On Saturday, against its archrival and in one of Fairfield County’s most historic environments, the Blue Wave get another chance.
Darien meets New Canaan Saturday at 11:05 a.m. in the Class L championship at Stamford High’s Boyle Stadium. The game was moved from Central Connecticut State University to Boyle on Thursday because of the threat of snow.
Darien (12-1) has won nine straight games, including a 28-24 win over the Rams on Thanksgiving. The Blue Wave needed Daly Hebert’s field goal on the final play to defeat Hand and rallied from a 7-0 deficit to beat Middletown, 13-7, in its first two playoff games.
Like the Thanksgiving game, Saturday’s contest figures to be a high-scoring affair. Darien averaged 36.4 points per game in its five games before beating Middletown. Quarterback Silas Wyper threw for 269 yards and rushed for 104 more in the win over New Canaan on Thanksgiving. John Reed had four receptions for 108 yards, and Griffin Ross had five catches.
New Canaan defeated Darien, 26-7, in the 2008 Class MM championship game. In the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference championship game that year, the Rams beat the Blue Wave, 28-20, at Boyle. Darien's only other state title came in 1979, and the Blue Wave are 4-6 all-time in state championship games.
The state title game is the first for coach Rob Trifone at Darien, who became the team’s head coach in 2007. He previously guided Brien McMahon of Norwalk to a state title in 1994.
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