Connecticut 2024

[jmct]

Ridgefield 13, Manhassett 5.

[justanotherperson]

Not shocked by the loss but shocked by the margin as New Canaan beat cheshire 14-8. Anyone have any intel on this game. NC defense may be legit

[BlueWarrior]

Not shocked by the loss but shocked by the margin as New Canaan beat cheshire 14-8. Anyone have any intel on this game. NC defense may be legit

And maybe Cheshire knew what they were doing by staying "down" after all.

[connecticutlaxfan]

Great day of lacrosse yesterday! The weather definitely played a factor in all of the games.

Ridgefield beating Manhasset by that much is very impressive. I watched a good portion of the game and Kyle Colsey certainly looks the part of a top 5 player in the country. He was involved in most of their offense. Ridgefield's defense held up well and the goalie seemed to play a solid game. Manhasset is definitely worse than last year but a really great result for a young Ridgefield team. Overall, it was the special teams (faceoffs and goaltending) that won it for Ridgefield (in my eyes).

Cheshire - New Canaan was certainly interesting. I haven't watched the whole game yet, but from what I've seen New Canaan looked very strong. The players who were out against Mamaroneck, specifically Doster Crowell, were back and didn't miss a beat. The defense looked super strong (as expected) although it's interesting that they're splitting time between two goalies (a sophomore and a freshman!). The biggest thing that lost it for Cheshire was the faceoffs in my eyes. New Canaan's JT O'Neil (Army) certainly seemed to win a large majority and added a goal to go along with that. Cheshire, partly because Grove is rock solid, partly because they haven't played many great FOGO's, isn't used to losing faceoffs and I think that sent things spiraling. Good for NC and O'Neil though, who probably established himself as the top FOGO in the state.

Greenwich got revenge on St. Joe's from last year, albeit in very close fashion (9-8 final). The livestream was pretty bad so I'm not totally sure how things went - if anyone has any additional insight please share.

[blue angels]

Ridgefield has another rising Colsey star. The 9th grader is also a handful,

[justanotherperson]

Not shocked by the loss but shocked by the margin as New Canaan beat cheshire 14-8. Anyone have any intel on this game. NC defense may be legit

And maybe Cheshire knew what they were doing by staying "down" after all.

So true, I think they should have stayed down but I am in the minority likely

[tmast33]

HELP PLEASE! I can't find location for live stream of Brunswick v Darien. Thanks.

[random observer]

HELP PLEASE! I can't find location for live stream of Brunswick v Darien. Thanks.

Will be livestreamed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnhkrKtNYa8

Coming into the season this felt like a good matchup on paper. Sadly I'm not so sure that will be the case given Darien's injuries. Brunswick is always up for this game, but they will be especially amped to avenge last year's loss. There is some depth to Darien on offense, but Pokorny is their superstar and without him the Wave will not be nearly as potent. Throw in the loss of Max McBride, who started at midfield as a freshman (and I believe was slated to take that third attack spot) and Darien is down their top two dodging threats. They are also down their top eraser on the other end of the field: Mark McNamara was the only returning starter on close defense, and did a great job on Peyton Anderson last year.

I'm assuming all three will be out for this game, which spells serious trouble. Darien is once again weak at the face-off X (they barely had the ball at all in the second half against Fairfield Prep), so expect Brunswick to dominate possessions and wear out the Darien defense. Ultimately I'm picturing a 6-7 goal win for the Bruins. Maybe something like 12-5.

[tmast33]

Thank you.

[FC_YAK]

Darien v Brunswick was not a close game. Darien poles are really solid but D-mids got worked all night. They would have beaten prep with pokorny but such is life.

NC looks like the top team to me. Taking down Cheshire and two of the top Westchester teams to start the year is impressive.

Ridgefield win over Manhasset was also impressive. Colsey looks unstoppable.

Staples will be there in the end and have looked solid. Good win vs Rye today.

Wilton looks like they have a lot of work to do. I know they are young but a loss to a very mediocre Stepinac team today does not bode well. No offense at all. They started slow last year too but this team doesn’t appear to have much talent. Been a loooooooong time since I have seen a wilton team look this bad.

[jmct]

Ridgefield 10, Yorktown 6. . . At Tiger Hollow tonight.

Yorktown's star goalie (Mezzatesta)made some big saves or the margin could have been greater.

