It’s five days till Friday. And I am sure there are a lot of people who are still in shock about the FCIAC Championship Game match-up: Staples vs. Bridgeport Central.

Maybe the fans aren’t as surprised at Staples, which rose to its own challenge of playing Staples football. In the preseason, both Marce Petroccio and Brandon Pacilio talked about how the team’s chemistry improved through graduation and camaraderie, and how playing Staples football was more than just having an “S” on a silver helmet.

Okay, maybe Staples still is a surprise. Pacilio, the quarterback, went down with a season-ending broken leg in Week 6. Some of the media reports between that game at Harding and Keith Gelman’s first start at Ludlowe made it sound like doom and gloom, like Staples would crumble without its leader.

But Gelman proved he could be plugged into the Wreckers’ system, and that Staples would still be Staples.

Bridgeport Central was left for dead after its 21-0 loss to Trumbull in Week 4. Now everyone is scratching their head, wondering what Trumbull did to stop the Hilltoppers’ explosive offense.

It appears the Hilltoppers just didn’t show up that day, and learned from its mistake, which may keep Central from the CIAC Class LL playoffs. Something to point out here: the FCIAC Championship Games does not count in the state playoff rankings because it is not a regularly-scheduled contest.

Central is fourth in Class LL, but can be leapfrogged by Cheshire next Saturday, if it defeats West Haven. The Hilltoppers should defeat Harding on Thanksgiving, but won’t pick up many bonus points by defeating the Presidents and ultimately could need Greenwich to beat Staples to secure a state playoff spot.

So Friday, Central is really playing for everything.

You’ll see in this video that Bridgeport Central did a tremendous job keeping King stars Silas Redd and Kevin Pierre-Louis in check during an early September scrimmage. Say what you want about King, playing in the FAA and whatnot. But you can’t put any running back in the league on the same pedastool as Redd and Pierre-Louis.

Central is also, without a doubt, the most physican and athletic team in the FCIAC. Not only do the Hilltoppers hit, they hit people hard.

So what do you think? Do Christon Gill, Shabashe McIntosh, Dominick Luckey, Ernest Wiggans, Lucas Desousa, Christian Bish and Damien Francis bring its first FCIAC championship to Bridgeport Central? Or does Gelman, Ryan Burke, Matt Kelly, Jake Santora, Brendan Rankowitz, Devin Graber, Adam Rosenbloom and Santiago Caurtas give the Wreckers its first FCIAC title since 2003?

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The Road to Boyle still has a potentially major traffic jam. But the FCIAC divisional titles have already been decided.

Welcome to the crazy 2009 season. All three races were decided on Friday night, meaning three schools could have received their championship plaques before their Halloween candy.

Let the record show that Bridgeport Central is the 2009 FCIAC West Champion. The Hilltoppers finished division play with a 4-1 record, the same as Greenwich, but obviously holds the tiebreaker with its 14-13 Week 6 win over the Cardinals.

According to the standings, Staples is the 2009 FCIAC Central Champion. The Wreckers’ 38-0 win over Ludlowe gave it a perfect 5-0 record amongst division rivals. Even more impressive, Staples outscored its divisonal opponents 195-6.

Last but not least, New Canaan is the 2009 FCIAC East Champion. Even if New Canaan loses Thanksgiving morning to Darien, the Rams would have the same 5-1 divisional record at St. Joseph, and New Canaan would have the tiebreaker based on its 35-25 win over the Cadets (or Hogs).

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Bridgeport Central quarterback/defensive back Christon Gill sent his video highlights out to a bunch of colleges and reporters last week. This is the preseason and the first five games of the regular season. It’s nine minutes long, so you know there’s a lot of highlights.

I will be posting Stamford linebacker Patrick Atkinson’s highlights later this week, probably tomorrow or Friday.

Got a highlight reel? Let me know.

