Youth football results from this past week are as follows:

79ers

79ers Blue 18, Southington 12: Newtown 79er Blue team had a powerful start against Southington this past weekend, showing spectators their intensity to win. The Newtown offensive line opened the game with an unstoppable campaign up field. Awesome blocking by linemen Chris Frascatore, Will Archiere, Jack Stenz, Kyle Good, Gus Coffey, Stephen Sedensky, and Matt Heinlein allowed Jared Dunn to go virtually untouched up the middle, for a 55-yard run to score a 6-0 lead against Southington. The 79er defensive line quickly regained possession with an interception by Connor Moran, advancing the ball to Southington’s 30 yard line. Monopolizing on their field advantage, Newtown once again dominated Southington’s defensive line, providing Aidan Finnegan the opportunity to run 30 yards for another touchdown giving the Newtown team a 12-0 lead early against Southington. The remainder of the half proved to be challenging for the Newtown team reluctantly giving away two touchdowns ending the half with a 12-12 score.

Reenergized and ready to show the crowd what the Newtown team was made of, the 79er defensive line cranked it up the second half, vowing not give up any more points. Keeping to their promise, Good, Sedensky, Heinlein, Luke Wellman and Sean O’Sullivan all made key backfield tackles yielding some big losses for the Southington team. Determined to get back in the game, the Newtown offensive line made a long drive, pounding runs up the middle and eventually opening it up for Shane Luzietti to score one more touchdown. With minutes remaining on the clock, Southington made a strong attempted to tie the game, advancing the ball to Newtown’s 15 yard line. but just could not pull it off. The Newtown 79er Blue team regained possession and tactfully ran out the clock.

Norwalk 20, 79ers Gold 0: On a crisp Fall evening, Newtown’s 79ers Gold traveled to Norwalk for a rare rematch with their Candlewood Valley League rival under the lights of Brien McMahon High School. Having played the Ramblers two weeks prior, the Newtown team knew they would be facing a formidable opponent. Newtown’s defense, behind a dominating 12-tackle performance by Jack Mulligan, neutralized Norwalk’s rushing attack and pressured the Rambler quarterback all game. After trading first quarter possessions, Norwalk struck first late in the opening quarter to take a 6-0 lead. The Nighthawk offense moved the ball effectively throughout the game but was unable to convert on scoring opportunities with three long drives stalling inside the Norwalk 10 yard line.

Red-zone struggles aside, the strong offensive performance was led by the solid job up front by the offensive line. Behind the tough blocking of the front seven, leading rushers Jeffery Garrity and J.P. Iaropoli had 50- and 40-yard performances. respectively and slot back Connor Haywood turned in another strong performance contributing more than 40 total yards. In the end, the improved effort was not enough to defeat the capable Norwalk team who scored in the last minute of first half and again late in the game on long passing plays to seal the 20-0 victory. The Gold team walked off the field with heads held high knowing the game was a lot closer than the score indicated and looking forward to playing for hometown bragging rights next Sunday against the 79er Blue team on Newtown Day at Treadwell Field.

Grade 4

Norwalk Dolphins 13, Nighthawks 6: Game captains were Trevor Tyrrell, Luke Fischer, Chris Maturo, and Daniel Mason. The first quarter was scoreless as the teams probed and tested each other’s defenses. The Dolphins struck first with a touchdown and extra point. The score remained at 7-0 until the fourth quarter when the most exciting 10 minutes of football for this group this year was played. Norwalk increased its lead to 13-0 in the first few minutes, but Newtown’s Tucker Garrity responded with a TD of his own with four minutes to go. The onside kick failed, but the Nighthawk defense forced the a fumble and gave the offense a chance to even the scrore and force overtime. Such drama was not in the cards as the clock ran out during the march downfield. Amazing runs from Reid Harrison, Griffin Cross, and Matthew Dubois moved the chains. Sean Dauber, Brandon Giglio, and Jack Hannan did great on the line.

Grade 6

Newtown Nighthawks 26, Norwalk Raiders 6: The Raiders won the toss, but quickly turned the ball over on downs after a stop by Joe Accousti and a quarterback sack by Ben Mason. Nevin Zink carried the ball for a first down and Mitchell Savoca ran for the first touchdown of the game. The battered Raiders offense again turned the ball over on downs and Zink ran for a touchdown, then kicked for two extra points. Shut down yet again by Newtown’s defense, led by Steven Moccio and Adam Bell, the Raiders turned the ball over and Bobby Haskins made a first down. Zink threw a pass to Scott Bauer for a touchdown and the Nighthawks ended the half with 20 points. In the third quarter, the Raiders finally lit up their side of the scoreboard, but another touchdown by Zink made Newtown’s lead insurmountable. Tackles by John Pierce, Noah LaFerriere, and Stevie Macejko kept the Raiders from scoring again.