[justanotherperson]

A lot of cross border battles yesterday:

In favor of NY:
-Iona beat Weston 16-3
-Chaminade beat Prep 12-10
-Mamaroneck beat Greenwich 10-9
-Stepinac beat Wilton 7-5

In favor of CT:
-Staples beat Rye 5-4
-New Fairfield beat Wappingers 9-2
-Ridgefield beat Yorktown 10-6

Others:
-Cheshire beat La Salle (RI) 14-13
-Duxbury (MA) beat St Joes 15-8

[FC_YAK]

Blue wave looking good up 12-2 on Manhasset at half. Moving the ball really well and playing aggressive on offense.

[Kismet]

Final - Wave over Manhasset 20-4. Ouch!

[random observer]

Darien v Brunswick was not a close game. Darien poles are really solid but D-mids got worked all night. They would have beaten prep with pokorny but such is life.

NC looks like the top team to me. Taking down Cheshire and two of the top Westchester teams to start the year is impressive.

Ridgefield win over Manhasset was also impressive. Colsey looks unstoppable.

Staples will be there in the end and have looked solid. Good win vs Rye today.

Wilton looks like they have a lot of work to do. I know they are young but a loss to a very mediocre Stepinac team today does not bode well. No offense at all. They started slow last year too but this team doesn’t appear to have much talent. Been a loooooooong time since I have seen a wilton team look this bad.

Darien/Brunswick not close but also not entirely un-competitve either. Granted Brunswick was comfortable throughout, but after a disastrous first 6 minutes, Darien's defense settled in and made Brunswick work for any additional separation despite a wide face-off disparity. No shame in losing to this Wick team, especially with several key players missing pre-season and the first game; I think they're a better team than they showed on Thursday. Brunswick came out slow in their next game against top 10 nationally ranked Loomis Chaffee, but then blew them away in the second half by a similar margin.

NC definitely looks rock solid. Great defense/goalie/FOGO combo (both underclassmen are terrific), and the offense looks deeper than last year. Middies look much improved, more physical. They were more threatening from the behind the cage too; will be interesting to see if they can keep that up against better defenses. Blowout win over Pleasantville (who already beat 2X defending NY class A champion Baldwinsville) also encouraging. Glastonbury kept things competitive with them over the weekend: interested if anyone has any color on them this year.

Tighter game than I would've expected for Staples this weekend, but Rye is probably one of the best publics in NY state this year. They have three top 50 ranked recruits in their junior class.

Not out on this Wilton team -- Pearsall has coached them up year after year. Last year several people on this board claimed it was the worst Wilton team they'd seen in years after they lost to Stepinac -- they rebounded to beat Chaminade and win their first FCIAC title since the 90s. In 2022 they got vaporized by Chaminade to start the season and by season's end they were arguably a top 25 team nationally. This is a young team, but it's not untalented; the top four offensive players are a junior, two sophomores, and a freshman. Those underclassmen are all no-doubter D1 talents in my eyes. The defense is solid enough to keep them in a lot of games if they can get things clicking. Also, Stepinac was a solid team last year who swept their FCIAC games, and I think they've still got some players even if Staples roughed them up: Wilton was up 5-4 late in the 4th and gave up three goals in the final two minutes.

Ridgefield dominant win over Manhasset a great result regardless, but lost a little bit of luster after Darien put them in running time early in the second half. I think yesterday was probably a particularly bad day for the Indians though.

Fairfield Prep definitely looks like they will be a factor. Takeaways from the Darien win certainly have to be adjusted to account for missing Wave starters, but it was a solid performance regardless and you can only beat who is on the field. Decent performance against Chaminade where the difference was a hot Flyers goalie. This isn't a vintage Chaminade team but they're still probably a top 25 caliber team nationally.

[FC_YAK]

Darien v Brunswick was not a close game. Darien poles are really solid but D-mids got worked all night. They would have beaten prep with pokorny but such is life.

NC looks like the top team to me. Taking down Cheshire and two of the top Westchester teams to start the year is impressive.

Ridgefield win over Manhasset was also impressive. Colsey looks unstoppable.

Staples will be there in the end and have looked solid. Good win vs Rye today.

Wilton looks like they have a lot of work to do. I know they are young but a loss to a very mediocre Stepinac team today does not bode well. No offense at all. They started slow last year too but this team doesn’t appear to have much talent. Been a loooooooong time since I have seen a wilton team look this bad.

Darien/Brunswick not close but also not entirely un-competitve either. Granted Brunswick was comfortable throughout, but after a disastrous first 6 minutes, Darien's defense settled in and made Brunswick work for any additional separation despite a wide face-off disparity. No shame in losing to this Wick team, especially with several key players missing pre-season and the first game; I think they're a better team than they showed on Thursday. Brunswick came out slow in their next game against top 10 nationally ranked Loomis Chaffee, but then blew them away in the second half by a similar margin.

