By Steve Bigham

John Perachio still hasn’t lost a set during his brief tennis career at Newtown High School. The freshman breezed past Weston’s Alex Brandfon in straight sets last Thursday afternoon on his way to the South-West Conference (SWC) title at second singles.

The freshman won the match 7-5, 6-3 in less than an hour. Standing just five feet, two inches tall, Perachio relied on speed and intuition rather than strength to record a perfect 17-0 record. Instead of powerful forehand shots, he relies on pinpoint accuracy and is not afraid to charge the net. The young player has great promise, according to NHS boys’ tennis coach Jen Huettner, especially as he becomes stronger.

Perachio was the lone bright spot on a day that started off with so much promise.

At first singles, Zack Miller led Weston’s Evan Gillespie, 6-5, in the first set May 24. However, the match was suspended until the following day due to rain. Gillespie rallied to take the second set 7-6, winning in a tiebreaker, 7-4. The Trojan kept up the pace in the second set, prevailing, 6-3.

“It was a heartbreaker. I thought he would come back after the delay and take it, but he never really got off the ground,” Huettner said. “You wonder what would have happened had there not been a rain delay.”

Newtown’s third singles player, Sean O’Mahoney, lost to Joel Barlow’s Lucas Tanen in three sets in the semifinals. Peter Stephenson also lost in three sets, fall to Weston’s Ryan Pierce in the fourth singles semis. Both those matches were also delayed a day due to rain.

Newtown’s second doubles team of Matt Beres and Ami Kilchevsky was disqualified from its semifinal match May 24 after Beres was reportedly reprimanded on numerous occasions by a tournament official.

Newtown (12-2 overall) finished third in total points for the season with 183. Unbeaten Weston captured the SWC title with 218 total points, while Joel Barlow (13-1) finished second with 192 points. Regular season team victories, as well as individual performances at the league tournament all counted toward the final point total.

Newtown’s four singles players are scheduled to compete in the CIAC state tournament Saturday in West Hartford.