The Meat Grinder

Welcome back to another thrilling episode of The Meat Grinder, your weekly dose of high school football in Connecticut. 

On this week's episode, SPB and Pete discuss two huge, but very different upsets to Top 10 teams: Wilton's rout of No. 5 Staples and Cheshire's 28-27 takedown of No. 4 Hand on a two-point conversion in overtime.

They were two of a handful of surprising results during the first major bye week of the season. They also discuss Notre Dame-West Haven's first victory of the season, 42-14 over North Haven and Fairfield Prep's takedown of West Haven.

They break down those games, the ensuing shakeup in the latest GametimeCT Top 10 poll, some of the week's other big results and, of course, give out their weekly shoutouts. 

Join us, won't you?

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WELCOME BACK to another thrilling edition of THE MEAT GRINDER, your weekly dose of High School Football in Connecticut. 

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WELCOME BACK to another thrilling edition of THE MEAT GRINDER, your weekly dose of High School Football in Connecticut. 

Join Sean Patrick Bowley and Pete Paguaga LIVE at 7:30 p.m. as they discuss a wild Week 3, including Waterbury's Career Academy's historic win over Ansonia, Staples' win over West Haven on a game-winning field goal, the most recent Top 10 poll, and much more. 

Rundown

0:00 - Intro
5:30 — WCA pulls off historic win over Ansonia
12:10 — Hand rolls through ranked Brookfield
17:30 — Allard goes off in No. 3 Killingly win over Law
20:20 — No. 10 Bunnell puts up fight, loses to No. 1 New Canaan
29:45 — The latest GametimeCT Top 10 poll
34:30 — Ross' FG wins it late for No. 7 Staples over West Haven
38:00 — No. 5 Darien avoids upset from Masuk 
40:25 — Fairfield Prep clinches Top 10 with tough win over New Britain
41:15 — Dustin leads Wilton over Cheshire
48:00 — Are these teams contenders or pretender?
58:54 — Should we panic on these teams?
1:11:30 — Peak at Alliance Scoreboard
1:13:05 — Games to watch
1:15:00 — SHOUTOUTS

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WELCOME BACK to another thrilling edition of THE MEAT GRINDER, your weekly dose of High School Football in Connecticut. 

Join Sean Patrick Bowley and Pete Paguaga as they discuss what happened in Week 2 of the 2025 Connecticut high school football season. 

This week, the guys discuss two of the biggest results in Week 2, and they both happened under the Thursday night lights: Connor Shea and Seymour's 21-14 victory over Ansonia, the Cats' first over the Chargers since 2004, and Glastonbury's Danny Wallace -- in the first football game of his life — helping the Guardians stun Southington in OT.

Plus! West Haven's defense, and a couple of lethal strikes by new RB Amir Daniley, help the Westies knock off accident-prone Shelton, and Bassick — BASSICK! — rallies from 18 points down to beat rival Bridgeport Central.

All of that, plus the latest GametimeCT Top 10 poll, other Week 2 games of note, and plenty of SHOUTOUTS as we head into a busy second Alliance brouhaha.

WE DID IT LIVE! Monday night at 7:30. Now, you can can watch any time.

Join us.

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This week on the Meat Grinder, hosts Pete Paguaga and Sean Patrick Bowley break down an enlightening Week 1 of Connecticut High School Football Alliance games, including the big one at Dalling Field in Trumbull where Bobby Reh, the son of a St. Joseph state champ, rallied Hand to a thrilling, buzzer-beating victory over the No. 4-ranked Hogs — serving their barbeque chicken dish cold.

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It's the SEASON 8 Premiere of THE MEAT GRINDER, Connecticut High School Football podcast from GameTimeCT.
In the FIRST episode of the 2025 season, PETE'S BACK! Join Pete Paguaga and Sean Patrick Bowley as they look back on the offseason changes, say good bye to those lost, hello to 22 new coaches, unveil the preseason GametimeCT Top 10 Poll and, at last, break down all six playoff divisions and pick the winners.

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It's all over. We've crowned six state champions and concluded the 2024 CIAC high school football season.

There were a few surprises -- Masuk knocking off No. 1-ranked Windsor to win the Class MM final and its first title since 2004 comes to mind. But for the most part, it was a weekend of Blue Bloods with Ansonia (22nd title), New Canaan (15th), Greenwich (10th), St. Joseph (16th) and maybe even Killingly (fifth) now, packing their displays with more championship trophies.

But it was and especially big weekend for the FCIAC and Fairfield County at large, which won two thirds of the titles. The FCIAC alone won half of them.

Overall, we ended the season right where it started: With Greenwich beating West Haven, this time to win the Class LL title, and New Canaan being crowned the No. 1 team in the state.

This time, however, that ranking is etched in history.

FIFTEEN-TIME championship coach Lou Marinelli joins us for our annual chat with the state's final No. 1 team. He talks about his players, his program's run of success and how it managed to win a third-straight title despite every team in the state chasing them.

Join host Sean Patrick Bowley alongside Scott Ericson and Dave Stewart as they break down everything -- from the final GameTimeCT Top 10, weekend's best plays, the top performances and everything in between.

