By Kim J. Harmon

In the past, Newtown High School winter sports teams have approached the postseason without trepidation.

The basketball programs have seemingly always been at the top, or near the top, of their respective divisions while the ice hockey team has been in the thick of the playoff chase since its inception in 2001-02.

But things have changed in 2004-05.

The ice hockey team is on the verge of missing the South-West Conference Division II and CIAC Division II tournaments; the boys’ basketball team could miss the SWC tournaments and still needs one more win to qualify for the CIAC Class LL state tournament; and the girls’ basketball team could see itself seeded sixth or even seventh for the SWC tournament.

All three teams could make a lot of noise in the postseason (hey – if the boys’ hoop team sneaks in, it has the potential to win a title in a wide-open league) but there is still a lot of uncertainty as the regular season winds down.

HOCKEY

Newtown 4, Joel Barlow 2

Bethel 6, Newtown 2

Newtown 4, New Fairfield 2

Time was running out.

With six losses in their previous seven games, the struggling Newtown High School hockey team – which went from 6-4-0 to 7-10-0 in just 20 days – was in danger of missing out on both the South-West Conference and CIAC Division II tournaments.

But on Tuesday night in Danbury, the Nighthawks drew a line in the sand (or, in this case, on the ice). Chris Kraft scored a pair of goals, Blake Bell and Nick Magoulas scored a goal apiece, and Francis Oggeri notched three assists to lead the ‘Hawks to a 4-2 win over New Fairfield.

It was the first time in two years that the ‘Hawks registered a win without either Blaise LaPorta or Sean LaPorta recording a single point. But that’s not to say the two co-captains – who still had strong games on the ice – had no influence in the game.

“They were pumped up,” said head coach Dustin Zima, “and when they’re pumped up, everyone is pumped up.”

Now, in order to reach the CIAC Division II state tournament the ‘Hawks would have to beat Watertown/Pomperaug and Bethel/Brookfield. To reach the SWC tournament, all the ‘Hawks really need is to either defeat Bethel/Brookfield (a tough proposition) or see fifth-place Masuk fall to Bethel/Brookfield and New Fairfield (a good possibility).

Knowing the opportunity to reach the post-season was slipping away, Blaise and Buzz challenged the team to step it up. “We were on the verge of not making the SWCs,” said Blaise, “and, for the seniors on the team, we really want to get there and get to the states.”

The ‘Hawks dropped a lifeless 4-1 decision to New Fairfield back on January 29, but that – and the fact that the Rebels were second in Division II of the SWC – didn’t matter.

“We weren’t really worried about that,” said Blaise. “The last time we didn’t come out that strong.”

On Tuesday, though, they did.

With just 2:32 gone in the first period, Magoulas ripped a one-timer off a face-off in the left circle to put the ‘Hawks on top, 1-0. Less than two minutes later, Bell – on an odd-man rush – slapped a shot off New Fairfield goaltender Paul Gouveia and scooped up the rebound at the end line and flipped it back to Gouveia, off his shoulder and into the net to put Newtown up, 2-0.

And less than two minutes after that, Kraft – in the slot – took a centering pass from Oggeri off the boards for his first goal of the game.

The damage was done.

New Fairfield built up a lot of pressure on the Newtown goal, but the defense covered the slot and the crease exceptionally well while goaltender Mike Jurasek made 28 saves. Jurasek was beaten at the 9:44 mark of the second period by Tom Fabiani, but Kraft – off assists from Oggeri and Bell – put the ‘Hawks back up by three at the 10:13 mark of the third period.

About 30 seconds later, the Rebels got back to within two goals off a shot by Ryan Wekerle … but that was as close as they would get. And after 45 minutes of hockey, no points registered by either LaPorta brother.

But that doesn’t bother Blaise at all.

“It’s great,” he said. “It means that the team is really coming together and it that it’s starting to look good for next year.”

                              SWC           TOT

TEAMS                W-L-T        W-L-T

New Milford         9-1-1        11-7-1

New Fairfield       5-4-1        5-12-1

Bethel/Brookfield 4-3-2          7-9-2

Newtown             4-6-0        8-10-0

Masuk                   3-6-0        7-10-0

Joel Barlow         0-11-0        0-18-0

Newtown 4, Joel Barlow 2

GOALS: Newtown – Sean LaPorta 2, Blaise LaPorta, Joe Brewer; Joel Barlow – Sean Delaney 2. ASSISTS: Newtown – Blaise LaPorta, Sean LaPorta, Joe Brewer, Kevin Jurasek; Joel Barlow – Frank Garigliano. SHOTS: Newtown – 29; Joel Barlow – 20. SAVES: Newtown – Peter Oggeri 18; Joel Barlow – Anthony Tenore 18.

Bethel/Brookfield 6, Newtown 2

GOALS: Newtown – Nick Magoulas 2; B/B – Chris Morrison 2, Scott Skrzypczak 2, Danny Campbell, Mark Checkosky. ASSISTS: Newtown – Justin Pacheco 2; B/B – Danny Campbell 3, CJ Hessenius 2, Mike Walsh, Will Smith, Joe McCarthy, Justin Holmes. SHOTS: Newtown – 24; B/B – 32. SAVES: Newtown – Peter Oggeri and Mike Jurasek 26; B/B – Mike Dullinger 22.

