RIDGEFIELD – The faithful in the Newtown Pop Warner Football program may have thought Hurricane Ivan had somehow transformed itself into the Ridgefield Raiders last Sunday as the Nighthawks – all five teams – were washed out of Tiger Hollow in Ridgefield in decidedly unnatural fashion.

With the Saturday games rained out, it meant that Sunday would be a five-game marathon on the artificial turf at Ridgefield Hill. It was a beautiful day for football, but not for the Nighthawks, who were dominated on a mostly forgettable day.

Speed, size, and intensity – Ridgefield had it all and Newtown just couldn’t muster a response.

Mighty Mites –

Julian Dunn scored on a 44-yard run in the fourth quarter, but only so the Mighty Mites could avoid a shutout in a 27-7 loss. John Meyers, Ryan Seymour and Colin Reilly played well for the Nighthawks.

Pee Wees –

Despite the offensive and defensive prowess of Kevin O’Connell, the Pee Wee offense was unable to get past some basic mistakes – or the Ridgefield defense – and suffered a 24-6 loss.

O’Connell had several strong runs, made two sacks, and had a fumble recovery and runback for Newtown’s only score. Captains Max Nacewicz, Cody Fischer, Ryan Murphy and Lewis Thompson played some hard-nosed football, but the Ridgefield squad had too many weapons.

John Fracker hit Keith Reszoly with a beautiful pass for the Nighthawks’ only other offensive highlight of the day.

Midgets –

Like all the other Newtown Pop Warner teams, it was a tough day for the Midgets, who allowed a season-high 29 points in the loss.

The only Newtown highlight of the game was Ian Cooper’s interception in the second quarter.

The Midgets fell to 3-1 and hope to get back on the winning track on Sunday with a 2 pm contest against the New Milford Bulls at Hawley School.

Junior Midgets –

Kyle O’Connor rushed for 97 yards, passed for 28 more, and scored a touchdown but the Junior Midgets suffered a 24-8 loss to Ridgefield.

Kurt Nacewicz (51 yards rushing, one sack), Matt Taylor (four tackles, one sack), Brian Reszoly (five tackles and one point-after kick) and the tremendous work by the offensive line of Dylan Huebner, Tyler Davenport, Jeremy Schaniel, Tim Wilmott, Mike Hadgraft, Louis Raab, Brian Kuruc, Kevin Brown, Dana Hansen, Zach Dent, and Mike Mouchantat was all the locals could look back on.

Newtown started off slow in the first half, not scoring and giving up 16 points, but in the second half, the ‘Hawks fought hard with tremendous heart and effort, scoring one touchdown, recovering two fumbles (Jake Woolfe and Tory Deakin) and holding the Raider offense to just eight points.

Newtown looks to rebound next week against New Milford.

– submitted by Matt Kuruc