West Haven — Three minutes could have ruined Xavier of Middletown’s season.

Three astonishingly bad minutes.

The Falcons trailed 21-0 three minutes into their season opener against Wilbur Cross of New Haven after fumbling away their first two kickoff returns.

Xavier lost, 37-19.

A week later, the Falcons fell behind Notre Dame of West Haven, 21-0.

Xavier battled back to win that game in the final minute, 29-28.

The Falcons have kept on battling — Sunday’s 28-0 win over West Haven was their eighth straight and put them in position to qualify for the CIAC Class LL playoffs.

“We look back at those (first) two games a little bit,” said senior tackle-defensive end Hayden Stanton. “Wow. From where we are now to where we could’ve been, it’s great. And we feel very fortunate to be in this position now.”

Xavier would qualify with a win over Middletown (1-9) on Thanksgiving.

“If it wasn’t for three minutes, this game (West Haven), we could come in relaxed, win or lose,” Xavier coach Sean Marinan said. “Now, we’re in a must-win situation.”

The Falcons moved up to fifth in The Day’s Top 10 state coaches’ poll, too.

One would have to think long and hard to come up with a worse scenario than Xavier endured against Wilbur Cross.

The Governors scored on their first play from scrimmage when had Dontay Long threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to Maurice Morrison.

“I take my hat off to John Acquavita and his staff,” Marinan said. “They went after us the first play of the game. Boom. It worked, and things started to unravel for us.”

Julian Hayes fumbled the kickoff, leading to James Ward’s 17-yard touchdown run. Wilbur Cross led 14-0.

The Falcons’ season was just 49 seconds old.

Gerry Basadonna fumbled the next kickoff. Wilbur Cross recovered. Doural Scott scored on a 14-yard run to put Xavier in a 21-0 hole.

Only 2:58 had elapsed off the clock.

“I don’t know that anybody could’ve foreseen that we’d fumble two kickoffs in a row,” Marinan said. “I couldn’t find that in a coaching manual.”

Stanton pointed out the positive the Falcons took out of that game.

“If you look at the second half of the Wilbur Cross game, we won it, 19-18,” he said. “That just shows our determination. We never feel that we’re out of a game. Ever.”

The second week, the Falcons trailed 21-0 in the second quarter.

“It wasn’t that the other team was beating us — we were self-destructing,” Marinan said about both that and the Wilbur Cross game. “We were being dumb. We were making rookie mistakes. When we stopped doing that, then we played pretty good football.”

Notre Dame led 28-21 with less than two minutes to play when Stanton forced a turnover.

Julian Hayes scored on a 7-yard run with 1:37 remaining and followed with a 2-point conversion for the win.

“We have a very explosive offense that we feel can come through,” Stanton said. “We just don’t give up. We’re a very resilient team.”

Central dominance

Ordinarily, beating the state’s No. 1 team is cause for celebration.

Bridgeport Central, however, thrashed then-No. 1 New Canaan so badly Friday (42-7) that there was no drama. It was the Rams’ first loss in 25 games.

“You know what, it was oddly unemotional,” Central coach Dave Cadelina said. “(New Canaan coach) Lou Marinelli told (the Connecticut Post) that the game wasn’t even that close (as 42-7).”

Central’s win earned it a spot at No. 7 in the top 10 and one first-place vote.

The Hilltoppers dominated New Canaan from the opening kickoff, leading 14-0 after a quarter and 28-0 at halftime. They ran for 333 yards and five touchdowns, led by Shabashe McIntosh (game-high 184 yards and four touchdowns on 22 carries).

Central’s defensive effort was even more outstanding against the Rams’ uber-productive passing game. Turner Baty, a Division I recruit, was 13 of 31 for 103 yards with a touchdown and an interception. That was 121 yards under his average.

It was also the Hilltoppers’ second big win in four weeks. They beat Greenwich on Oct. 23, 14-13.

“It’s great, especially since we’ve had this big gorilla on our back about not being able to win the big one,” Cadelina said. “We still have a big one coming up. We still haven’t won that state playoff game or league championship, but to beat Greenwich was great. And to beat New Canaan, then ranked No. 1, that’s another thing. And in the same season.

“I’m still on the fence about telling the kids this is what we’re supposed to do, you should expect this, or jumping up-and-down squirting the kids (with water from a bottle) like they squirted me while celebrating.”

Central, like Xavier, has overcome a brutal loss and put itself in position to qualify for LL. It was shut out by Trumbull, 21-0, on Oct. 9, but is now ranked fourth in the division playoff rankings.

