79ers

Somers 19, Newtown 6: The Newtown’s 79ers hit the road this past Saturday and traveled into New York State for a matchup against the Somers Tuskers. It would prove to be a hard-hitting defensive battle for most of the game ,with Somers eventually escaping with a victory.

The Somers swarming defense made it rough going for Newtown’s quarterback, James Iaropoli, and running backs Dylan Magazu and Anthony D’Amico in the first half. However, while the 79er offense worked to find its rhythm, the defense stepped up and played like seasoned veterans. James Iaropoli, Walker Previdi, Miles Capener, and Andrew Swierbut combined for 11 tackles. Richie Wilford registered a huge quarterback sack for a 12-yard loss and Liam Haywood made a key play when he recovered a Somers’ fumble in the Newtown end zone, derailing the Tusker’s hopes of a touchdown. Later, Somers would score the only points of the half to take a 7-0 lead into the break.

Though Somers would score on their opening possession to start the second half, Newtown’s offense countered when running back Andrew Swierbut exploded for a 77-yard touchdown run; making the score 13-6. This score would hold until late in the fourth quarter.

Speedy Michael Ihlefeld carried the ball effectively in the second half. The 79er defense was led by stellar play from Carter Jasinski, Richard Guman, Ben Carley, Connor Faxon, and Sam Steare; all registering multiple tackles. Richie Wilford would apply a second crushing hit, causing a Somers fumble that thwarted another Tuskers drive.

Grade 4

Newtown 38, Shelton 6: The Nighthawks closed out the regular season with dominating performance on Sunday in Shelton, scoring on every offensive possession. Newtown’s defense started the game by giving the offense the ball on the Shelton 28 yard line after pummeling the Seahawk offense for negative yards on their first possession. After a 10-yard run by Shaine Luzietti, Mathew Carpenter took a handoff 18 yards for pay dirt to get the Nighthawks on the board for a quick 6-0 lead.

Newtown’s next score was set up by a Luzietti interception. Newtown gave Shelton another dose of bruising runs by Luzietti and a nice run by Jeffrey Garrity to give the Hawks the ball at the Shelton 27 yard line. Quarterback Michael Haddick then went to the air attack hitting Carpenter for a 27-yard TD pass to give Newtown a 12-0 lead.

Newton’s D once again gave the offense the ball in great field position on another Luzietti pick. Starting at the Seahawk 28 yard line QB Michael Haddick picked up 21 yards on two carries before handing the ball to RB Eric Burbank to finish off the drive and the Nighthawks third score of the game and an 18-0 lead.

The Nighthawks next score came on a 38-yard run by Jeffrey Garrity.

The Seahawk defense looked like they had him stopped several times on the run but could not bring him down. QB Street hit Luzietti for the one-point conversion to extend the lead to 25-0.

QB Haddick took care of the scoring on the next possession outracing the Shelton Defense taking it to the house from 40 yards out on a QB keeper set up by the blocking of Aiden Foss, Zach Reilly, Nick Adams, Brian Pendergast, Colton Stergue, and Nevin Bell-Hill.

After Shelton got on the scoreboard with a late touchdown, Luke Hannan set up the Nighthawk’s last touchdown getting the ball down to the Seahawk 20 yard line on two nice runs. RB CJ Demers would finish off the drive with a TD run of his own to close out the 38-6 victory.

Grade 5

Nighthawks 36, Guilford 14: The Nighthawks won the coin toss and took possession on their own 42 yard line. On the third play from scrimmage, JP Iaropoli threaded a pass between two Indians and Will Swierbut snatched the ball out of the air and rumbled 52 yards for the opening score. The first half was more of the same offensive production for the Nighthawks. They scored touchdowns on four of their five first half possessions. The second score came on a 30-yard sweep to Jack Kuligowski, where he evaded what seemed like the entire Guilford defense en route to the end zone. Jack Carpenter capped an 11-play, 76-yard drive with a 6-yard scamper for the third Newtown TD. And Iaropoli threw his second TD pass, a 20-yarder to Carpenter, to close out the scoring for the half. Newtown went to the locker room, up 24-0.

The defense was just as impressive as the offense, stopping the Indians on their first six possessions, until the game was essentially over. The opportunistic defense forced three turnovers. Swierbut and Steven Cheh forced fumbles that were grabbed by Jack Mulligan and Jacob Riley, and Miles Ricks roamed the secondary, hitting hard and grabbed an interception as well. Mulligan and Stephen Sedensky added a sack each and terrorized the Indian QB all day, from their D end positions. Danny Ingersoll led all tacklers with six, Ricks added five, and Ben Pinto four.

In the second half, Swierbut made the score 30-0 with a 13-yard TD run. The Indians responded with a big run of their own and after getting the ball back, put in a second score to make it interesting. But the defense stiffened once again, and the offense put together one last drive. After a long pass to Ricks and a Carpenter run down to the 1 yard line, Pinto powered in a tough run for the final score.

