Few other teams in Connecticut high school football opened the season with a harder schedule than New London: road games at Hand and Windham, whose combined regular-season records would be 19-1.

And then came a loss a few weeks later to Lyman Hall — one of those “winnable” games — and even the most ardent Whaler might have had a hard time foreseeing current events: win and (likely) in the playoffs.

So, if the oldest high school football rivalry in the country doesn’t provide enough juice Thanksgiving Day, there’s this: New London will be playing a de facto playoff game at Norwich Free Academy.

“We had some injuries early and both Hand and Windham are very good,” New London coach Bobby Sanchez said earlier this week, preparing his team for the 10 a.m. Thanksgiving Day kickoff. “Once we started to get everyone back, we started playing better.”

Sanchez and the Whalers certainly have weapons on offense that would scare any potential playoff opponent. Quarterback Jack Philistin, receiver Tyree Barnes and running back Demo Fletcher provide the ability to score from anywhere on the field and at any time.

“The kids have stuck together and have believed,” Sanchez said.

New London sits No. 9 in the Class M playoff race, 10 points behind No. 8 Quinebaug Valley and 15 points behind No. 7 Jonathan Law. The Whalers are not a mortal lock to make the eight-team bracket if they win. But the complicated math appears to favor the Whalers.

It would help New London if Foran defeats Law or if Thames River were to defeat Quinebaug Valley on Wednesday night. Otherwise, here’s the scenario, according to former Day sportswriter (and resident high school football bracketologist) Ned Griffen:

“East Haven’s win over Hillhouse last week mucked things up for the Whalers as it gave Law 15 points and pushed its lead to 15,” Griffen wrote in a text. “Law is the favorite v. Foran. It has some good bonuses, too, so it should finish ahead of New London.

“Quinebaug would only get 140 for beating Thames and has just four bonus games, three of which don’t look promising. New London should pick up just enough bonuses, along with a win, to narrowly give it the eighth seed. I have New London with a 20-point edge over Quinebaug and it has an overwhelming edge in tiebreaker points if it comes down to that, too.”

In other playoff scenarios:

• Ledyard at Fitch: Ledyard (6-3) is in with a victory. The Colonels, currently No. 7 in Class SS — and left for dead after some midseason malaise — have rebounded and control their circumstances. Fitch, meanwhile, sits ninth in Class L and needs help.

The Falcons have 1,000 points, five in front of No. 9 Notre Dame of West Haven. They’ll get more points for defeating six-win Ledyard than Notre Dame for defeating 2-7 Hamden. It would come down to bonus points to determine the final seed.

Schools get bonus points for each win earned by a school they have already defeated. Hence, the Falcons need as many wins on Thanksgiving from Simsbury, East Lyme, Windham, Stonington and NFA as possible.

Griffen actually has Ledyard potentially qualifying with a loss. “Ellington, Ledyard and Tolland are seventh-ninth, respectively,” he said. “Rockville should beat Ellington and Tolland should beat E.O. Smith. In that case, Tolland goes from No. 9 to No. 7, Ledyard beats out Ellington on points for No. 8.”

• Waterford at East Lyme: The Lancers, No. 5 in Class SS, are in if they win. The more interesting question is whether a victory would get Waterford a home game in the SS quarterfinals. If Waterford wins and No. 4 Bullard-Havens defeats Prince Tech, the quarterfinal matchup would in all likelihood be Waterford vs. Bullard-Havens. But where? The schools are tied with 1,100 points (Bullard-Havens has the tiebreaker, essentially based on strength of schedule with Scheduling Alliance losses to Bethel (7-2) and Brookfield (9-0).

But the Lancers will earn more points for defeating East Lyme than Bullard-Havens will for defeating Prince Tech. They’ll also get 10 guaranteed points from the Griswold/Plainfield game. That could leave the location of the quarterfinal game up to the outcomes of Bacon-RHAM (Bacon’s win Tuesday helped immeasurably) Ledyard-Fitch, Foran-Jonathan Law and Woodstock-Killingly.

• Westerly at Stonington: The Bears, No. 10 in Class S, need the most help of any ECC school. They are 65 points behind No. 8 Northwest Catholic, meaning they need to defeat Westerly and hope all the teams they’ve defeated this season win on Thanksgiving.

A reminder that Killingly and Windham have qualified unofficially.

News and notes

Bacon Academy is losing a good one in coach Bill Chaffin, who resigned after Tuesday’s win over RHAM. “I came here in 2022 to revitalize the program and think we accomplished that,” he said. “I can sleep at night, I know that I have done my job here. I steadied this program and I’ve left it in better shape than I found it.” Chaffin pointed to his team’s improvement, saying they were competitive in 20 out of 30 games in his three seasons as head coach. He took over an 0-7 team that had their 2021 season canceled after seven weeks.

… Hector Aponte rushed for more than 200 yards in Montville’s loss to Windham on Tuesday. … Programming note: GameDay will stream Waterford at East Lyme at 10 a.m. on Thanksgiving.

m.dimauro@theday.com