June 21, 2008

ND-Fairfield shippin' up to Boston

After much searching, Notre Dame-Fairfield's football team has an 11th game. According to a notification by the CIAC, the Lancers will travel far up to Braintree, Mass. (just outside of Boston) to face Archbishop Williams.

Check out Notre Dame-Fairfield's schedule here.

Not a heck of a lot of webstuff to sink your teeth into, but here's the Bishops' MaxPreps page.

The Bishops went 5-5 last year, a marked improvement on its 1-9 record the previous season. It went to a Division 3 Super Bowl in 2005, according to a Wikipedia entry on the school.

It's an intriguing matchup, but only because it matches one of ours against one of theirs. I would have much rather seen Notre Dame play a Connecticut school out of conference.

Alas, like a quite a few schools around here, Notre Dame needed to look far beyond Connecticut's borders for this game thanks to a couple of short-sighted conferences who chose to schedule their 11th games in-house (cough, cough, FCIAC! FCIAC! Cough, cough, NVL! NVL!).

So it's off to Boston, ND goes.

SPB

Posted by sports on 11:40 AM | Comments (0)

June 18, 2008

Football recruiting: Who's next?

With Bunnell's Mark Harrison throwing his helmet in with Greg Schiano and Rutgers, who's left among Connecticut prospects?

Aside from Seymour LB Mike Osiecki committing to UConn and a few others of note, there don't seem to be many high-profile BCS recruits from the great state of Connecticut among the Class of 2009.

We already knew this wasn't going to be the kind of year we had last season, where we had seven (or eight if you count Ansonia's Alex Thomas going to Yale) regional athletes going to high-profile football-playing universities. But will the fall from grace be so dramatic?

To start, there's not one Connecticut player graduating in 2009 listed among Rivals.com's Top 250.

Off the top of my head, there's only one other regional athlete worthy of a BCS (read: Division I) look, and that's Foran's Jake White.

Here's White doing his thing for the Lions last fall in a nice little clip found on White's YouTube page.

According to Scout.com, he has reportedly been looking at BCS schools like Temple, Iowa, Syracuse, Louisville, Duke and Connecticut. It's certainly a nice list for White, especially with Louisville in the fold, but standard fare for any BSC-caliber Connecticut recruit.

After White there's a drop. You can mention Greenwich LB Ricky Riscia, Stamford CB Carrington Beckford and Hamden S Kris McKinnie to sum up our region's prospects.

Elsewhere in Connecticut seems stronger. You have East Northwest Catholic TE Jake Golic (Notre Dame), St. Paul WR Marcus Aiken (UConn), Hartford Public's Andre Lawrence (uncommitted) (Boston College), Wilby WR Dwayne Bennett (uncommitted).

Over in New London you have TE Anthony Schiavone (uncommitted) who is getting looks from Boston College, Buffalo, Connecticut, Duke, Maryland, Rutgers, Temple.

His quarterback, however, just might be Connecticut's top 2009 recruit: Jordan Reed (uncommitted), the Class of 2009's biggest recruit, who's reportedly got Boston College, Duke, Florida, Maryland, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee on his tail.

But that's about it, folks: A nice offering but nowhere near the Class of 2008, which shows just how exceptional that class was in the big picture of Connecticut high school football talent.

How's the Class of 2010 shaping up?

SPB

Posted by sports on 12:30 PM | Comments (7)

June 17, 2008

Harrison commits to Rutgers

Bunnell receiver Mark Harrison has given a verbal commitment to attend Rutgers on a football scholarship, the all-SWC receiver confirmed Tuesday night.

“I’d watch them play on television and I thought this was the best place for me,” Harrison told the Connecticut Post in this article. “This was the school I wanted to go to. It was perfect.”

The 6-foot-5, 205-pound Harrison caught 42 passes for 880 yards and nine touchdowns while leading Bunnell to its second straight SWC and Class L state championships. Harrison was a Connecticut Post all-star in basketball, not football, during his junior season. But there was no doubt about his skill and athleticism, those who witnessed his 99-yard nullified-by-procedure-penalty finger-tip touchdown catch in the SWC title game can tell you that.

He made his decision after visiting the school over the weekend.