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The Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance released its preseason poll today, and New Canaan is on top. This is the first mega-poll by the group, according to poll co-organizer Ken Lipshez of the New Britain Herald. Lipshez says there are 40 writers from around the state voting in the poll, and that includes folks from daily and weekly newspapers, radio and TV outlets and electronic media guys like me. I’m proud and humbled.

I should have written my 15 teams down so I could discuss it later. As for FCIAC teams, I believe I included New Canaan, Central, Trumbull and Greenwich within the Top 15.

Anyway, here’s the results:

Also Receiving Votes: New London 12-1-0 161; Montville 9-3-0 140; Cheshire 10-3-0 136; Daniel Hand 7-4-0 130; Hillhouse 11-1-0 130; Shelton 7-4-0 120; Darien 11-2-0 116; Ledyard 10-3-0 77; Staples 6-5-0 65; Notre Dame-West Haven 4-6-0 58; Ridgefield 8-3-0 35; Crosby 9-2-0 28; Southington 7-4-0 24; Xavier 7-4-0 24; Windsor 9-3-0 22; Berlin 6-4-0 20; Bunnell 9-2-0 17; Fitch 2-9-0 14; Newtown 9-4-0 13; Northwest Catholic 8-2-0 12; Simsbury 9-3-0 12; West Haven 6-4-0 12; Wilbur Cross 6-5-0 12; Trumbull 7-3-0 11; Newington 10-3-0 10; Pomperaug 6-5-0 10; Bloomfield 5-6-0 8; Bridgeport Central 3-8-0 7; Rocky Hill 10-2-0 7; Canton 2-9-0 5; Hyde Leadership 9-3-0 5; Cheney Tech 10-1-0 4; Avon 9-3-0 3; St. Joseph 6-5-0 2; North Branford 10-2-0 1; Norwich Free Academy 6-4-0 1

Voters: Marc Allard (Norwich Bulletin), Bob Barton, Bill Bloxsom (Hersam Acorn), Don Boyle (Sporting News CT), Jim Bransfield (Middletown Press), Johnny Burnham (Bristol Press), Bryant Carpenter (Meriden Record-Journal), Bryant Carpenter (Meriden Record-Journal), Matt Conyers (Hartford Courant), Ray Curren (Elm City Newspapers), Anthony Della Calce (Central CT weeklies), George DeMaio (WELI Radio), Gerry deSimas, Bill Donovan (WXLM 104.7 FM), John Goralski (Southington Observer), Dave Greenleaf (CCC website), Mike Guerrera (Southington Citizen), Mark Jaffee (Waterbury Republican), Larry Kelley (Times Community Newspapers), Greg Lederer (Cheshire Herald), Ken Lipshez (New Britain Herald), Andrew Lovell (New Britain Herald), Robert Mayer (Berlin/Plainville Citizen), Tim Parry (FCIAC Football Blog), Sean Patrick Bowley (Connecticut Post), Joe Perez (Norwich Bulletin), Pat PIckens (Fairfield Citizen-News), Ryan Pipke (New Britain Herald), Mike Pucci (New Haven Register), Jesse Quinlan (Greenwich Time), Dave Ruden (Stamford Advocate), Steve Sellers (Shore Publishing Newspapers), Mike Suppe (Hersam Acorn Newspapers), Peter Vander Veer (Elm City Newspapers), Tom Yantz (Hartford Courant), Rich Zalusky (Willimantic Chronicle), Jimmy Zanor (Shore Line Newspapers)

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Talk about an equipment malfunction. The Mini DV I used today to record interviews with Bullard-Havens head coach John Johnson, Harding head coach James Morris and Central quarterback Christon Gill was destroyed while it was being uploaded to my computer.

Remember those old cassette tapes that would snap in your car stereo and unravel all over the place? Yeah, kinda like that.

I’ll still have posts, but I just wanted to apologize to Morris and Gill, who I put on the spot. An for Johnson… his footage survived.

Popularity: 8% [?]