The NVL Football Blog: November 2009

2009 CIAC PLAYOFFS

All games will be played Tuesday, December 1st at 6:30pm.

Ansonia (8-2) at Northwest Catholic (9-1)

The Chargers enter the Class S field as the #4 seed and travel to West Hartford to face the #1 seed Indians.

The Chargers come into this game riding the Kinnebrew wave. He's been a beast the last three games. Dobbs is still a play-maker, so NW will have to worry about him, too.

I haven't seen NW this season but know that they have a good sophomore running back, which they call the "A-Train", although he is 5'5'' 140lbs. Coach Brockett says they are a very good team. I've heard good things about their defense. I know one thing - Ansonia's line has to show-up if the Chargers have any shot at leaving West Hartford with the win.

Ansonia has definitely hit its stride in the last month and their running game has been scary good. Many sports writers believe the Chargers are still the team to beat in this Class S field despite being the #4 seed. I don't know about all that (haven't seen the other teams this season), but I do know they are playing great right now and anything can happen.

St. Paul (8-2) at New Canaan (9-1)

This would be the upset of the year, as far as I'm concerned. I saw game footage of New Canaan vs Greenwich and vs Central. NC played good down the stretch vs Greenwich and got man-handled by Central. They've been a great team over the course of the last few years, so St. Paul will definitely have their hands full.

I saw St. Paul play Ansonia just a few weeks ago and they have big-play ability. Their speediest guy is #1, who plays WR and slot back. They also have Byron Jones, the 6'2'' UConn-bound WR. The Bachand brothers (QB and RB) are good athletes. I don't know much about New Canaan's secondary but I do know they have some big kids up front. If they get the rush on St. Paul, it will be a long game for the Falcons. St. Paul's o-line needs to block well in order to give the Falcons any chance in this one.

St. Joe's (8-2) at Holy Cross (9-1) (Municipal Stadium)

As we NVL guys know, St. Joe's hammered Crosby to start the season. But then again, Crosby '09 wasn't the Crosby we saw in '08. It seemed like a very big win for St. Joe's at the moment. In any case, St. Joe's is still a quality team and the likely favorite to win the Class SS title this season, after falling into the playoffs with Wolcott losing to HC in the NVL championship.

We all know Holy Cross looked very good to start the season. They began to hit some bumps later in the season and got shut-out by Naugatuck - a team no one thought had a chance to win that game. Which Holy Cross team will show-up against St. Joe's? That's the question of the week.

St. Joe's played New Canaan tough last month (35-25 loss). Their only other loss was to Greenwich. However, St. Joe's did beat Darien, a team that lost to New Canaan last week, 14-7.

This is an awesome match-up.