week 4 in review

Week 4 was devastating for some local teams, and a very good sign for others. First the positives.
Newington's win over Conard means two things: 1) The Indians are in the driver's seat for a spot in the Class L playoffs, and 2) The Indians are a very good team. Conard impressed me in the early going, and I thought for sure their bruising rushing attack would wear down Newington. But not so. The defense stuck it out, and the offense got just enough going to win.
Fans in Newington should be excited. That is a division that is wide open for a potential champion. Nobody jumps out. The players need to stay focused and take confidence from every win, without getting ahead of themselves.
Meanwhile, New Britain just shot itself in the foot with a loss to a weaker Weaver team. Now, the Beavers are good. But word from the game and around the state is that there was no reason New Britain should ever have lost this game. This makes every game on the schedule absolutely critical in an always-loaded Class LL. New Britain-Southington, at Rentschler Field in November, should be another battle with potential playoff spots on the line, but only for one team, not both.
Wethersfield, though it's playoff chances were probably not as good as New Britain, suffered a similar kind of loss. I know Manchester is showing up on some pollsters rankings. I know they're 4-0. But with the remaining schedule Wethersfield has, this was one of the easier games, and they lost it.
I think the Eagles will be favored in only one of their remaining games. But I think there are three or four others they will be capable of winning, including this week against Glastonbury. They better bounce back, or all the good vibes of a 3-0 start could be gone.
After the way Rocky Hill handled Enfield I am confident in saying that had the Terriers played Northwest Catholic on artificial turf, or even a good grass field, they would have won by 10 points or more. But c'est la vie. You get the schedule and you have to play the games where you're told. Don't lose hope, Terriers. The playoffs are still reachable. You've proven you are good.
No surprise for Berlin against East Catholic. Sadly, no surprise for Plainville or Farmington either, in blowout losses.
Oh, and Southington keeps winning, but this one wasn't quite as easy as expected. Maybe the Bristol Eastern Lancers have more in them than they showed early on.
I went 6-2 in my picks, including correctly picking Cheshire over Wilbur Cross. That brings my record on the year to 21-7, 3-1 in non-local picks.

I'll be back tomorrow to analyze the MLB League Championship Series.
And the day after that to look at this week's high school slate. For now I'll just say I've got so many numbers crunching through my head over the playoff point system already, that I don't know if I'll make it to the end of November without my noggin exploding.