Newtown Wrestlers Scare Powerhouse New Milford; Gouveia Wins Title in Danbury

By Steve Bigham

The NHS wrestling went toe-to-toe with powerhouse New Milford last week in a match-up of what could prove to be the South-West Conference’s top two teams.

In the end, New Milford prevailed, 46-26, but it left knowing the squad it had faced was vastly improved from a year ago. Newtown has not beaten the Green Wave since the 1998-99 season and none of their head-to-head matches have been competitive since then.

This match — in front of a pumped up Newtown crowd — was very competitive. In fact, the Nighthawks actually lead 22-18 eight matches into the contest, putting a scare into a team that has won the last four league titles. For Coach Alan Potter, the impressive showing was no surprise. This may be his most well rounded team in nearly a decade. Newtown won the competitive Guilford Tournament title in mid-December.

“We knew we could be competitive with New Milford and might get lucky and squeak out a win,” Potter said.

And there’s even more good news. Newtown junior John Gouveia was crowned champion at the 125-pound class at the annual Danbury Holiday Wrestling Tournament this past weekend. He beat George Madakor, who captains the Danbury team, probably the top team in the state. Gouveia won last year’s CIAC Class LL title at 119 pounds.

“John once again proved that he can compete with the best.  He always knows the score and time, and he anticipates his opponents moves before he makes them,” Potter said.

Newtown (1-1 in the SWC and overall) was scheduled to wrestle Weston at home Thursday night and then head to the Southington Duels on Saturday.

New Milford 46,

Newtown 26

The match was actually closer than the score might indicate as New Milford only won two more matches than its opponents. It managed to pull way on the strength of five pins, two technical falls, and a disqualification.

Newtown started out strong as Joel Minalgo (215 pounds), Thaddeus Adams (heavyweight) and Ian Macavoy (103 pounds) all prevailed.

Joe Peretti (112 pounds) and Sam Wiener (119 pounds) lost tough matches, but Gouveia (125 pounds) pinned his opponent and Mark Bonamici (130 pounds) won a tough 6-0 decision, putting the Nighthawks within striking distance.

Newtown’s Tyler Rudolph (135 pounds) lost to Edin Mesanovic, one of New Milford’s top wrestlers, and Kris Kling (140 pounds) was disqualified on a somewhat controversial call. Chris Salvatore came up short at 145 pounds.

Jagi Gyamcho of Newtown moved up to the 160-pound weight class from his usual 152-pound spot and won 17-2 on a technical fall.

New Milford — ranked third in the state — was also victorious in the 112, 119, 152, and 171-pound weight classes.

“This was an important test to see just how we stack up against the best in the league,” said Potter.

Despite the loss, Newtown appeared to have passed the test.

Gouveia Wins in Danbury

After giving up two points early on to Danbury’s Madakor on a take down, Gouveia managed to escape and took Madakor down making the score 3-2 after the first period. Madakor chose to start the second period from the down position, hoping to escape or reverse Gouveia.  But the Newtown wrestler would have none of that, foiling Madakor’s every effort to score.

Gouveia chose to start down in the third period and Madakor, knowing this was Gouveia’s favorite position, chose to let him up, making the score 4-2. Madakor was hoping to take Gouveia down to tie the match and go into overtime. Again Gouveia aggressively defended himself down the stretch, refusing to give up any points to win the title.

Other Newtown wrestlers performing well in Danbury were Tyler Rudolph, Mark Bonamici, Joel Minalgo, and Thaddeus Adams.