It’s finally here, for real.
The 2026 CIAC football season kicked off the past two days, and outside of a smattering of games – five to be exact – on Saturday, Week 1 is now in the books.
We’ve had some teams show what we expected, more than a few surprises, a few that qualify as stunners, and even a team receiving a motorcycle escort to their field.
In the end, or the beginning in this case, the first few weeks of the season are about teams proving themselves – whether that is continuing recent success with a new cast of characters, improving on past results, or winning when no one is really giving you much of a chance. And yes, that includes the predictions in the GametimeCT Pick’ems.
Take New Britain. The Golden Hurricanes were 8-2 last year, earned the No. 1 seed in the Class LL and were then quickly ousted in their playoff opener with a 35-0 loss to Norwich Free Academy in the quarterfinals.
Jayden Allen did a lot of the heavy lifting for that team and he’s gone, and then the schedule threw a ridiculously difficult start at the Hurricanes, who face three state champions in the first four weeks.
Well, there was New Britain, celebrating a 28-12 victory over defending Class MM champ Windsor on Friday.
After falling behind 7-0 in the second quarter, the Hurricanes stormed back. Quarterback Billy Seymour scored two rushing touchdowns, Camani McDaniel ran for another, and Xayvian Crespo got the defense involved with the scoring on a 12-yard fumble return.
“We’ve got things to prove,” New Britain coach Isaiah Boddie told GametimeCT’s Bryant Carpenter. “We’ve got to prove ourselves each and every week. The rent is due every week.”
Down in Stratford, Bunnell has captured a lot of deserved preseason attention after reaching the Class MM final last season.
After going 5-5 last season, Notre Dame Prep was almost an afterthought.
That won’t happen again after the Lancers posted an eye-popping 57-21 win over the Bulldogs on Friday. Sophomore running back Ja’cari Harris had video game numbers, rushing 24 times for 260 yards and six(!) touchdowns.
Senior Jordan Razor moved back to quarterback, a position he played as a sophomore, and was solid. Senior Jeremiah James added to the running game and scored twice, and the defense pitched a second-half shutout.
“That was not expected,” Notre Dame coach John Johnson said of the margin. “That’s a very good football team right there. I knew our advantage would be in the trenches. We have a tremendous offensive line and they’ve been together for a couple of years. And obviously the three or four running backs we have can break it at any time. We’re tough to tackle.”
There are plenty of other examples of points proven, at least for the moment.
Naugatuck, which was 4-6 last year, rallied from a 14-point deficit to win 27-20 over Holy Cross; Berlin graduated 19 starters from last year’s unbeaten Class M championship team but still managed to rout East Hartford 42-14, stretching its win streak to 14; Lyman Hall edged Ledyard 27-14 in an Alliance game between two playoff contenders; and New London followed its motorcycle entrance with a 56-17 win over Barlow in Jack Cochran’s return as coach.
Those are just a few of the big moments, of course, with plenty more to come.
400 and counting
It’s been 45 years since Lou Marinelli coached his first game at New Canaan High School.
That was 1981 and, hard as it may be to believe given their recent history, the Rams were coming off three straight winless seasons, going 0-25-2 in that span.
Marinelli and New Canaan turned out to be a perfect match.
Win No. 1 came in game No. 1, when New Canaan upset Rippowam, a defending state champion.
Win No. 400 with the Rams came Thursday night in the form of a 47-0 shutout of Trumbull to kick off the 2026 season.
Marinelli’s success with New Canaan is, simply put, staggering.
In 45 seasons, Marinelli has a 400-107-6 record at New Canaan, winning 16 state championships with a current run of four straight Class L titles. The state’s all-time winningest coach, Marinelli is 419-114-7 overall when factoring in one season at Mamaroneck (N.Y.) and two at Yorktown (N.Y.).
His Rams have also won a state-best 24 straight games and are currently ranked No. 1 in the GametimeCT Top 10 poll.
And one more key number from Thursday’s opener: New Canaan’s opponent, Trumbull, is coached by Marce Pettrocio, who has a 245-111 record and ranks second in the state for wins among active coaches, trailing only Marinelli, according to the Connecticut High School Football Record Book.
That’s 664 combined wins for the ‘By the Numbers’ fans.
Whistle stop
Perhaps the strangest finish in Week 1 came in Thursday’s NVL showdown when Ansonia defeated Seymour 6-0 on opening night.
The Chargers held a six-point lead in the final two minutes when running back Jacob Branch was stood up by Seymour defenders. He continued to try and push ahead, and the Wildcats eventually stripped the ball, seemingly giving them possession in the Ansonia red zone.
Officials huddled and determined that the whistle had been blown when Branch was first brought to a halt because a sideline official felt his forward progress had ended, according to GametimeCT’s Roger Cleaveland.
Ansonia subsequently kept the ball and ran out the clock for the win.
Seymour coach Dan Dunai wasn’t about to blame the officials.
“The referee furthest away from the play made the call, which is how the cookie crumbles,” he said. “An inadvertent whistle. I didn’t hear a whistle. I’m not deaf yet, but we had a shot and made our mistakes, and they capitalized on it. They are a really good program.”
In any case, it was an odd way to start a season.
Looking ahead, or All Hail
The Connecticut High School Football Alliance will take center stage this week with 66 games on the slate and all six defending state champions in action.
A short slate on Thursday features a showdown in Wilton, with defending Class M champ Berlin, now in Class SS, putting its 14-game win streak on the line against a Wilton team that was 10-3 and reached the Class MM semis last fall. Kickoff is 6:30 p.m.
Class LL champion Greenwich will host New Britain, which is fresh off its huge opening-week win against Windsor on Friday at 6 p.m. It’s certainly a possible playoff matchup in a few months.
Staying in Class LL, Southington, last year’s runner-up, plays at Newtown on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
Fairfield Prep will take a crack at ending New Canaan’s 24-game win streak when the Jesuits visit the Rams on Friday at 7 p.m.
Also on the Friday slate are Guilford at Rockville and Woodland at Killingly at 6:30 p.m., and Glastonbury at Cheshire and Northwest Catholic at Law at 7 p.m.
Saturday’s slate features 11 games, with the marquee matchup at St. Joseph, where the Hogs, who moved up to Class MM this season, will host Windsor, the reigning MM champion, at 1:30 p.m.
This article originally published at Inside Week 1 of CIAC football: Points proven, win No. 400 and All Hail.
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