It’s been a topsy-turvy season so far

Following a relatively convincing victory over Ridgefield in Week 2, Greenwich was regarded as one of the state’s best teams. The Cardinals headed to Shelton unbeaten and ranked No. 4 in the GameTimeCT Top 10 poll, down a spot from No. 3, but nonetheless a favorite in that game.

Shelton thumped ’em, 35-14, behind 332 yards and five touchdowns rushing. It was Greenwich’s worst regular-season defeat since 2016 (40-16 to New Canaan).

The Gaels, who’d only beaten Amity 14-0 the week before, headed to Trumbull undefeated and ranked No. 7 in the GameTimeCT Top 10 poll.

They were considerable favorites against a 1-1 Trumbull squad that had beaten 0-3 Ludlowe on a fluke 2-point conversion run and lost to a Staples squad that had just been steamrolled by No. 8-ranked Cheshire, 42-14, in Week 3.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one.

Trumbull barely broke a sweat in crushing the Shelton 41-7. The Gaels managed just 79 yards rushing while Trumbull’s Corbin Smith and Co. amassed 462 total yards and five touchdowns. It was Shelton’s worst regular-season loss in nine years and was, perhaps, the most obvious example of how teams have fared so far in this topsyturvy 2021 season.

Shelton was one of five teams ranked in the GameTimeCT Top 10 poll to lose last week — four coming against unranked teams. Unranked Hall, Ridgefield, Trumbull and Norwalk beat No. 4 Southington, No. 5 Newtown, No. 7 Shelton and No. 8 Cheshire, respectively.

Greenwich, which had dropped to No. 9, defeated No. 6 Fairfield Prep in a sloppy, but needed 14-7 bounce-back victory.

There were other intriguing downballot results, which all seemed to confirm a common fear throughout the preseason: that lack of a 2020 season and just three weeks of preseason practice were going to result in halfbaked teams and inconsistent results — especially while playing between two and four Connecticut HS Football Alliance crossover games.

“Everybody’s expecting big wins and four-touchdown leads, but that’s not the schedule we have and that’s not the kind of team we have,” Greenwich coach Anthony Morello said. “We’re two years removed. We have freshmen and sophomores starting on this team. We have a lot of young guys, talented young guys and great senior leadership.

“But it’s not your prototypical fall football season. There are so many other elements that are coming into it and you’re seeing it all over the state, with a big win from a team one week and then a loss from that same team the next week.”

In order to get the result his team desperately needed, Morello had senior offensive lineman and captain Michael Sinisi play defense. He hadn’t played there since youth football.

Another factor is how many players are forced to sit due to positive COVID positive tests or other precautions, like contact tracing for unvaccinated.

Though impossible to quantify, the issue exists anecdotally in game postponements (there were three this week) and in postgame interviews.

Junior Chris Reinhardt, whose interception clinched Ridgefield’s 10-7 victory over No. 5 Newtown, had missed the team’s previous game and the entire week of practice due a positive COVID test that later came back negative, coach Kevin Callahan said.

If there was one consistency in Week 4, it was the FCIAC.

All four ranked FCIAC teams won, including the GameTimeCT’s Top 3: No. 1 Darien crushed Norwich Free Academy 49-7, No. 2 St. Joseph hammered Xavier No. 3 New Canaan.

The FCIAC was also responsible for four of the other Top 10 losses and could dominate the next Top 10 poll come Monday evening.

ALLIANCE UPDATE

Week 4 marked the second of four big weekend of the Connecticut HS Football Alliance, the crossover scheduling arrangement between the big five Connecticut football leagues intended to promote games between programs of relatively equal size and strength.

There were 26 crossover games scheduled and 23 games played as of Sunday. Two games were postponed to later dates, Hamden at McMahon (to Wednesday) and Amity at Westhill (to Monday).

Only one game, East Haven at Killingly, was postponed indefinitely due to COVID-related precautions on East Haven’s side.

Nineteen of the 23 games were between the FCIAC, SWC and SCC.

Bolstered by a threegame sweep Saturday, the FCIAC had the best weekend of the five leagues: 9-5 with a game to play.

The league was 6-3 against the SCC, 2-2 against the SWC and 1-0 against the ECC. The SWC went 5-6 overall, including 2-2 vs. the FCIAC and 2-4 vs. the SCC.

The SCC went 7-10 overall. The ECC went 1-1 and the CCC went 0-1. Capital Prep, and independent team, went 1-0 vs. the SCC.

Overall, the average margin of victory was 19.4, up from 17.8 the week before.

The largest margin of victory was Capital Prep’s 46-point win over Bassick, followed by Staples’ 45point victory over Wilbur Cross and Darien’s 42-point victory over NFA.

The lowest margin of victory were three, onepoint games, including Notre Dame-West Haven’s 36-35 OT win over Wilton.

Four games were decided by 3 points or less. Eight games were decided by eight points or less and 11 by 14 points or less. On the otherside, 12 were decided by more than 14 points, including nine by 28 points or more.

Week 5 is a bye week for a good portion of the state’s teams — including the majority of the FCIAC, SCC, SWC and ECC. There are only 42 games scheduled, including four Alliance games.

QUOTABLE

“Because we needed to stop the run and it looks like we did that.” — Greenwich senior Michael Sinisi on why he was tapped to play defense for the first time since youth football. The Cardinals did the job, beating No. 6 Fairfield Prep 14-7.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

675 — Days between Avon’s last game in 2019 and its first game of 2021 — the state’s longest stretch over the pandemic seasons. Avon, which the first three weeks on the sidelines due to COVID quarantines, finally kicked off its 2021 season on Friday and defeated Northwest Catholic 20-15. It’s last game was a 47-10 loss to Simsbury on Nov. 26, 2019.

14:16 — Total game time expired when Darien replaced senior starting quarterback Miles Drake with senior backup Connor Palen. Darien had scored 35 points (28 in the first quarter) en route to an eventual 49-7 wipeout of Norwich Free Academy.