Grade 6

Shelton Seahawks 19, Nighthawks 14: The undefeated Nighthawk squad traveled to Shelton last Sunday and played its toughest game of the season against a hungry and opportunistic Seahawks team. Game captains were Justin Prestera, Patrick Hurley, Emir Kurkcu, and Aiden Jasinski. The Seahawks struck first with a 60 yard run for a touchdown, but the Nighthawks stymied the extra point attempt. Newtown’s first drive was cut short by an interception, but the defense held, and Tucker Garrity recorded a red zone interception at the end of the first quarter. On the opening play of the second quarter, a Seahawk defender jumped a pass route for a pick-six, and the score stayed 12-0 as the Nighthawk blocked the extra point kick. Daniel Mason and Griffin Cross traded runs up the middle for most of the half, gaining huge yards, and eventually Griffin broke through for a touchdown with eight minutes to go in the half. Shea Talbot nailed the kick and the score was 12-8. On the next set of downs, the Seahawks scored on a long run, and this time converted the extra point to make the score 19-8 with five minutes left in the half. A re-energized defense took the field in the second half and shut down the Seahawks. Cross scored again for the Nighthawks but the extra point was blocked. In the fourth quarter, the Nighthawks controlled their destiny. With minutes left in the game, the offense started deep in its own territory and marched the ball down to the Seahawk 40 yard line, where the drive stalled. After the turnover on downs, the Seahawks knelt to run the remaining time off the clock, and the Nighthawks recorded their first and only loss of the season. The team makes the playoffs, and takes on Monroe at Wolfe Park this Sunday.

Grade 7

Newtown 27, Shelton 0: The Nighthawks played their last game of the regular season at Shelton High School. Newtown scored on the third play of their opening possession when Michael Garner broke free for a 38-yard touchdown run. The Shelton offense then moved into Newtown territory when Tristan Crone came up big on a fourth down attempt, batting away the ball on a pass attempt. This gave possession back to the Newtown offense. Once again the offense moved the ball down the field to the Shelton 1 yard line. From here Ryan Kost completed a pass to Will Stenz for another Newtown touchdown, putting the nighthawks up by 14. The Next Shelton drive would end when the Shelton ball carrier mishandled a pitch, allowing Mark Hall to make a tackle for a loss on fourth down.

On their opening possession of the second half Shelton turned the ball over again when Tristan Crone jumped on a fumble. This time the Newtown offense was unable to get points out of the turnover and the ball went back to Shelton on downs. The Newtown defense forced a four and out for Shelton. Newtown opened their next possession with a 43-yard run by Josh Dunn. Kost took advantage of the field position with a quarterback keeper round the end for another Newtown touchdown. The fourth quarter started with Shelton deep in their own territory. Connor Marlin blocked a Shelton punt and fell on the ball in the end zone for another Newtown touchdown. On the extra point attempt Kost completed a pass to a wide-open Ben Harrison.

Grade 8

Bridgeport 32, Newtown 30: The Nighthawks lost a thriller on Saturday against a tough Bridgeport team. After trailing early 7-0, the defense set up the first Newtown score when linebacker Bobby Haskins recovered a fumble at the Charger 25 yard line. QB Conte started the drive with a 12-yard run on a QB keeper. Newtown would get a first and goal on a pass interference call in the endzone. Conte then hit wide receiver Mitchell Savoca on a screen pass for the Nighthawks first score. Savoca then kicked the 2-point conversion to give Newtown a 8-7 lead.

Newtown’s defense continued to battle on the ensuing Bridgeport drive. Defensive end Ryan Marusi stripped the Charger running back and Mathew Krasnikas recovered to give the ball back to the Nighthawk offense. Newtown drove deep into Charger territory but was unable to capitalize. The Bridgeport offense then scored on a long run to regain the lead at 13-8.

Just before the end of the half the Chargers would score again to extend their lead to 19-8. As they have done all season, the Nighthawks battled. Newtown opened the second half with Haskins recovering an onside kick to give Newtown the ball at midfield. After runs by Savoca and Marusi, QB Conte handed off to Hunter Cobb who behind the blocking of Mathew Krasnikas, Willie Whitlock, Sean Wallace, Savoca and a great downfield block by Conte took it 20 yards to the house. Savoca added the 2-point kick to cut the deficit to 19-16.

Bridgeport answered back with a drive of their own to extend the lead to 26-16.

Newtown looked to regain the momentum. Facing fourth and 9 at the 50, Conte on a fake punt hit Haskins for a 10-yard gain and a Nighthawk first down to extend the drive. Conte went back to the air, hitting Haskins for another 20-yard gain. Marusi then took a handoff and outraced the Charger defense for the Nighthawks third score of the game. Savoca kicked the 2 point conversion to cut the Bridgeport lead to 24-26.

Newtown’s D then forced a quick turnover on downs to give the offense back the ball at the Charger 43. The Nighthawks went to the ground with great runs by Cobb and Joey Accousti driving the ball deep into Bridgeport territory. From the 3 yard line Newtown went back to Cobb who found the endzone behind the blocking of Stevie Macejko, Erik Benson and Thomas Long to give Newtown a 30-26 lead.

Bridgeport returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown to end the scoring and hand the Nighthawks a 32-30 defeat.