Time Changed For Berlin-St. Joseph Football Championship Game

BERLIN, CT — Heavy online ticket sales for Saturday's Class LL football championship game between Greenwich and New Canaan has prompted CIAC officials to change the site and time of the contest.

The game, originally scheduled for 2 p.m. at Shelton High School, will now be played at Boyle Stadium in Stamford. Kickoff is scheduled for 10 a.m.

In a related switch, the Class M final between Berlin and St. Joseph has been moved to a 2 p.m. start, still at Shelton.

The massive ticket sales created "concerns of the ability of the site to accommodate multiple high-attendance games at one venue. Maintaining the 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. timeframe provides the possibility of viewing games at multiple venues," according to a written statement from the CIAC. "The CIAC football committee chairperson, CIAC football tournament director, the host athletic directors who graciously offered their sites on short notice and CIAC staff all agreed on the decision to vary from the plan of having two football championship sites given the circumstances in this instance."

“CIAC policy remains to not alter championship predetermined venues or schedules based on the geography or requests of the participants, but in this instance the circumstances of having a predetermined site change late in the process and another venue becoming available led to the decision to make this change,” CAS-CIAC Executive Director Glenn Lungarini said. “As always, the focus is on providing the best and most appropriate championship experience possible for the qualifying teams, and we believe this decision provides that opportunity and we are grateful for those facilities that have offered their sites for our championship contests.”

The revised schedule of championship games Saturday is:

• Class LL: New Canaan vs. Greenwich, 10 a.m., Boyle Stadium, Stamford
• Class L: Maloney vs. Daniel Hand, 2 p.m., Veterans Stadium, New Britain
• Class M: Berlin vs. St. Joseph, 2 p.m., Shelton High School
• Class S: Haddam-Killingworth vs. Bloomfield, 10 a.m., Veterans Stadium,New Britain

Online tickets for all four CIAC football finals can be purchased at http://tix.ciacsports.com and tickets already purchased for the games affected by the changes are still valid.

File photo credit: Tim Jensen

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