ZANOR: Thanksgiving football in trouble? NFA girls soccer incredible run and more

Just thought I’d empty out my reporter’s notebook while thinking the New England Patriots should bring back Josh McDaniels to run their offense again ….

*It’s banner time. The time of year for the fall scholastic sports season when the leaves are exploding with color, the nights have turned colder (I need to get a pair of those special photographer gloves), and teams are competing for league and state championship trophies.

It was a thrill watching the Norwich Free Academy girls soccer team capture their first Eastern Connecticut Conference girls soccer tournament championship with a win over the state-ranked Waterford Lancers.

Wildcats head coach Taylor Shannon, a Waterford alum who starred in girls soccer and lacrosse, and assistant coach Ryan Fabry have done a remarkable job getting the most out of a talented team.

Earlier in the season, Shannon told me the Wildcats were playing with a special “edge” this season and it’s all coming together at the right time. NFA has shut out their last four opponents and won nine straight, and is unbeaten in their last 11 games.

More: NFA's stellar girls soccer season continues. The Wildcats now have a banner to hang.

The fifth-seeded Wildcats (14-2-2) host No. 28 Fairfield Warde in the opening round of the CIAC Class LL state tournament on Monday night (6 p.m.) at NFA’s Turf Field.

NFA hasn’t won a girls state tourney game - yup, Class LL is a gauntlet - in a long time. But I wouldn’t bet against this Wildcats team, one that is peaking, playing rock solid defense, challenging 50/50 balls, and is full of confidence after raising an ECC championship banner.

*Speaking of the state tourney … the NFA boys soccer team, fresh off an appearance in the ECC tournament finals, got a tough draw. The No. 17 Wildcats travel to No. 16 Fairfield Ludlowe on Tuesday with the winner earning a second round date against top-seeded Staples on Thursday.

More: Furious NFA rally falls short in ECC boys soccer final

The Norwich Free Academy girls volleyball team is seeded No. 10 in Class LL. The Wildcats host No. 23 Wilbur Cross on Tuesday (6 p.m.) with the winner advancing to meet either No. 7 Glastonbury or No. 26 Enfield in the second round on Thursday.

*Now that the Texas Rangers have captured their first World Series title, it leaves the Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Rays, San Diego Padres, and Colorado Rockies as the only MLB teams who haven’t raised a World Series banner.

The way baseball’s postseason is constructed now, with the best regular season teams having to sit a week and then invariably getting eliminated, I give the Brewers, Rays, and Padres a good chance of winning the World Series within the next couple of years.

*The UConn football team is in Knoxville on Saturday to play the Tennessee Volunteers. The Huskies should be in Kingston playing the Rhode Island Rams.

*The good folks at the Connecticut Football Alliance have sent a proposal to the CIAC that will blow up the high school football landscape as we know it. No Thanksgiving Day rivalry games? 5-5 teams making the expanded playoffs? Leagues becoming obsolete?

I admire the Alliance for trying to make changes. The high school football season is too long and it’s time to get rid of St. Joseph-Trumbull versus O’Brien Tech in a state playoff game but man, Thanksgiving Day is sacred for high school football players. Besides the state basketball championship weekend at the Mohegan Sun, or the baseball finals at Palmer Field, Thanksgiving is the best day of the year for high school sports in this state.

More: NFA rolls past New London, finishes with three-game win streak

Growing up in Boston I always loved how the Boston Globe and Boston Herald would send every sports writer on the paper to cover Turkey Day games.  You’d see Dan Shaughnessy, Bob Ryan, Peter Gammons, Leigh Montville, and Kevin Paul Dupont out there filing stories about legendary rivalries.

*The Boston Celtics look like a juggernaut; a modernized version of the 1986 Celtics wonder team. Can we fast forward to a Celtics-Lakers NBA final right now?

*And hey, Taylor Shannon … How about those Boston Bruins? With their 9-0-1 start, the mighty Bruins are 80-14-6 over their last 100 regular season games.

*Putnam Middle School eighth-grader TJ Espinosa won the Boys QVJC cross country championship in thrilling fashion Wednesday, crossing the line less than one second ahead of Canterbury’s Lucas Hecker.

“My winning mindset helped me push through the finish line,” said Espinosa, whose time of 12:25.4 bested Hecker by seven-tenths of a second on the 2.1-mile course at Plainfield High School. “(Hecker) and I battled throughout the entire race. It was rewarding because of the hard work that I’ve put into running.”

Espinosa, an Elks Free Shooting champion, is the son of Putnam Science Academy prep basketball coach Tom Espinosa, who has guided the Mustangs to four national championships.

They’re going to need a bigger trophy room in the Espinosa household.

*STUCK IN THE ‘70s: On Nov. 5, 1978, the New England Patriots defeated the Buffalo Bills, 14-10, at Rich Stadium in Buffalo. Chuck Fairbanks’ squad took a page out of Killingly’s RPO playbook and got 128 rushing yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns from Horace Ivory, and 85 yards on 13 carries from Sam “Bam” Cunningham.

Patriots quarterback Steve Grogan completed just five passes, including two to the late Russ Francis. Joe Ferguson tossed a late TD pass to Bob Chandler for Chuck Knox’s Bills.

The Pats improved to 8-2 but failed to cover as nine-point road favorites.

Jimmy Zanor is a sportswriter for the Norwich Bulletin and can be reached at jzanor@norwichbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter@jzanorNB.

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: COLUMN: NFA girls soccer, Thanksgiving football, and other thoughts