Schedules for area high school football teams released

Are you ready for some football?

Middletown High squeezed in New London under the wire to fill out its 10-game schedule for the new season, which the Blue Dragons kick off Sept. 7 at home against Wethersfield.

Middletown had two opens dates as recently as two weeks ago, but athletic director Elisha De Jesus and her New London counterpart found a date that worked for both. The Blue Dragons and Whalers agreed to play Nov. 15 at 6 p.m. at Rosek-Skubel Stadium.

“We’ve been scrambling to fill the open date. We were lucky,” De Jesus said. “New London wanted to play us, so we worked around our schedules. We connected and we collaborated.”

The Whalers replace Hudson Catholic Regional of Jersey City on Middletown’s schedule. The Blue Dragons, in need of a 10th opponent last season as well, traveled to New Jersey for the one-time game and beat the Green Wave 23-12.

This will be the last time Middletown has to search high and low to get to 10. Lewis Mills of Burlington is expected to join the Central Connecticut Conference in 2019-2020 in all sports, and would give the conference an even 32 football teams. Mills is expected to be on the Dragons’ 2019 football schedule.

All schedules for the fall sports season have been finalized and are available at ciacsports.com.

Middletown will be going for a seventh straight playoff appearance in Class L. The Dragons were 10-0 in the regular season last year, but as the top seed in Class L had to contend with New Canaan, a four-time state champion the five previous seasons. Middletown lost at home 24-9.

After this fall’s opener against Wethersfield, Middletown won’t play at home against until its Oct. 12 homecoming game versus Farmington. In between are road games at Bristol Eastern, Hartford Public (the only Saturday game on the schedule) and Bristol Central, followed by a bye the first weekend of October.

The Dragons will play E.O. Smith in Storrs on Oct. 19, host Newington on Oct. 26, take the next weekend off, and then play three times in a 13-day stretch: At Platt on Nov. 9, home against New London the following Thursday, and home against Windsor on Nov. 21 to wrap up the regular

season.

Coach Sal Morello opts against spring ball, instead choosing to start preseason practice a week earlier in August. His players spend several days per week in June and July in the weight room and building team camaraderie.

“We’re just keeping up with the Joneses,” Morello said. “The margin for error in this sport is very small.”

The Blue Dragons’ first practice is Aug. 13.

At Xavier, the Falcons, who were 4-6 last season, open with road games at Norwich Free Academy on Sept. 7 and at Shelton on Sept. 14. Their first home game is the following Friday against Wilbur Cross.

Five of Xavier’s 10 opponents made the playoffs last season, with Greenwich winning the championship in Class LL. The other four were a combined 33-7 in the regular season.

Following the Cross game, the Falcons play at West Haven, then are off the first weekend in October. From there, they host Notre Dame of West Haven and then Fairfield Prep, visit North Haven, host Hamden and West Haven, and finish the regular season at Greenwich on Nov. 15.Cromwell/Portland, coming off an eight-win season, opens at home against Rockville on Sept. 7. The Panthers’ also will host Haddam-Killingworth (Sept. 28), Coginchaug/ Hale-Ray (Oct. 6), Nonnewaug (Nov. 10) and Rocky Hill (Nov. 21) at Pierson Park.

Coginchaug/Hale-Ray (6-4 last season) plays four of its first six games away from home. There are road games against Canton on Sept. 8 and H-K on Sept. 14, a Sept. 22 home game against Valley Regional/Old Lyme, a bye, a visit to Cromwell on Oct. 6 and a home game the following Saturday against the Windsor Locks/Suffield/East Granby co-op.

The second half of the Blue Devils’ schedule looks like this: at Lewis Mills, home to Old Saybrook/ Westbrook and Nonnewaug, at Morgan and home to North Branford.

Vinal Tech/East Hampton opens its season with back-to-back Friday night games at Palmer Field -against ATI on Sept. 14 and MCW United on Sept. 21. Vinal’s win last season over MCW was its only victory. The Hawks’ other games at Palmer this fall are Oct. 26 against O’Brien Tech, Nov. 16 against Platt Tech and Nov. 21 against Wilcox Tech.