Grade 7

Newtown 14, Norwalk 6: Newtown (5-1) secured a spot in the CVL playoffs by handing a very physical Norwalk squad its first loss of the season. The defense was again the catalyst, as it did not yield a touchdown for the second consecutive week. Newtown received the opening kickoff and behind runs of 23 and 25 yards by Jared Pearson (a workhorse effort of 20 carries for 135 yards), drove deep into Norwalk territory until stalling at the Norwalk 10. Newtown’s second drive covered 71 yards on 14 plays, with Pearson barreling in from the 5 for the score. Key plays included runs of 24 and 8 yards by Devin Luzietti, and an 8-yard pass completion in the red zone from Ethan Carpenter to Michael Doyle. The offensive front of Carlo Fenaroli, Ryan Shaw, Jeremy Salaris, Brandon Hensel, Nick Samuelson, and Andrew Svanda dominated the imposing Norwalk line. The defense were stalwarts, as rotating nose guards John Delrossi, Nick Rohrbacher, Justin Apply, Matt Davis, and Scooter McCarthy disrupted the entire Norwalk offensive flow, allowing linebackers Pearson and Svanda, and ends Charlie Fletcher, Declan Sullivan, Sam Duffy, Mark Urso, Bryan Kiley, and Matt Maturo to contain the outside running game. Just before the half, Newtown again threatened, highlighted by a Carpenter to Urso completion that covered 22 yards, but the half ended with Newtown up 6-0.

The teams traded possessions in the third quarter. At the end of the third, Shaw boomed a 30-yard punt, only to see Norwalk return it 75 yards for the score to tie the game at 6. Newtown moved the ball well in the fourth quarter, as it was able to get outside due to the stalk blocking of receivers Luzietti, Peyton Manning, Nick Bourgeois, and Geoff Santore. Hunter Booker had a big pass reception to keep the chains moving. Forcing Norwalk into a punt late in the fourth, the massive Shaw broke through for the block with Samuelson recovering at the Norwalk 27. Seven plays later Pearson blasted in from the 5 yard line on fourth down for the winning score with two minutes remaining. Norwalk went to the air for its final drive, but the pass defense of cornerbacks Doyle and Luzietti and safety Carpenter was too formidable.

Grade 8

Newtown 22, Norwalk Packers 20: In a rematch of last year’s CVL 7th Grade Championship, the game proved to be a playoff intense battle of two teams that have faced each other in three of the last four CVL championships. As with the previous games, the young Nighthawks from Newtown finished on top with a come-from-behind victory by beating Norwalk 22 to 20.

Newtown started off the game with an onside kick recovery and then struck quickly with a 38-yard pass from Colton Smith to Troy Frangione. Three plays later, Smith took the sweep inside and scored his first of three touchdowns. Julian Dunn added the extra point kick to move Newtown on top 8 to 0. Norwalk didn’t take long to counter with a combination of power runs and sweeps to bring the Packers to within 2 with a nice 46-yard drive. The Packers got the ball back on Newtown’s next offensive series by stopping the Hawks after a penalty and dropped pass put the Hawks in a fourth and long situation. As with the first series for the Packers, the power runs chipped away the time clock as the team marched 63 yards for its second TD and a 12 to 8 lead. Newtown’s next two series came up short, as they were stopped on fourth down and by an interception.

Halftime found the Hawks in an unfamiliar situation by being down for the first time in CVL play since their first meeting with Norwalk in the fourth grade season. The third quarter was a battle of defenses as the Hawks drive was stalled both times after picking up a couple of first downs on each series, but Newtown’s defense adjusted to the power runs and held Norwalk to negative 7 yards in the third quarter.

Newtown’s first possession of the fourth quarter turned out to be a familiar site as the Hawks marched 55 yards for their second TD and the lead. As the Hawks’ defense was now in full combat mode, they forced Norwalk to punt for the third time in the secon half. A couple of spread runs to Nick Lotrecchiano set up a counter run for Smith and a 51-yard TD run that sealed the deal for the Hawks.

Overall, the Nighthawks outgained the Packers with 290 yards to the Packers 176. Smith, Lotrecchiano and Julian Dunn combined for 240 yards on 29 carries, with Smith completing four of seven passes for another 50 yards. Frangione, Lotrecchiano, Connor Roche, and Dunn were on the receiving end of the four completed passes. As been the norm for the first six games of the year, Griffin Davis and Rat Rubino dominated their position and chipped in with a total of eight and seven tackles, respectively. Sugar Shane Quimby added four along with Tim Krapf and Smith. Pete Manfredonia lead all D-Linemen with five tackles and Dunn added 2.5 from the safety and LB position. Big hits of the game was Jaret DeVellis breaking up a pass with perfect timing and Lotrecchiano dropping the Packer’s RB for a 4-yard loss.

Come down to Treadwell Park on Sunday for the Newtown Youth Football & Cheer’s Newtown Day where all Youth Football teams from Newtown will be playing. The Eighth Graders face undefeated Ridgefield for the first place seed in the CVL playoffs at 2 pm sharp.