Newtown 4, New Fairfield 2

GOALS: Newtown – Chris Kraft 2, Nick Magoulas, Blake Bell; New Fairfield – Tom Fabiani, Ryan Wekerle. ASSISTS: Newtown – Francis Oggeri 3, Justin Pacheco, Blake Bell; New Fairfield – Jack Ransom. SHOTS: Newtown – 17; New Fairfield – 28. SAVES: Newtown – Mike Jurasek 26; New Fairfield – Paul Gouveia 13.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Bethel 52, Newtown 50

No one in their right mind expected a wild and woolly evening when the Bethel High School boys’ basketball team came to town last Friday night.

But that’s what everyone got as four minutes of heart-pounding suspense led to the Wildcats escaping with a 52-50 win.

Newtown was expected by many to make short work of the mediocre Wildcats – who needed one win to reach the CIAC Class L state tournament for the first time in several years – but after 28 minutes of woeful shooting and porous defense it looked as if the Nighthawks would be subdued in front of a packed gym.

Then came the last four minutes.

And everything changed.

Sure, the ‘Hawks couldn’t drop the ball in the ocean and were, at times, badly out-played while on defense but they still managed to keep Bethel from getting too far ahead. Early in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats were up by nine and on the edge of putting the game away.

Even though Kevin Quinn put some life into the ‘Hawks with a three-pointer and then a drive to the basket that trimmed the lead to just four points, the ‘Cats built that lead back up to six with just 4:09 left to play.

It was only a matter of time.

But then Josh Rouse dropped in a pair of free throws and Kyle Lyddy – off a terrific feed from Marcus Tracy – flipped one in on the fly to pull the ‘Hawks to within two, 44-42, with 3:25 left to play. Lyddy made a steal at midcourt on Bethel’s trip up the floor and Rouse followed with another free throw with 2:42 left to trim the lead to only one.

The defense – which had been victimized by numerous backdoor cuts in the first half – stiffened considerably and with 1:39 left Tracy put the ‘Hawks ahead for the first time, 45-44, with a drive to the basket. The ‘Cats took the lead back just 10 seconds later with a pair of free throws, but Rouse tied the game at 46-46 with another free throw with 1:14 left to play.

Things got rough under the basket as both teams frantically fought for control of the basketball and that, in turn, led to the last 74 seconds being decided almost entirely at the foul line.

Kevin Troy canned a pair of free throws with 54 seconds left to put the ‘Hawks ahead, 48-47, but that was the last time the locals would be on top. The ‘Cats took the lead back with a pair of free throws with 41.4 seconds left and then extended the lead to three points with two more free throws with 24 seconds left.

Rouse had a last gasp basket with 5.6 seconds left to pull the ‘Hawks to within one, but time had run out.

The loss dropped the locals to 7-9 overall, 6-4 in the South-West Conference. They traveled to Stratford on Wednesday and will host Norwich Free Academy on Friday in a non-league contest. They will close the regular season next Monday and Wednesday with games against Notre Dame and Immaculate in the Hawks Nest.

INDOOR TRACK

Boys – 14th in Class LL

Girls – 15th in Class LL

Never mind the 14th-place finish for the boys or the 15th-place finish for the girls at the CIAC Class LL Indoor Track and Field Championships last weekend because head coach Dave Foss considers the meet to be a smashing success.

Why?

Well – how about a total of six new school records?

On the girls’ side, Sadie Ball blazed her way to a 3:11.20 finish in the 1,000 meters (breaking the school record of 3:12 set by Maureen McGovern back in 1990) and took fourth overall. Immediately after that, Colleen Thornberg reset her own school record in 600 meters with a 1:47.46 finish, good for eighth-place overall.

Not to be outdone, the 4x400 relay team shattered (by almost ten full seconds) the seven-year-old record set by Janelle Tracy, Beth Chontos, Lindsey Carley and Becky Crane at the Brown Invitational. Julie Landin, Whitney Allison, Colleen Thornberg and Ball own the new mark of 4:21.37 and finished fifth overall at the Class LL meet with it.

In other events –

The 4x800 relay team of Remy Ball, Lindsay Weber, Caitlin Thursland and Moira Collier raced to 11th-place finish in 10:46.72.  At the long jump pit, Quincey Blanchard also leapt to an 11th-place finish with a jump of 15-31/4 as Jaclyn VanWaalwijk and Sarah Greenfield threw 27-0 and 26-9, respectively, in the shot put.

Leah Herity finished ninth in the pole vault with a 7-0 leap and joined Allison, Becky Huot and Collier to help lead the sprint medley relay team to a 4:43.59, 11th-place finish. After Blanchard tied for seventh in the high jump at 4-9, the 4x200 relay team of Holly O’Day, Huot, Jenna VanWaalwijk and Alison McEmber raced to a 2:05.02 finish despite McEmber being tripped.

“It was just a fantastic meet!” said coach Foss.