NC definitely looks rock solid. Great defense/goalie/FOGO combo (both underclassmen are terrific), and the offense looks deeper than last year. Middies look much improved, more physical. They were more threatening from the behind the cage too; will be interesting to see if they can keep that up against better defenses. Blowout win over Pleasantville (who already beat 2X defending NY class A champion Baldwinsville) also encouraging. Glastonbury kept things competitive with them over the weekend: interested if anyone has any color on them this year.

Tighter game than I would've expected for Staples this weekend, but Rye is probably one of the best publics in NY state this year. They have three top 50 ranked recruits in their junior class.

Not out on this Wilton team -- Pearsall has coached them up year after year. Last year several people on this board claimed it was the worst Wilton team they'd seen in years after they lost to Stepinac -- they rebounded to beat Chaminade and win their first FCIAC title since the 90s. In 2022 they got vaporized by Chaminade to start the season and by season's end they were arguably a top 25 team nationally. This is a young team, but it's not untalented; the top four offensive players are a junior, two sophomores, and a freshman. Those underclassmen are all no-doubter D1 talents in my eyes. The defense is solid enough to keep them in a lot of games if they can get things clicking. Also, Stepinac was a solid team last year who swept their FCIAC games, and I think they've still got some players even if Staples roughed them up: Wilton was up 5-4 late in the 4th and gave up three goals in the final two minutes.

Ridgefield dominant win over Manhasset a great result regardless, but lost a little bit of luster after Darien put them in running time early in the second half. I think yesterday was probably a particularly bad day for the Indians though.

Fairfield Prep definitely looks like they will be a factor. Takeaways from the Darien win certainly have to be adjusted to account for missing Wave starters, but it was a solid performance regardless and you can only beat who is on the field. Decent performance against Chaminade where the difference was a hot Flyers goalie. This isn't a vintage Chaminade team but they're still probably a top 25 caliber team nationally.

Hand up, I was one of the people who said Wilton looked awful last year after Stepinac. I don’t disagree that Pearsal will get the most out of this team (Wilton is always a slow build to the post season type of team) but I think you pointed out the biggest issue I see with this particular team; their offense is reliant on young guys who haven’t been out there before and one sr (smith) at the midfield. Those kids will know doubt have massive growth this year but I don’t see them beating Darien, NC, Prep, ridgefield. I will challenge you that Stepinac is good this year, they lost a ton last year and watching the game there was nobody on the field that stood out for either team other than some of the Wilton poles.

This bodes well for 2 years from now but the talent looks leaner to me than I have seen. Last year you knew they had talent, they just played poorly early. I’m not sure this team climbs the ladder. For what it’s worth I think Pearsal is a fantastic coach.

[Blue White]

I'm with FC Yak, it's a rebuild year for the crew on Route 7. Tomorrow will be telling if they can qualify for states.

As noted, very young on O as they lost a solid senior attackman to a knee injury from football. Second year in a row for the kid, feel for him. Hopefully he gets back in time for some run this Spring.

[connecticutlaxfan]

Solid FCIAC Thursday as we get ready for a huge weekend of games. Greenwich killed NDWH 21-11 and Wilton beat Glastonbury 11-4.

Interested to hear anyone's thoughts on any of the big matchups (Staples vs. Darien, Ridgefield vs. NC, Greenwich vs. Wilton).

[connecticutlaxfan]

Also, the lax numbers ratings that will eventually seed the state playoffs has started for the year

https://www.laxnumbers.com/ratings.php?y=2024&v=3087

[BlueWarrior]

Okay, taking a break from the well-earned and understandable FCIAC-focus.

What happened to the SWC?

More specifically...are Barlow and New Fairfield the only two teams left with any quality from the traditional "big four" (don't laugh, Gold Coasters) that at one time included Newtown and Weston?

More to the point for this year...what happened to Weston? They got smothered by a Newtown team that got beat by Masuk and needed OT to beat Bethel. Seems a sharp cliff to fall off in such a short time.

I admit that I've been off the CT lax grid for the better part of a decade, and with all due respect to New Milford - who very well may be the top team in the conference this year for all I know (I have seen all the others play but not the Green Wave) - my expectation post 2014 was that the talent in these towns and these programs would trend upwards, not recede into abject mediocrity (and that's being kind in a few cases).

So let's hear from those who might know...would love to hear opinions.