CIAC playoff system proves many wrong, but Techs still need a home

GROTON — As Thames River coach Craig Sylvester stood there after this season-ending loss, it was impossible not to feel sorry for him.

His co-operative team of two tech schools, Grasso and Norwich, along with St. Bernard went 10-0 in the regular season and outscored opponents, 485-19. Starters would come out at halftime. A running clock is employed by CIAC jurisdiction when leads grow to 35. The record will show it was used often for Thames River in 2022.

The average winning margin was 48.5 to 1.9.

An interesting, painful juxtaposition.

For on Tuesday night in the opening round of the Class MM playoffs, Thames River was beaten by a nearly identical score of 50-0 by North Haven. The running clock started with more than three minutes left in the third quarter.

“To be 10-0, co-champions in our tech (CTC) league and have the first playoff game for these seniors, I told them I’m proud of them,” Sylvester said. “The scoreboard’s not what we wanted, but don’t take that as a defeat. Guess what? You put TRC on the map. You were the first group to get this program into the playoffs. Nobody can ever take that away from you. Keep your heads

high.”

Walking off the new turf field at Grasso Tech toward my car, absorbing 50-0, I began checking quarterfinal scores from around the state on my iPhone.

And guess what? This was the most lopsided game.

If you were among those who believed the opening round of the new six-division playoff format would bring nothing more than a slew of ho-hum blowouts you believed wrong.

Five schools in the GameTime CT Top 10 poll had their seasons abruptly ended Tuesday night. Yes, five, including No. 1 Southington, No. 2 St. Joseph and No. 5 West Haven, which had been No. 1 in the previous poll.

Lower seedings, specifically in Class MM where co-ops and tech schools enter with better records and worse chances, don’t always mean much. Still, 11 of the 24 lower seeds won on the road, including three in LL and two in L — where the top teams often hold serve.

Overall, this was some night.

If you were among those who believed the history of lopsided scores in a fourdivision, eight-team format

would only multiply with a six-division, eight-team formula, guess what?

Again, you believed wrong.

The average quarterfinal score Tuesday was 33.0412.92. A margin of 21.12.

The average quarterfinal score in 2021 was 35.8-14.6. That’s a margin of 21.2. A wash.

Looking back, the previous five-year average score of four-division quarterfinal games was 37.2-11.67. That’s an average margin of 25.5.

In short, fears of blowouts everywhere were unfounded.

And, lastly, if you believe Connecticut is totally out of whack with some regional counterparts, guess what? Wrong again.

In 2022, Massachusetts had 128 teams qualify in eight divisions for the state playoffs among 275 schools. That’s 45.5 percent.

Rhode Island had 24 schools qualify in four divisions among 43 schools. That’s 55.8 percent.

Even after the bump from 32 to 48 schools among 132 schools, that’s still 36.6 percent qualifying for the CIAC layoffs.

Any argument that entirely too many teams are in the Connecticut playoffs must come with the caveat, “But, hey, it’s much worse in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.”

Let’s face it, there are some old school folks who’d like to have 16 total teams in the playoffs. They are the ones usually wearing the leather helmets and cursing the forward pass standing next to you in the restroom at halftime.

Now, let’s look around the country. Connecticut had 3.6 million people in the 2020 census. Kansas has six playoff divisions for 11-man football, two for eight-man football and another for six-man. It has a population of 2.9 million. Nebraska, with a 2020 census population of 1.96 million, has seven championship finals.

Maybe you are among those who believe because Connecticut is a smaller state geographically that somehow it should equate to fewer classes. News flash: Carl Benz invented the first motorized bus in 1895. It’s number of schools not square miles that matter.

The point here is Connecticut is not some kind of three-headed anomaly in numbers of teams and divisions. The anomaly is Connecticut playing its final regular season games on Thanksgiving and being forced to go to more divisions because of the latest championship dates.

Long story short after Year 1 quarterfinals: Those 88 percent of the coaches and 90 percent of the athletic directors, who according to a CIAC survey supported the new system, don’t look to be out of their minds today.

“There were some complaints that the LL bracket was already set two weeks ago,” North Haven coach Tony Sagnella said. “But if you are a fan of football, it’s a hell of a bracket. I think everybody thought L would be THE bracket, but LL is beautiful.”

Southington lost to Trumbull. West Haven lost to Glastonbury. In L, St. Joe’s lost to Cheshire. There were a number of frantic finishes. It was a wild night.

The MM craziness, of course, was in the regular season with teams like North Haven, Masuk, Windsor (who missed the playoffs) and Wilton slogging it out against tough competition, while Thames River, Northwest United and SMSA all went undefeated with much easier schedules. Those No. 1, 2 and 4 seeds all went down Tuesday night.

“I told you a few weeks back, if we get in we will have earned it,” said Sagnella, whose team went 8-2 in the regular season with wins over Shelton and Cheshire and losses to Notre Dame-WH and Fairfield Prep by a total of 10 points. “Our kids know what it takes. That’s a credit to our schedule. It’s no knock on these programs.

Iron sharpens iron. Not that we’re the best team around but we can compete with just about anybody.”

North Haven is not a flashy aerial circus. Sagnella has long employed a single-wing attack. North Haven grinds and grinds. And on this night, North Haven grinded for 360 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns.

The Outlow brothers, Ryan and Justin, and Seth Cunningham ran up big numbers in the regular season for Thames River. Not in this one. A late run of 50 yards by Justin Outlaw gave TRC 130 total yards.

North Haven now has five shutouts and allowed only 76 points in 11 games.

“This might have been the first time they saw a defense that might have been in the right places all the time,” Sagnella said. “They surprised me in the first quarter with how physical they were playing. You don’t see that on the film. I give their coaches and players a whole lot of credit. They weren’t shying away. They were fired up to meet the challenge.”

It was 16-0 late in the first half when North Haven went on a 13-play, 65-yard drive, grinding, grinding, that ended with Cam Thompson scoring from 1-yard out with 22 seconds left.

“We started to operate at the line and try to speed up the tempo a little,” Sagnella said. “They look like they were getting a little tired, a little weary. That drive might have broken their spirit a little bit.”

When Thames River finally looked like it might score in the second half, Jeff Karavas, who ran for a touchdown and 75 yards, picked off a pass at the goal line.

“He’s tough as nails,” Sagnella said. “He’s always happy. He’s that leader we look to. He’s our guy. He’s the heartbeat of our offense.”

Thames River did step out of the CTC to rout Class S Montville and Plainfield this year. With the CTC now in the Alliance, Sylvester is looking for a team or two to play that are physical and TRC can match up against.

Or maybe these tech co-ops can find a division of their own.

“North Haven is a great team, very well coached,” Sylvester said. “I think they’re the best team in (MM). We played with them in the first half. We have a lot of kids who go both ways. We just got worn down. They just pounded us down.”