State Tournament Begins Saturday: Staples At Manchester
For Staples, the road to the state championship begins Saturday in Manchester.
The Wreckers — 9-7-0, and ranked #21 in class “LL” (extra large schools) — travel upstate, to face the 9-4-3, #12 seeded Red Hawks. Kickoff is 11 a.m. Click here for directions.
This will be the 13th meeting between the 2 schools. Two were in the regular season during the 1960s, when Staples had to travel to find strong competition. The rest were in the state tourney.
The Wreckers hold a 9-3 edge. The most recent match was 2021, when the Westporters won 4-0 en route to the state semifinals. Staples has won the last 4 contests, dating back to 1986.
The game is one of 9 “LL” tournament openers involving FCIAC teams. Unlike many years, there is only 1 matchup between 2 league teams: #13 Stamford and #20 Ridgefield.
Other games include #3 Greenwich vs. #30 Southington; #8 Trumbull vs. #26 Amity-Woodbridge; #9 Danbury vs. #24 South Windsor; #11 Brien McMahon vs. #22 West Haven; #14 Fairfield Ludlowe vs. #19 Wilbur Cross-New Haven; #15 Danbury vs. #18 Fairfield Prep, and #27 Norwalk vs. #6 Maloney-Meriden.
#1 Notre Dame-West Haven (15-0-1) and #2 Naugatuck (13-0-3) are the only teams in the 32-team bracket with first-round byes. Teams must have at least a .400 record to qualify. Click here for full brackets.
QUICK KICKS: One other FCIAC team — New Canaan — is competing in the state tournament. The Rams are #27 in “L” (large schools), and face #6 Bunnell-Stratford….
Tonight (Tuesday) was the FCIAC final. #1 Greenwich scored in the final 6:31 to beat #7 Stamford 1-0, and remain undefeated (15-0-3). It was the first FCIAC crown for the Cards since 2017, and 2nd straight loss in the league final for the Knights.
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