It wasn’t a perfect opening to the 2007 season for Newtown Youth Football, but it was darn near perfect.

The eighth graders came from two touchdowns back to slip past Ridgefield, the sixth graders blanked Mahopac, the fifth graders routed Aspetuck, the fourth graders pounded Bridgeport and the 79er Blue squad slipped past Aspetuck in a hard fought game.

The seventh graders, though, were blanked by a tough Ridgefield team.

Here are the details –

8TH GRADE

Newtown 18, Ridgefield 14

On fourth down and with less than a minute to play, Evan Noonan ran in from six yards out to lift the Newtown eighth-grade football team to a thrilling, 18-12, win over Ridgefield in the 2007 Candlewood Valley League season opener.

The locals were down 8-0 at half and then found themselves down 14-0 before they regrouped and started to rally.

Noonan started the scoring with a 65-yard burst around the end that was possible due to some outstanding blocking by the offensive line of Kyler Harmeling, Kevin Dennis, James Horosko, Ian Kirner, Eric Samuelson and Cory Fisher.

The Nighthawks then held Ridgefield on defensive side due to some very aggressive play by Sean Ross, Louis Fenaroli and Brendan McNamara.

The offense took over and mounted a drive that was highlighted by a five-yard score by Andrew Cebry that brought the locals to within two, 14-12, and after several exchanges on both sides of the ball Newtown took over in the fourth quarter with under six minutes to play.

The ‘Hawks mounted a drive with runs by Cebry of 12 and 16 yards, bringing the ball to the Ridgefield six. That set the stage for Noonan’s run that lifted the locals to the stirring win.

7TH GRADE

Ridgefield Black 12, Newtown 0

James Marusi had a key fumble recovery and Reid Schmidt had some strong carries out of the backfield, but the seventh grade football team suffered a hard-fought, 12-0, loss to Ridgefield last Sunday.

Chris Stanton played tough as middle linebacker, helping to shut down an intense Ridgefield offense, and the first half ended in a scoreless tie with the additional defensive help of Phil Reynolds and Joe Davis, who made multiple tackles at cornerback positions, and safety Dan Poeltl.

In the second half, in spite of quarterback pressure by Christian Barrett and Patrick Mullins (with a sack), Ridgefield made a 30-yard touchdown run on a sweep to the left side. Ridgefield then recovered an onside kick, and though Graham Derrickson made two strong tackles on the outside, earned another touchdown on a seven-yard run.

Christopher Devaney had an interception after Josh Villa made two solid tackles for the defense.

Newtown’s offense in the second half had some good movement through the guidance of Dan Hebert at quarterback and an eight-yard run made by Reynolds, but the Nighthawks fell short.

6TH GRADE

Newtown 20, Mahopac 0

When the Newtown sixth-grade football team scored against Mahopac last weekend in the 2007 Candlewood Valley League season opener, it scored BIG.

Justin Saint ran for 49 yards and a touchdown, Julian Dunn ran for 25 yards and a touchdown, and Cooper Gold ran for 20 yards and another touchdown to lead the Nighthawks to a convincing 20-0 win over the Indians.

The game began on a defensive note, as the ‘Hawks forced Mahopac to punt on its initial possession thanks to the interior line work of Jimmy Leidlein, Patrick Afryie and Tommy Gleason. On its next possession, Mahopac turned the ball over on downs.

And then the Newtown offense started to heat up, with Gold breaking the first big Newtown run, a 46-yard blast over right tackle with Chase Wurtz and Michael Davis providing great down field blocking. After a loss of five, and then five-yard offside penalty against Mahopac, Dunn erupted from the Mahopac 37-yard line on another blast over left tackle, with nice blocking from Wurtz, Gold and Nick Strokis to get the ball down to the five as the opening period ended. Even after another Newtown penalty set the ball back to the 20, Gold ran it in from there for the TD. Quarterback Drew Tarantino connected with Davis on the PAT pass to put the ‘Hawks on top, 7-0.

After the kickoff, Mahopac took over on its own 46. Again the Newtown defense stepped up with Wurtz, Connor Noonan, Afryie and Leidlein leading the charge to drive Mahopac back to its own 36 yard line and forcing it to punt.

On the next Mahopac series, Dunn and Leidlein forced a fumble, which was recovered by Afryie at the Newtown 42.

This time the Newtown offense was led by Saint, running behind the line of Ty Runkle, Liam Kilmurray, Greg LaRussa, Patrick Carrello, Riley Cross, Cameron Weibel and Nick Carozza. Saint blasted off tackle with Matt Lindell leading the way for a gain of five and then then blew through the Mahopac defense on a dive that netted 49 yards and a touchdown. The PAT attempt failed, but Newtown was staked to a 13-0 lead.

The teams traded defensive stands as the half ended.

On the opening series of the second half, Dun scampered for 30 yards on a fake punt to give Newtown a first down at the Mahopac 40. The effort was wasted however, when Newtown fumbled the ball away to a blitzing Mahopac defense.

The Newtown defense continued to hold and soon the ‘Hawks were able to take over possession at their own 43. Again, the offense gained momentum with a nine-yard run by Gold, a 19-yard run by Dunn and a 12-yard run by Gold to the Mahopac 15. After a 10-yard penalty put the ball on the 25, Dunn ran it in for the touchdown with the aid of blocks from linemen Cross and LaRussa. Tarantino connected with Matt Hoyt for the PAT to make it 20–0 Newtown.

