Newtown’s fifth grade football team defeated Shelton 49-20 in the Shoreline Youth Football Conference semifinals, this past week.

After receiving the opening kickoff, the Vikings wasted no time, scoring on the second play from scrimmage to take a 6-0 lead. That lead would prove to be their last in the contest as the visiting Hawks unleashed an offense that scored on its first four possessions of the game. 

As in previous weeks, Newtown linemen, Giovanni Cucco, Brock Ducate, Richie Wilford, Stone McIntyre, and Brady Fodor opened up gaping holes in the opponent’s defensive front and Hawk running backs Carter Mixon, Adrian Wadhwa, Ben Stubbs, Dylan Magazu, Ben Carley, and Andrew Swierbut hit the holes seemingly running downhill.

Magazu had a monster day, leading the team in rushing with 187 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries. Carley added 76 yards, including a 25-yard bolt, and Swierbut sliced his way for 91 yards and two scores. Newtown’s air attack dissected Shelton’s secondary; quarterback Magazu connecting on TD throws to Wilford and Carley of 10 yards and 18 yards, respectively. The Newtown offense put up 437 total yards on the higher-seeded Vikings.

Mark Sokk led the Nighthawks in special team return yards and the Hawks were successful on four point-after tries; Magazu throwing for one conversion and Swierbut kicking three. Defensively, 14 players were in on stops for Newtown. Tackles were registered by Swierbut (12), Fodor (9), Sokk (9), Cucco (7), Magazu (6), Carley (4), Sal Fiodelisi (4), while McIntyre, Wilford, Dukate, Luca Manfredi, Khalil Vessup, Wadhwa and Daniel DeOliveira each had three solid hits. Other key defensive plays included Manfredi recovering a fumble on a kickoff that led to a Hawk touchdown, and Fodor, Cucco and Carley combining for two sacks. With this victory, the Nighthawks earned the right to play in the league championship against the Madison Tigers on Sunday, November 15 (time and location to be announced).