T-Birds' Football Faces Ansonia in State Finals on Dec. 8!

Tomorrow the undefeated North Branford football team will travel to UConn's Rentschler Field to compete for the Class S State Championship. The T-Birds followed up a perfect season with a win over Trinity Catholic in the quarterfinals and a victory over Woodland in the semifinals.

Now third-seeded North Branford will take on Ansonia, the No. 1 seed, at 10:35 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 8. You can buy your tickets ($10) at the gate or if you want to watch the game in style (and warmth!), contact UConn about booking a suite. The weather report for Storrs on Saturdays is "Chance of showers. Highs in the mid 40s and lows in the upper 30s," according to The Weather Channel.

The T-Birds will be heading to Storrs between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m. and leaving North Branford with a police escort to the town line. Fans are encouraged to gather in the Northford Center to cheer on the buses as they head out.

If you can't make the game, the CIAC is offering several options for you to follow the play by play. For a livestream of the game, visit the CIAC's Play On site and for realtime finals stats and play-by-play, click here. 

For the full schedule of all of the state championship games, visit the CIAC website.

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Let's Go T-Birds

North Branford residents are certainly excited about the championship. Janice Despotakis posted a blog encouraging residents to bring an unwrapped toy for NBC CT's toy drive, while Kris Smith shared a photo of this year's seniors from 2005 when they had an undefeated season in North Branford Youth Football.

More on North Branford Football

• North Branford Football Moves on to State Finals!
• North Branford Tops Trinity Catholic to Move on to Class S Semifinals!
• T-Birds’ Football Takes on Hyde Tonight in Thanksgiving Eve Showdown
• T-Birds' Football Dominates Haddam-Killingworth
• T-Birds’ Football Still Perfect at 7-0
• T-Birds’ Football Tops Valley in Season-Opener
• T-Birds’ Football Looks to Compete for League Title

More Information from the CIAC

All four CIAC Football finals taking place Friday Dec. 7 and Saturday Dec. 8 will be broadcast live on television and the internet. CPTV Sports is dedicating 12 hours of live coverage to the four games taking place at Rentschler Field while the games will be available live on-line at ESPN3.com and the Watch ESPN apps for iOS and Android as part of the CIAC Network.

The CPTV sports coverage will begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday evening with the Beyond the Beat pre-game show. The on-line coverage will begin with the Class LL final between number-five seed Norwich Free Academy and top seed Xavier at 7:05 p.m. Viewers can find the broadcast links at
http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index and on the bracket section of the CIAC
Tournament Central website.

The full CIAC Football Final schedule is:
Friday, Dec. 7
Class LL: #5 Norwich Free Academy vs. #3 Xavier, 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 8
Class S: #3 North Branford vs. #1 Ansonia, 10:35 a.m.
Class M: #4 Hillhouse vs. #2 Berlin, 2:05 p.m.
Class L: #2 Windsor vs. #1 Daniel Hand, 5:35 p.m.

CPTV Sports will also be airing all four final games in succession on
Sunday, Dec. 9 starting at 11 a.m. with the Class S Final followed by M, L,
and LL. All broadcasts will be available on the CIAC Network on-demand
shortly after the conclusion of the games, and DVDs of all broadcasts are
available for purchase at www.CIAC.tv.

CPTV Sports is available statewide on Comcast channel 966, Cox 805,
Cablevision 139, Charter 233 (eastern Conn.) & 234 (western Conn.),
Metrocast 418, and Thomas River 87. It is also available digitally
over-the-air on channels 24.3 (Hartford area), 49.3 (Bridgeport, 53.3
(Norwich) and 65.3 (New Haven).