It's a jam-packed episode you won't want to miss!

So, for the final time this year, join us, won't you?

RUNDOWN

0:00 — The Montage of Heroes

3:17 — New Canaan, Fairfield County are No. 1

10:00 — The final 2024 GameTimeCT Top 10 Poll

19:58 — Championship Weekend Impressions

22:11 — Ansonia wipes out Bloomfield in Class S final

27:59 — Allard, Killingly race past Sheehan in SS final

29:47 — Masuk stuns No. 1 Windsor to win Class MM title

37:04 — St. Joseph holds off Brookfield in classic M final

40:52 — D'Angelo, Greenwich leave little doubt in LL final

45:06 — Controversial play goes viral as New Canaan wins third-straight L title

49:06 — Interview with NEW CANAAN'S LOU MARINELLI

1:28:11 — Final PIcke'ms Results

1:30:11 — Who will be 2024's Player of the Year

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WELCOME BACK to another edition of The Meat Grinder, your weekly dose of High School Football in Connecticut.

And, at least, it's Championship Weekend! And that means it's the last week of high school football in Connecticut. Forty-eight teams entered, 12 teams remain to play for six (lol) CIAC championships.

If the weekend's finals are even remotely as good as Sunday's semifinals, we're in for a treat because Sunday's were ridiculously good.

We had thrills, like Ansonia's stunning, Hail-Mary victory over Woodland and Bloomfield's comeback win over WCA in Class S.

We had spills, like St. Joseph intercepting four passes and dethroning defending Class M champ Hand and Greenwich dethroning defending LL champ Staples.

And we had chills, like the way Windsor, Masuk, Sheehan, Killingly and West Haven (especially the Westies) dismantled their opponents in stunning fashion.

JOIN host Sean Patrick Bowley and staff writers Dave Stewart and Scott Ericson as we recap the madness and make our picks for this weekend's 2024 CIAC Football Championships at CCSU's Arute Field and East Hartford's Rentschler Field Friday and Saturday. 

It's a tight race in the annual staff pick'ems contest with a FIVE-WAY TIE heading into the final six games! Who will come out on top?

As an added bonus, we roll back the clock to the preseason and see where how SPB and Pete Paguaga did on their 2024 state championship picks! (Spoiler alert: Mostly pretty well!)

Join us, won't you?

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Welcome back to another thrilling episode of THE MEAT GRINDER, your weekly does of High School Football in Connecticut.

Twenty-four teams are gone, 24 remain. We've reached Semifinal Sunday in the race for the six 2024 state championships!

After a rainy Thanksgiving we were treated to snow, glorious and beautiful snow on Tuesday's CIAC quarterfinals (unless you were along the Connecticut shoreline) as we moved into playoff football in December.

And, much like the weather, the first round of the playoffs brought us some surprises. Like two No. 8 seeds -- WCA and Notre Dame-West Haven -- knocking off a pair of No. 1 seeds -- Capital Prep and Naugatuck, respectively. The SCC and the FCIAC thrived while the Pequot -- all six teams -- was sent home for the holidays.

It wasn't all rosy, however. Northwest United announced it would forfeit its Class MM against No. 1 Windsor, perhaps a foretelling of the mis-matched blowouts that pervaded the quarterfinal rounds, which got us thinking (again) about how we can improve these here playoff rankings.

But, when the snow cleared, the semifinals were, at last, set with four rematches of regular-season games, including BOTH Class LL semis, and another playoff rematch between Hand and St. Joseph.

Join host Sean Patrick Bowley, who, once again, is joined by Scott Ericson and Dave Stewart to break down the games and -- of course -- make their picks to reach next weekend's championships.

Dave Stewart is leading the staff pick'ems contest with SPB a game back!

It's a jam-packed show again, so join us, won't you?

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WELCOME BACK to another thrilling episode of The Meat Grinder, your weekly dose of High

School Football in Connecticut.

After a wild (and wet) week of great Thanksgiving games, we've finally reached the 2024 CIAC Football Postseason! 

On Tuesday night, Valley Regional/Old Lyme rallied to knock off H-K and, ultimately, punch its Class S playoff tickets. On Wednesday night, Naugatuck out-slugged Ansonia in Ye Olde Valley Rivalry  to recapture the No. 1 seed in Class L. Wethersfield went from 0-10 to 9-1, riding QB Cam Righi to a glorious, Class MM-clinching overtime victory over rival Newington.

Forty-eight teams enter, six teams leave. And we're excited to see some new... uh... well... many familiar matchups in Tuesday's quarterfinals. SEVEN, in fact, and potentially more in the coming rounds.

There's lots to discuss -- especially with the tragic death of a Bloomfield Pop Warner player and a number of coaches already announcing their resignations — and 24 games to pick as we continue our march toward the 2024 CIAC championship games in two weeks.

Your host Sean Patrick Bowley is once again joined by Dave Stewart and Scott Ericson as we break down everything that happened on Thanksgiving Week and decide who will advance to Sunday's semifinal round.

Join us, won't you?

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