The Junior Pee Wees and Pee Wees took one step closer to their respective Pop Warner championship games with victories this past weekend in the Candlewood Valley League quarterfinals. The semi-finals are next week.

The games:

 

JUNIOR PEE WEES

 

NEWTOWN 12, MONROE 0: Mark Schuenemann scored a pair of touchdowns as the Junior Pee Wees blanked Monroe in the first round of the Candlewood Valley League playoffs.

The first half was a defensive battle, with neither Newtown nor Monroe giving any ground. The Junior Pee Wees were led by Lucas Vendel, Tyler Tarantino, and Justin Craparo. Dan DeLaVega picked off a pass and set up the Newtown offense on the Monroe 35-yard line.

From there, Tarantino hit Schuenemann on the option and then Tarantino took the ball himself and brought it down to the 17. Schuenemann then followed a great block by Vendel to scored the first touchdown of the game and give Newtown a 6-0 lead at the break.

Newtown continued to dominate the line of scrimmage in the second half. Justin McGrath, DeLaVega, Zach Conger, and Matt Mascolo made great tackles. James Post and Robert Morlath also turned in a couple of nice plays.

The Newtown offense had some trouble and turned the ball over to Monroe on the Newtown seven yard line.

Newtown needed two first downs to run out the clock and even though Kris Kling made a nice run, the Monroe defense held and got the ball back on the Newtown 24 for one last try. Monroe picked up a couple of first downs and brought the ball all the way to the four.

On the sweep, Kling slowed the Monroe runner and Tarantino stripped him of the ball. Tarantino then ran 90 yards the other way before being brought down at the Monroe six. Schuenemann got the call and barreled his way into the end zone for the TD.

The Junior Pee Wees will battle Ridgefield this weekend in the semi-finals.

 

PEE WEES

 

NEWTOWN 9, DANBURY VIKINGS 0: From Brian Poelt and Thomas Hutchison denying the sweeps to Ryan McGrath and Hutchison coming up with their interceptions of the season, it was a story of defense as the Pee Wees defeated the Danbury Vikings, 9-0, in the Pop Warner quarter-finals.

Now, on to the semi-finals!

Joey DeVellis and David Modzelewski made the first tackle of the day on the opening kick and then Tucker Kass, Hutchison, McGrath, Grant Speer and Brian Stickles hunkered down and kept the Danbury offense at bay. As the Vikings began to move the ball, Poelt shut them down on the outside.

The Newtown offense started slow. A fumble stopped the Pee Wees’ first drive. Later, Speer and Kass ran the ball well while Hutchison and Kass each pulled in five-yard receptions. But the Pee Wees could not score, nor could the Vikings, who were stymied at the close of the first half by a Hutchison interception.

The second-half offensive attack of Newtown started with runs by Ryan Martin, Stickles, and Joe Collins. DeVellis broke open for 25 yards (the longest run of the day for either team) and, later, hit McGrath for a 10-yard pass play and a first down.

After the first down, Kass scored the only touchdown of the day when he burst through a hole created by Cody Shpunt, Mario Roehrs, Steve Orrico and Joe Bowen. DeVellis then tossed a spiral to McGrath on the conversion attempt to give the Pee Wees a 7-0 lead.

The defensive play of the half came when Collins and Bowen got together and made a tackle in the end zone for a safety, giving Newtown a 9-0 lead.

The Pee Wees will meet the Danbury Trojans on Saturday, October 28, at the Osborne Street field in Danbury. The time was not announced at press time.

JUNIOR MIDGETS

 

DANBURY VIKINGS 20, NIGHTHAWKS 7: The Junior Midgets run in the Pop Warner playoffs ended in the quarterfinals with a 20-7 loss to the Danbury Vikings. Despite the excellent defense of Max Reed, Jeff Levasseur, RJ Marus and Dylan Borst, the Vikings held a 20-0 lead by the end of the first quarter.

James Wiedemann, Marus and Roy Scheunemann were strong on offense in the third quarter while Borst had a quarterback sack on defense. In the fourth quarter, Mark Ingerman ran 72 yards for a touchdown after gathering in a pass from Kevin Wasicki. Wasicki and Borst hooked up for the extra point and Newtown had trimmed the Danbury lead to 20-7.

MIDGETS

 

DANBURY VIKINGS 34, NEWTOWN 0: During the first half, Newtown did a terrific job holding the Vikings to a 8-0 lead. Bobby Pattison had a fumble recovery and two sacks, Brendan O’Connor had five pass receptions.  The defense played a great game, including John Collins and Kenny Stella.