King is playing in its second-straight New England Prep School Athletic Council championship game this Saturday. Its opponent in the Del Prete-Theobold Bowl is Suffield Academy, and game time is 1 p.m. at Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford.

Kingswood-Oxford is the site of last year’s bowl game loss by King, to the hands of Milton Academy.

By the way, there will be at least one familiar face on the Suffield Academy roster. Nick DiRubio, who was BlueStreak Sports Training’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2008, is doing a post-grad year at Suffield Academy, and is playing both linebacker and center.

Also, former FCIAC players Frank Granito (New Canaan) and Richie Edwards (Trumbull) will lead Canterbury up to Easthampton, MA to participate in NEPCAC’s Austin Bowl. Canterbury will play New Hampton in a 1 p.m. game Saturday.

Edwards is Canterbury’s leading rusher, and Granito leads the team with seven interceptions.

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Kurt Ondash has been voted the BlueStreak Sports Training Fairfield County Player of the Week for Thanksgiving Week.

The award, presented by the FCIAC Football Blog, went to Ondash for his performance against Darien in the FCIAC Championship Game. Ondash caught three passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns, had an interception, and defended three passes in New Canaan’s 28-20 win in front of 9,500 at Boyle Stadium.

Nine of the 14 media members who had the final ballot voted for Ondash.

Week 12 runner-ups were Giovanny Marmolejos (Central), Mike Pope (Trumbull), Richie Edwards (Trumbull), Matt White (Ridgefield), Nate Quinn (New Canaan), Matt Grant (Greenwich), Frank Wright (Wright Tech/Stamford Academy), and Andrew Fiamengo (New Fairfield).

The following media members voted: Rob Adams (WGCH-AM), Bill Bloxsom (Hersam-Acorn Newspapers), Zachary Eastright (WSTC-AM/WNLK-AM), Dan Farrand (News-Times), Scott Ferrari (Greenwich Citizen), Andy Hutchison (Newtown Bee), Jason A. Intrieri (FCIAC Football Blog Live), Ken Morse (Hersam-Acorn Newspapers), John Nash (The Stamford Times), Joe Ryan (freelancer), Eliot Schickler (Westport News), Dave Stewart (New Canaan Advertiser), Rob Sullivan (Minuteman Newspapers/Bridgeport Banner), Michael Suppe (Hersam-Acorn Newspapers).

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By Tim Parry

The media is going to hear it. Each and every one of us. Except maybe the Greenwich guys who whoop it up about the awesomeness known as the Cardinals.

The rest of us truly thought there was going to be a changing of the guard in the FCIAC. That after two seasons of Greenwich, New Canaan, and Staples dominance, we believed there was something new on the horizon. Like before Hanna hit last Saturday, there was a calm before a storm that was going to shake up the football landscape in Fairfield County.

We are suckers. We won’t apologize. We’ll admit we’re wrong, but we didn’t didn’t do anything that should make us get down on our knees and beg forgiveness.

We did believe Staples was going to defeat McMahon, and we were right… barely. The Wreckers showed complacence and had to remember what Staples football was all about before coming back to defeat the Senators.

For a while, we believed Central had a chance to defeat Greenwich. But by the time Hanna hit, we discovered that Central had some more vulnurabilities than the Cardinals. And we forgot something else: Greenwich is the two-time defending champ, and should be treated that was until proven otherwise.

We thought New Canaan was dead in the water, and we thought Richie Edwards and Michael Pope were going to lead Trumbull to the promised land. We thought New Canaan’s line was nowhere near as good as its passing attack. And the Rams owned the Eagles today, 41-13, with Nate Quinn throwing for six touchdowns (including three to Kurt Ondash).

And somehow we believed an unproven Norwalk team was going to wear the FCIAC crown. Last night, Ludlowe sent the shock heard around the state, and upset the Bears 17-14, coming from behind to win in Matt McCloskey’s head coaching deput on a last-second 29-yard field goal by Sean Anderson.

So what’s the deal? We drank the Kool-Ade. We believed what we saw on paper, which by the way, is the two deadliest words in sports when placed next to each other.

But wait – Friday begins another week. And chances are, we will take what we learned, and be wrong once again…

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By Tim Parry

Sean Patrick Bowley has an interesting feature today in The Post about Trumbull running back/defensive back/athlete Richie Edwards.

