BETHEL — Newtown High School’s football team visited South-West Conference rival Bethel on October 10 and pulled away for a 27-7 victory to remain perfect at 5-0. The Wildcats fell to 3-2.

Newtown led 6-0 after one quarter of play and slowly pulled away, going up 20-7 at halftime and putting the game away with its final touchdown, in the third quarter.

Troy Frangione had two touchdown receptions — one on a 41-yard play and the other from 29 yards out. Both scores came on screen passes, among three short route-turned big-points plays.

Nick Rubino scored on a four-yard run just 4:03 into the contest. A Julian Dunn interception helped the Nighthawks preserve the lead. Ethan Carpenter scored Newtown’s second touchdown on the first of those screen passes from Jacob Burden. Carpenter turned into a 32-yard play to increase the lead to a pair of scores midway through the second quarter. Bryce Mather, who went three-for-three in extra point attempts, extended the lead to 13-0 with 5:08 left to play before the half.

Newtown was aggressive in the waning minutes of the opening half, using all three of its timeouts on defense, attempting an onside squib kick, and going for it on fourth down near the midfield line.

After Frangione caught a short pass over the middle and ran back across the field to find some open space, he dove over the goal line, just inside the pylon, with 3:14 left in the half, for a 20-0 advantage. The Nighthawks attempted an onside kick and nearly recovered the ball, but Bethel avoided potentially seeing Newtown essentially put the game away before intermission.

Bethel converted two clutch third-down plays, the second for a 16-yard scoring strike through the air, bringing the Wildcats back to within a baker’s dozen at 20-7 with 1:45 showing on the scoreboard clock. After the Nighthawks failed to convert a fourth and five from their own 49 yard line with less than a minute to play, Carpenter came up with an interception and nearly ran the ball back for a score as time expired. He scrambled some 50 yards before getting tackled at the Bethel 22.

The Nighthawks tried another trick play with a fake punt early in the second half. On fourth down, Dunn went into position to punt but made a pass attempt which went incomplete. The Wildcats got the ball at their own 43 yard line but couldn’t do anything with the field position and punted away. Newtown capped the scoring on its next drive.

Frangione, thanks in large part to a big downfield block by Kevin Conte, turned yet another short pass into points with his 29-yarder coming with 2:28 to go in the third quarter. Carpenter had his second interception late in the third.

Read more about the game and a look ahead to the October 17 matchup with Ansonia — which is just one win away from tying Cheshire’s state record of 49 straight victories (7 pm at Blue Gold Stadium) — in the October 17 print edition of The Bee.