Fans of exciting high school soccer games may want to plan on spending a upcoming weekend in Farmington.
The first-ever FCIAC/CCC Challenge Cup will take place Sept. 23-24, at the FSA sports complex in Farmington.
Ten teams from each conference will match up with those from the other. The games are part of each team’s regular season, and quite possibly a preview of CIAC tournament matchups later this fall.
The idea came from Glastonbury soccer coach Mark Landers, who now coaches the girls’ team, but spent 20 seasons coaching the boys’ team, and longtime Staples coach Dan Woog. Teams from either the CCC or FCIAC have won 15 of the last 16 Class LL titles, and six of the finals matchups have pitted CCC and FCIAC teams against each other.
Landers said that a couple of years ago, the CCC 16-game schedule allowed for one non-conference game to be scheduled, and he naturally gravitated to a FCIAC matchup. The FCIAC schedule has been 15 games for many years, so adding a 16th, non-conference game was not difficult to do.
“Having known Dan for years… we thought wouldn’t it be cool if we could create an FCIAC/CCC challenge as those non-league games,” Landers said.
Scheduling the matchups to take place over the course of one weekend was sought, to add excitement to the soccer season, and to create a fun atmosphere for the coaches and teams to play each other, and for fans to enjoy several games in one location.
Landers said the boys’ teams’ coaches jumped at the chance.
“It caught on like wildfire,” he said. “We actually have teams on the waiting list for next year already. It should be a great day for the kids, and an awesome day for the leagues and an awesome day for people to go out and watch some great high school soccer.”
The girls’ coaches didn’t respond with as much enthusiasm, but two games will take place. Landers said this year’s challenge will hopefully generate more excitement and include more girls’ matches in 2023.
Some girls’ teams will play each other this season. Southington will host Ridgefield on Sept. 24 at Southington High School. Glastonbury will visit St. Joseph on Oct. 4.
“The matchups are pretty cool. It’s hard to find some better regular season games,” Landers said, adding that news articles often preview the soccer season with sub-headlines like “five games to watch,” but this Cup Challenge will provide 10 top-notch games. “This will be the weekend to watch.”
Some of the games will happen simultaneously on the complex’s adjacent fields. The schedule is as follows:
Sept. 23:
5:30 p.m. Ridgefield vs. Avon – Field 6
5:30 p.m. Brien McMahon vs. South Windsor – Field 7
Sept. 24:
12:30 p.m. Danbury vs. Southington – Field 6, Farmington vs. Trumbull – Field 7, Westhill vs. East Hartford – Field 8.
3 p.m. Staples vs. Glastonbury – Field 7, Wilton vs. Newington – Field 8
6 p.m. Wethersfield vs. New Canaan – Field 6, Greenwich vs. Hall – Field 7, Darien vs. Conard – Field 8
For more information, visit www.ciacsports.com or www.fciac.net.
