Listen to the Woodland-Naugatuck game starting at 6:50 p.m. here or on 1320 AM.
I talked to a couple of league athletic directors Thursday night and I've been told that the tiebreaker used to determine division champions has been slightly altered. This should become official at some point Friday, but I did my investigative journalistic work and found out the following: To make a long story short, the winner of Friday's Naugatuck-Woodland game will be the Copper Division champion regardless of what happens in Week 9. Just the way we'd like to see it.
There was some ambiguity in the previous tiebreaker text, so when determining division champions, division record is the first criterion. We originally interpreted the first tiebreaker as overall record, but it was intended to mean overall record in the division. The second criterion that will now be used is head-to-head. Overall record is "somewhere below that," as one athletic director told me, so that won't come into play.
Games we'll be paying special attention to (in addition to the obvious) include Ansonia-St. Paul and Kennedy-Holy Cross. The Chargers and Crusaders are the only other NVL teams in action Friday that have a chance at the playoffs.
Any reaction from Sacred Heart's 42-27 win over Torrington Thursday night? It sounds surprising to me. I didn't expect the Hearts to win, let alone by two scores. That loss completely eliminated the Raiders from the playoff picture while the Hearts are still alive.