When the dust settled in all four CIAC classes, the 4x400 team had qualified for State Opens as had Ball in the 1000 and Blanchard in the high jump.

On the boys’ side, the senior-laden sprint medley relay team of Dan Gindraux, Liam Cawley, Nick Varga and Matt Cole (only a junior) smoked to a school record of 4:01.53, breaking the old mark of 4:03.3 set by Ryan Ignatius, Fred Adler, Kevin Conover and Ian Walker at the CIAC Class M meet in 1999.

Then the 4x400 medley relay team of Scott Nichols, Jake Sullivan, Rob DeFillippe and Jon Larsen finished 14th and went 3:48.11 – just .89 seconds faster than John Ehlers, Mark Huot, Dan Phillips and Dan Maxwell, who set a mark of 3:49 in 2002.

“That was the surprise of the meet,” said coach Foss. “When they took the track, I was just hoping they would run respectably. They did more than that.”

Not to be outdone themselves, the 4x200 relay team of Varga, Dan Tichon, Cawley and Gindraux finished 10th overall at 1:41.37, over a second better than the record set in 2002 by Ehlers, Jim Dellasalla, Adam Konneker and Tim Carlisle.

In other events –

Cole, Sullivan, Eric MacKnight and Nichols finished 11th overall in the 4x800 relay (12 seconds off the school record) as Charlie Baldour (in a State Open qualifying run), Pete Dittmar and MacKnight finished 10:13.02, 10:17.24 and 10:17.97 (or sixth, ninth and 10th) in the 3,200 meters.

Mike Cash finished eighth overall in the shot put with a toss of 41-0 while Larsen finished eighth overall with a career-best 1:29.81 in the 600 meters. In the 1,600 meters, Dittmar finished 4:39.31 and sixth overall while missing out on the State Opens by a heart-breaking .02 seconds and a school record by only one second.

The State Open meet will be Saturday, starting at 12 noon at the New Haven Athletic Center in New Haven.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Newtown 58, Bethel 47

Newtown 70, Stratford 38

Just what the doctor ordered.

With three losses in their previous five games and a tough season-finale against Lauralton Hall looming on the horizon, the Newtown High School girls’ basketball team needed a couple of soft games on the schedule.

That’s where Bethel and Stratford come in.

With the Lady Nighthawks sitting at 10-7 overall and 7-4 in the South-West Conference they took hold of the opportunity to notch a couple more wins (and solidify a better seeding in the upcoming conference tournament) and defeated Bethel, 58-47, and then Stratford, 76-38.

In the win over Bethel, Meg Kelley scored a game-high 22 points while Kacy Foehrenbach added nine points (thanks to a trio of three-pointers). Ashley LaRocque and Siobhan Cooper combined for 15 points.

In the win over Stratford, Amy Kelley had a career-high 12 points while Foehrenbach, Cooper and Katie O’Connor added 10 apiece. Kristi Nowak chipped in with seven points as the ‘Hawks scored 47 points in the first-half alone and staking themselves to a 47-22 lead after just 16 minutes of action.

The ‘Hawks hosted Lauralton Hall on Wednesday night in the regular season finale and will await the seedings for the upcoming South-West Conference tournament opening this weekend.

Newtown 58, Bethel 47

NEWTOWN (58): Meg Kelly 8 6-9 22, Darcy Fiscella 0 0-0 0, Katie O’Connor 0 0-0 0, Ashley LaRocque 4 0-0 8, Carly Curran 2 1-3 5, Ciara Simek 1 0-4 3, Siobhan Cooper 3 1-3 7, Kristi Nowak 2 0-0 4, Christie Iwanicki 0 0-0 0, Kacy Foehrenbach 3 0-0 9, Jill Logan 0 0-0 0, Amy Kelly 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 23 8-19 58.

BETHEL (47): Chelsea Schumacher 2 1-4 5, Karyn Garrison 6 0-0 12, Sara Oberhammer 0 0-0 0, Felicia Cochrane 0 0-0 0, Katie Voorhees 0 0-0 0, Kate Robbins 0 0-0 0, Keegan Hackman 3 2-2 10, Micaela Devaney 8 2-4 18. TOTALS: 20 5-10 47.

Three-pointers: Kacy Foehrenbach (N) 3, Ciara Simek (N), Hackman (B) 2.

Newtown 76, Stratford 38

STRATFORD (38): Felicia Lockwood 6 4-5 19, Bonnie Deangelis 2 2-2 7, Teneka Taylor 4 2-3 10, Denise Laconte 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 13 8-10 38.

NEWTOWN (76): Meg Kelly 4 1-2 9, Darcy Fiscella 0 0-0 0, Katie O’Connor 5 0-0 10, Ashley LaRocque 3 0-0 6, Carly Curran 3 0-0 6, Ciara Simek 2 0-0 4, Siobhan Cooper 5 0-3 10, Kristi Nowak 3 1-2 7, Christie Iwanicki 1 0-0 2, Kacy Foehrenbach 5 0-0 10, Jill Logan 0 0-0 0, Amy Kelly 5 2-2 12. TOTALS: 36 4-9 76.

Three-pointers: Lockwood (S) 3, Deangelis (S).