After holding Mahopac on their next offensive series, Newtown ran out the clock with a nice 20-yard run from Jack Lago, a 10-yard run from Dunn and a final 15-yard run by Hoyt.

Next up for Newtown is Ridgefield Black.

5TH GRADE

Newtown 33, Aspetuck 13

The Newtown fifth-grade football team swallowed up 390 yards of total offense – 340 of that on the ground for goodness sake – and pounded Aspetuck, 33-13, to open the 2007 season.

Nick Lotrecchiano rushed for 85 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns – one on a 65-yard scamper and the other on a 40-yard pass play from quarterback Troy Frangione that accounted for almost all of Newtown’s passing yards for the afternoon.

Colton Smith rushed for 122 yards, more than half of that coming on a 65-yard touchdown run. Shane Quimby added another touchdown as he combined with Max Rucinski, Bubba Condon. Jonathan Sherman and Jaret DeVellis to gather in 133 more yards on the ground.

All of the offense was made possible by the line blocking of Eric Street, Griffin Davis, Nick Rubino, Tim Krapf, Jake Lambert, Connor Roach and Michael “the Hammer” Cirone.

The defense was overshadowed, but also played very well as it held Aspetuck to negative yards in the first half and a total of 50 yards for the game. Leading the defense was first-year player Krapf, who made five tackles at DE. Another first year player, Kevin Conte, anchored the middle at defensive tackle and nose guard while Jake Lambert, Matt Bouton, Ryan Szalay and Nolan Fisher all chipped in with two tackles each.

But the hero of the defense was Rubino, who picked off two passes while playing middle linebacker and stopped any potential Wildcat drive.

The fifth graders will face a tough Ridgefield Raider team in a home opener at Hawley School on Saturday at 10 am. The Raiders beat last year’s second place team from Norwalk, 7-6, last weekend.

4TH GRADE

Newtown 27, Bridgeport 6

Devin Luzietti scored on a 55-yard sweep on the second play from scrimmage last Sunday and the Newtown fourth-grade football team pretty much coasted home from there in a 27-6 season-opening win over the Bridgeport Chargers.

Ryan Shaw, Andrew Svanda, Greg Harrison, Dakota Ashby and John Delarossi provided the blocks that sprung Luzietti on the long TD run. And it gave the defense some inspiration as big plays from Charlie Fletcher, Jeremy Salaris, Robbie McCabe, Brian Kiley and Joe Santella led to a fumble recovery by Nick Samuelson deep into Charger territory.

Michael Doyle then took the handoff from Matt Maturo and drove up the middle another touchdown to put the Nighthawks ahead, 14-0.

Just before the half, the Bridgeport halfback ran 40 yards up the sideline but was caught by the Hawk’s speedy safety Ethan Carpenter. The Chargers would eventually score, but strong defensive play by Nick Rohrbacher, Steven Faxlanger and Geoffrey Santore denied the extra point.

Santella, Luzietti and Doyle all pounded the Chargers runners over four quarters of play. In the third quarter, the Hawks continued to grind out yardage behind the blocking of Colin Theis, Matt Meyers and the seasoned Gordon Walsh. The lightning-fast Matt Elias took a reverse 40 yards up the sideline, only to fall inches from the goal line, but that didn’t stop the Hawk line as Svanda, Salaris and Shaw from opening a massive hole for the fullback Jared Pearson to score the touchdown.

James Frazetta, Michael Roche, Kendall Ashby, Tim Mammen and Meyers continued to make dominating plays over the larger Chargers and Carpenter, Maturo, Doyle and Santore kept the yardage piling up on the ground.

Kiley scored the closing touchdown to hand the ‘Hawks their 27-6 win.

Owen Richards made the highlight film of the week, though, when he knocked a massive Bridgeport running back to the turf with a tough tackle.

79ER BLUE

Newtown 13, Aspetuck 7

Nicholas Genovese (40-yard scamper) and Bobby Haskins scored touchdowns to lead the Newtown 79ers Blue to a 13-0 win over Aspetuck in the season-opener last weekend.

The first half was scoreless, but Newtown still got some fine plays from quarterback Justin Dunn, running back Peyton Manning, Genovese (20-yard run) and defenders Scott Bauer and Jack Wellman, who stopped Aspetuck after a long 30-yard gain.

The 79ers came out in the second half with determination. After a first down on an eight-yard run by Genovese and a nine-yard run by Dunn, Haskins ran in the first touchdown of the game. Manning earned the extra point and Newtown led 7-0.

The offense continued its excellence after recovering an onside kick and Nicholas Genovese ran 40 yards for another Nighthawks touchdown to make it 13-0.

In the fourth quarter the Aspetuck 79ers finally got on the board to make it 13-7, but the Nighthawks continued to put pressure on both offense and defense. Great tackles by Matt Davis and Mark Hall sealed the deal and as the quarter ran down.

Tommy Kitzmiller ran for nine yards before the buzzer sounded.

Ed Henderson, Joshua Dunn, Max Goldstein, William Stenz, CJ Shambelan and Sam Pellicone all played well for the Nighthawks.