By Kim J. Harmon

MILFORD – The Nighthawks traveled down to Foran High School last Friday night with the hope that they could do something – anything – to straighten out the problems that have plagued them in 1999.

But they couldn’t.

Maybe it was the inconsistent offensive play, the inconsistent defensive play, the penalties or the turnovers – or all of it put together – but the ‘Hawks struggled against the Lions and lost, 37-13, to fall to 2-6 for the season.

Although Foran had a strong passing attack, it was more of the ground game that got it started in the first period. An 11-yard sweep off the left corner put the Lions ahead 7-0.

The ‘Hawks, meanwhile, didn’t earn their initial first down until 10:30 was already gone in the first period. After that, running game came back with a couple of big runs to get the offense moving.

But the drive quickly stalled.

In the second period, with 6:21 left to play, Newtown seemed to dodge a bullet when a Foran pass was dropped at the goal line, but all the Lions did was set up for a 28 yard field goal to go ahead 10-0.

The game was already slipping out of the fingers of the Nighthawks, but held on – at least briefly – and scored three minutes later, Kyle Tobin tore off a couple huge runs after Les Russell started things off with a nice pass to tight end Matt McCarthy. Sean Raby also carried the offense down the field and it was he who took the ball in from 11 yards out to trim the Foran lead to just three, 10-7.

Soon after, though, came the one play that probably did the most damage to the hopes of the Nighthawks. Down just three with 26 seconds to go in the half, Foran pulled off a shovel pass that split the Newtown defense right down the middle. It resulted in a 25-yard gain and was immediately followed by a five-yard fade pattern to the corner for a touchdown.

Newtown was all set to get the second-half kickoff, down only three points, but just like that was facing a 10-point deficit, 17-7.

With 6:08 left in the third quarter, the Newtown defense seemed to stymie Foran on an attempted reverse, but one play later a simple off tackle run to an unguarded corner resulted in a 55-yard gain down to the five. Two plays later, the Lions were in the end zone again and had a 23-7 lead.

The ‘Hawks still had life, however, as a 47-yard sweep left by Tobin proved. Two plays later, Raby burst through the line for a 35-yard touchdown run to the right corner flag.

With 4:52 left in the third, the Foran lead was trimmed to 23-13.

As the third period ended, however, another big pass got the Lions to the 14 yard line. Still, it looked as if Newtown would hold Foran off when the ball squirted loose a couple plays later and rolled into the end zone. Trouble was, James Jordan was there for Foran to fall on the ball for another touchdown and a 30-13 lead.

The Nighthawks last real gasp game with about seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. On a fourth-and-12 play, Russell made a valiant scramble out of trouble and very nearly pulled out a first down, but he was stopped one yard shy and the ‘Hawks had to turn the ball over on downs.

With less than two minutes to play, the Lions were back in the end zone and put the final points up on the scoreboard.

The Nighthawks will host New Milford on Friday night in the annual Boot game and then will look forward to the annual Thanksgiving Day matchup with Masuk down in Monroe.