If you subscribe to the Post (which I no longer do) or picked it up at the newsstand (which I didn’t because I haven’t left my house today), you probably read it.

If you went to connpost.com’s home page, you probably missed it. You’d have to use the site’s local search, or tab down to High School Sports, to find it. And that’s not a good thing.

Yeah, I edited a few pieces for my day job about how the home page isn’t relevant anymore, and SEO is. But when your local newspaper’s Web site buries the high school football countdown – which is destined to be a huge driver of traffic – then something is wrong here.

If you’re looking to buy a helmet visor, yeah, you Google it and you compare prices, find out if you can pick one up in-store locally, and go from there. But an exclusive feature about a local athlete? You’re a lot less likely to do a search on that.

How did I find out about the Edwards story? Or for that matter The Post’s countdown? Facebook. The link to another countdown piece was posted there.

Anyway, The Post’s web staff may not help you out, so I will. Click here for the Post’s high school football page.

And while you’re at it, here’s another good-but-misplaced piece. It’s by Tom Renner of The Advocate, about the five starting running backs in Stamford, and it’s tossed on The Post’s site because it’s a sister publication.

That’s a no-no in the eyes of Google crawlers, which sees that for what it is, duplicate content. I’d love to see how those two articles do in the Google rankings.

I’m ready for my consultancy fee, Connecticut Post.

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Bunnell QB Chris Sloat

By Tim Parry

Week 1 (or Day of full pads is in the books, and maybe it’s time to hand the FCIAC football crown to Trumbull.

I know that would get your attention.

Definitely way too early to hand the crown to anyone. But Trumbull looked very good today against potentially unbeatable Bunnell. Mike Pope and company moved the ball well against the Bulldogs, and was very fired-up for the chance to take on the defending SWC and Class L champions.

And Pope didn’t have Richie Edwards, his star running back, on the field with him for all of Trumbull’s offensive possessions. Trumbull held Edwards, who was injured for most of last season, back a bit today.

Now that doesn’t mean Trumbull was perfect. Bunnell quarterback Chris Sloat was automatic when hooking up with Rutgers-bound WR Mark Harrison. No one is going to have an easy time hooking up with the 6-foot-4, 220-lb. receiver, and has worked hard with Sloat in the offseason to learn the game.

Here’s some other news from Trumbull, one that may surprise you, and may jinx the team. Harding looked pretty good. The Presidents held their own against Joel Barlow and they finally have some size on the line. They stumbled a bit against Bunnell (especially on defense) but that’s to be expected. Case in point on the first play between the two teams- Bunnell RB Oliver Aurelia broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage and broke away for a 40-yard touchdown.

The big difference this year, said Harding QB Jonathan Berrios – they aren’t fighting with each other on the field. It’s all about playing as a team.

Harding may not be in a position to win a lot of games this season, but hopefully the Presidents will be much more competitive on the field.

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Stratford quarterback Jeff Miller

By Tim Parry

The first scrimmage (that I’ve seen) of the season is in the books… and it is what it is. Trumbull head coach Bob Maffei summed it up best after his team hosted Stratford: “Not bad for just two days in pads.”

Trumbull returns Mike Pope at quarterback, he’s in sync with his receivers (that’s right, the Eagles will pass the ball), and RB/DB Richie Edwards is healthy.

Edwards showed Stratford why he will be one of the region’s best players this fall, too. he picked off two passes, he ran for a touchdown, and he grabbed a touchdown.

And Stratford’s offense – without Octavias McKoy and Torrey Mack in the backfield with Justin Shumyhora under center – is going through the same growing pains Trumbull experienced this time last year.

New Red Devils quarterback Jeff Miller looked sharp at times, especially when he found receiver Eric Eyerman on a short pass that became a 40-something yard touchdown, but he still needs some time to learn.

Now Trumbull didn’t look particularly huge on the line. But maybe it’s the gold practice jerseys? Maybe it’s a slimming effect? But three of the five starters on the line are back, so they have a legitimate chance to make things happen in the FCIAC.

Biggest thing Trumbull needs to do this season, according to Pope: Close out games. A video interview with Pope is coming soon, but he admits there were games where they mentally did not come out of the locker room for the second half.

I did not get a chance to introduce myself to Duane Shirden, the Stratford head coach, but did catch his son running around the sidelines. The Post’s Sean Patrick Bowley got him on video, and here’s the result (followed by scrimmage footage).

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