Darien/New Canaan Sr. Legion Needs One Win to Clinch Tourney Berth

For the Darien/New Canaan senior American Legion team, the season will come down to a one-game, winner-take-all battle.

At 13-13, Darien/New Canaan needs to win Sunday's finale against Stamford to qualify for the play-in state tournament. The contest will be played at at 10 a.m.

According to state legion rules, all teams who finish at least one game over .500 qualify for postseason play. In the qualifying tournament, teams vie for eight spots in the main 16-team double elimination tourney.

Since Sunday is the final game of the season, Darien/New Canaan will finish either one game over or one game under .500.

The team went into the weekend needing to win two of its final three games to qualify. The quest got off to a good start as it surprised first-place Greenwich 4-2 on Friday.

But Darien/New Canaan missed a chance to clinch with a 5-1 loss on Saturday to Bridgeport (11-15), which has been eliminated from the state tournament.

if Darien/New Canaan wins on Sunday, it would become the fifth team from zone four to qualify, joining Greenwich (22-4), Norwalk (17-9), Trumbull (17-9) and Stamford (15-11).

Darien/New Canaan is 2-0 against Stamford this season, but went 1-8 against the other state tourney-bound teams. It was 1-2 against Greenwich and 0-3 against Norwalk and Trumbull.

As zone champion, Greenwich has clinched a berth in the main state tournament which begins on July 23.