"“This means a lot,” Harrison said Tuesday night. “Now I can just focus on my grades and not all the recruiting process pressure any more. It was a lot of stress."

Now, I'll admit this isn't the best video, since I took it from across the field on Thanksgiving Day, but it's still cool (and you get the idea). For a complete run-down on Harrison's statistics, click his name in the first paragraph.

Update: Here's a post on YouTube of Harrison playing basketball. Obviously a much better production than my shoddy football vid up top.

Just to show you his nice ups, here's a nice dunk clip against Masuk.

SPB

Posted by sports on 6:18 PM | Comments (0)

June 8, 2008

Championship Saturday and Who's No. 1?

Here are the big stories from Saturday's championship games and, below, a chance to vote for your Top 10 baseball teams:

Softball: Fico's no-hitter gives Masuk a second straight title (no shock here)
Softball: Gates lead Lauralton Hall to third championship (after beating Seymour in the quarters, this, too became a foregone conclusion)
Baseball: Law completes improbable run (From 9-11 to state champs, you can't script a better ending)
Baseball: Westhill buries Masuk's title hopes (this was a mild surprise. The score, not the result)
Lacrosse: Parnell lifts Prep to third straight title in three-overtime thriller (easily the best game of the day)
Lacrosse: New Fairfield earns undefeated season over Weston. (SWC and Class S glad to see C.J. Costabile go)
Volleyball: Staples wins third straight title

Also, in baseball I got the final tally from the New Haven Register today and, frankly, I'm flummoxed when trying to pick the No. 1 baseball team in Connecticut. Is it Westhill, which couldn't win the FCIAC but won Class LL? Is it Plainville, which upset No. 1 Seymour in the Class M semifinals? Or do you reward other teams.

You make the call. Give me your top 15 teams in the comments below this list:

1. Seymour 25-1 def Stonington 4-3, Granby 5-1, Montville 7-2 and lost 5-1 (9) to Plainville
2. Guilford 20-4 def. Platt 9-0, Berlin 9-8 and lost 6-3 (9) to Law
3. Amity 21-6 def. South Windsor 9-0, Staples 3-0, Fitch 9-2 and lost 1-0 to Westhill
4. Stamford 21-4 def. Farmington 2-0, Shelton 4-3, Trumbull 2-1 and lost to Masuk 7-4
5. Wethersfield 18-3 lost 7-4 to East Haven
6. East Catholic 19-3 def. Vinal Tech 29-0, St. Joseph 3-1 and lost 3-1 to Holy Cross
7. Xavier 16-7 def. New Britain 4-2 and lost 1-0 to Glastonbury
8. Simsbury 19-4 def. Cheshire 7-2, Southington 12-8 and lost 13-6 to Westhill
9. Plainville 20-4 def Morgan 11-0, Bullard Havens 19-5, Waterford 5-3 Seymour 5-1 (9), Holy Cross 5-4 to win Class M (this is the first state champ on the list)
10. Notre Dame-West Haven 16-8 lost 8-2 to Shelton
11. Fitch 20-6 def. Newtown 4-1, Ridgefield 7-2 and lost to Amity 9-2
12. Bristol Central 17-5 def. Wilton 9-1 and lost 6-5 (8) to Masuk
13. Westhill 22-4 def. Naugatuck 16-0, Bunnell 4-1, Simsbury 13-6, Amity 1-0, Masuk 12-1 to win Class LL
14. Bunnell 17-7 def. West Haven 1-0 and lost to Westhill 4-1
15. Trumbull 18-6 def. Hall 7-1, Newington 3-2 and lost 2-1 to Stamford
16. Avon 20-4 lost to Hand 10-8
17. Staples 16-9 def. McMahon 6-0 and lost to Amity 3-0
18. Branford 15-7 lost 5-3 to Maloney
19. Montville 19-7 def. Stratford 5-4, Haddam-Killingworth 4-3 and lost to Seymour 7-2
20. Berlin 17-6 def. Watertown 3-1, East Lyme 5-1 and lost 9-8 to Guilford
21. Newington 16-6 def. Conard 17-10 and lost 3-2 to Trumbull
22. Bristol Eastern 16-6 def. RHAM 4-1 and lost 5-4 to Hand

CONNPOST.COM

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