Games of the week

A scheduling quirk kept Masuk of Monroe and Pomperaug of Southbury off one another’s regular season schedule despite both being in the Colonial Division of the South-West Conference.

The two teams will play Thursday, much to the delight of football diehards, in the SWC title game at Pomperaug (7 p.m.).

Pomperaug (9-0) is ranked third in the Top 10 poll, Masuk (9-0) is fifth. Masuk has won a league-high four championships.

The following night, top-ranked Staples of Westport plays Bridgeport Central in the 45th Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference championship at Trumbull (7:30 p.m.). Staples (9-0) last won the title in 2003. Central has never won the league.

The weekend’s other big game is Simsbury at Glastonbury Saturday (1 p.m.). Glastonbury (9-0), which has currently has a state-best 24 game winning streak, would clinch a playoff berth and earn the right to defend its Class LL championship. The Trojans (8-1) must win and get some help to qualify in Class L.

News and notes

■ Bridgeport Central quarterback Christon Gill has been one of the focal points of his team’s attack and received the most attention. Cadelina said that Gill, after being poked in the eye during a scrum at the bottom of the pile, told him to run the ball using him as a blocker. “It ticked him off enough to say, ‘Coach, run Superpower the next 10 plays because I want to run people over (as a blocker) and truck guys,’” Cadelina said. “He didn’t have that many carries. He had five and maybe two or three pass attempts and completed maybe one or two, but he put the team above himself.”

■ Tanner Bachand threw a 5-yard touchdown to Travis Thomas with 3.7 second remaining to give St. Paul/Goodwin Tech its 26-20 win over Torrington last Friday. Torrington had tied the game with 38 seconds left. ... Mark Seward scored on 24-yard run with 1:09 left in the game to give Stamford its 31-28 win over city-rival Trinity Catholic last Friday. Trinity had gone ahead with 1:17 remaining when Brian O’Neill threw a 15-yard touchdown to Shawn Robinson.

■ Ansonia fullback Bobby Kinnebrew ran 11 times for 290 yards and six touchdowns as the Chargers routed Seymour last Thursday, 51-21. He scored on runs of 58, 34, 69, 53, 25 and 38 yards. ... Jonathan Esposito ran 42 times for 327 yards and four touchdowns, recovered a fumble and had an interception to lead unbeaten Conard of West Hartford to its 40-20 win at Southington last Friday. Esposito has rushed for 1,767 yards and 28 touchdowns this fall.

■ Joe DeSandre ran 22 times for 276 yards and four touchdowns and returned the opening kickoff for a 75-yard touchdown as Lyman Hall of Wallingford beat Cheney Tech of Manchester, 47-26, last Friday. ... Kyle Nolan threw a 10-yard touchdown in double overtime to Predrag Boskovic to tie the game, and Zac Cast’s extra point gave Branford a 21-20 win over Foran of Milford last Friday. Foran scored first in the second overtime, but the Hornets’ Taylor Sullivan blocked the extra point.

■ Denzel Jones threw for 206 yards and a touchdown and ran for 70 yards and three touchdowns last Friday in Bloomfield’s 43-14 win over Rocky Hill. ... Amari Osbourne ran 21 times for 266 yards and three touchdowns as Weaver of Hartford won its first game, 30-20, over city-rival Bulkeley last Friday.

■ Alex Trump had 137 all-purpose yards as he ran for three touchdowns and caught another in Masuk’s 49-6 win over Bunnell of Stratford. ... Pierre Narcisse was 15 of 29 for 278 yards and five touchdowns as Windsor beat South Windsor last Saturday, 38-6.

■ Glastonbury’s Ryan McCarthy scored on punt returns of 53 and 36 yards in his team’s 40-0 win over Manchester last Saturday. ... Tyler Murphy ran six times for 183 yards and two touchdowns and threw for 46 yards and two touchdowns as Wethersfield routed E.O. Smith of Storrs last Saturday, 42-6.

■ Naugatuck upset then-No. 10 Holy Cross of Waterbury last Friday, 8-0, despite missing 12 players to injury. The Greyhounds (4-5) had also lost five of their previous six games. ... Wilbur Cross knocked off then-No. 8 Hamden last Saturday, 24-7. The Governors (4-5), despite their losing record, have wins over both Xavier and Hamden. It also had close losses to Class LL contenders Cheshire (21-18) and Ridgefield (28-27).