New Canaan began the season No. 1 in the Hartford Courant Top 10 State Football Coaches’ Poll and went on to prove it all season.
The Rams are a unanimous No. 1 in the final Top 10 poll of the season and finish first for the second year in a row.
New Canaan (13-0) beat Cheshire, 34-13, to win its fourth straight Class L state title on Saturday when all six championships were decided.
The Rams have been the team of the millennium, winning 14 of their 16 titles since 2001, and the 16 titles ties them with St. Joseph for the second most all-time behind Ansonia (22).
New Canaan is also the only state champion with a victory over another during the regular season — it beat LL champion Greenwich (14-7, Oct. 24).
Hand (12-1) is second after knocking off defending champion Killingly, 37-13, in the Class SS final for the program’s 15th state title.
Greenwich (11-2) is third after thrashing Southington, 45-6, to repeat as Class LL champion and earn its 11th state title.
Windsor (12-1) beat Bunnell, 23-13, in the Class MM final and moved up five spots to No. 4. It’s the program’s second state title.
Killingly (12-1) finished fifth after being No. 2 since late October. It had won a state-best 25 straight games.
Berlin (13-0) finished as the state’s only other unbeaten team and makes its season debut after a wild 20-15 win over Brookfield to win the Class M title, its second. Eli Rice scored on a go-ahead 80-yard kickoff return with 33 seconds left for the Redcoats.
Class S champion Sheehan (11-2) also makes its season debut. It beat Northwest Catholic in the title game, 21-7.
In an unusual quirk, St. Joseph (9-3) finished eighth and Brookfield (10-3) ninth, even though the latter beat the former in the Class M semis (6-3, Dec. 8).
The Cadets’ regular season performance may have been the reason it finished three points ahead of Brookfield as they played the state’s hardest schedule featuring nine playoff teams, including New Canaan. They were the only team to shutout the Class L champs’ offense but lost on a Pick Six (7-3, Oct. 4). They also beat Southington on the road (30-24, Sept. 26).
It was the second year in a row that Brookfield played for the M title. It also avenged last season’s 21-20 loss to St. Joseph in the M final.
Southington (9-4) rounds out the Top 10. It took a seven-game winning streak into the final with wins over Windsor (28-7, Nov. 7) and Cheshire (31-0, Nov. 27).
There’s only so much room in the final Top 10 because every state champion has been ranked most of the time. The head coaches respect just how hard it is to win a state title, and most put more weight on that than the regular season.
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Six state champs leaves room for just four more teams, and four ranked teams were pushed out of the Top 10 to end this season — Wilton (5), Fairfield Prep (7), New Britain (8) and Newtown (10). None reached the state finals but, like St. Joseph, proved their worth during the regular season.
Wilton (10-2) beat both Greenwich (7-3, Nov. 7) and Cheshire (28-21, Sept. 26).
Fairfield Prep (9-3) thrashed Sheehan (45-0, Sept. 19) and all its losses were to state champions. It both began and ended the season with a loss to Greenwich, 31-14 (Sept. 12), and 31-10 in the LL semis (Dec. 8). Its other loss was to Hand (20-17, Nov. 7).
New Britain (8-2) thumped Southington (42-13, Oct. 10).
Newtown (8-3) was the South-West Conference champion and beat both Bunnell (24-0, Oct. 17) and Brookfield (21-7, Oct. 24). Two of its three losses were to state champions, New Canaan (30-10, Sept. 12) and Windsor (34-31, Sept. 26).
One final team of note was Cheshire (9-4) because it beat two state champions — Hand (28-27, OT, Oct. 10) and Sheehan (14-7, Nov. 7).
State Coaches Poll Final Top 10
Listing final record, total points with first-place votes in parentheses, previous ranking and CIAC class. Points tabulated on a 30-28-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-11-10-9-8-7 basis:
1. New Canaan, 13-0, 390 (13), No. 1, Class L
KNOW THIS: The Rams’ four consecutive state titles puts them in a four-way tie for third best all-time, according to the Connecticut High School Football Record Book.
2. Hand, 12-1, 360, No. 3, Class SS
KNOW THIS: The fourth-smallest school in the Southern Connecticut Conference repeated as its league champ.
3. Greenwich, 11-2, 340, No. 6, Class LL
KNOW THIS: It’s won three of the last four LL titles.
4. Windsor, 12-1, 298, No. 9, Class MM
KNOW THIS: First-year head coach Quinn Fleeting and former coach Rob Fleeting join the rare list of fathers and sons who’ve both coached football teams to state titles.
5. Killingly, 12-1, 256, No. 2, Class SS
KNOW THIS: This has been the golden age of Trailblazers’ football. They’ve played in six state finals since 2017 and won three of the program’s five state titles over that time.
6. Berlin, 13-0, 241, NR, Class M
KNOW THIS: Hats off for winning a state title, Redcoats, and making it one of the most memorable in recent CIAC state finals history.
7. Sheehan, 11-2, 193, NR, Class S
KNOW THIS: The Titans are the SCC’s smallest school but beat three large-school programs.
8. St. Joseph, 9-3, 168, No. 4, Class M
KNOW THIS: Its opponents had a state-best 68-percent winning percentage (96-45).
9. Brookfield, 10-3, 165, NR, Class M
KNOW THIS: The Bobcats’ senior class went 22-4 the past two seasons.
10. Southington, 9-4, 160, NR, Class LL
KNOW THIS: Sophomore running back Ben Beaulieu had one of the wildest breakthroughs of the year. He was a third-stringer who had just 23 carries in the first seven games. He ran 118 times for 771 yards and 16 TDs after that.
Dropped out: Wilton (5), Fairfield Prep (7), New Britain (8), Newtown (10).
Also receiving votes: Cheshire (9-4), 155 points; Fairfield Prep (9-3), 149; Wilton (10-2), 140; Bunnell (10-3), 116; Newtown (8-3), 61; Northwest Catholic (11-2), 32; Woodland (11-1), 31; New Britain (8-2), 23; Fairfield Ludlowe (7-4), 18; Glastonbury (7-4), 10; Guilford (8-3), 9.
Voters: Erik Becker, Hand; Jason Bruenn, Platt; Joe Della Vecchia; St. Joseph; Mike Ellis; Fitch; Kevin Frederick, Maloney; Tanner Grove; Montville; Keith Hellstern, Fairfield Prep; Erick Knickerbocker, Rockville; Joe Lato; Woodland; John Mihalko, Ansonia; Bryan Muller; Brookfield; Marce Petroccio; Trumbull; Nathan Tyler, Stratford.
Ned Griffen has obsessively covered state high school football since the mid-nineties, back when Dan Orlovsky was just a wiry teenager at Shelton High School. He was genetically hardwired to love the sport having been born in Texas. He enjoys heavy metal, pro wrestling, the wit and wisdom of Jennifer Walters and being adored by cats and dogs everywhere.