By Kim J. Harmon

With the snows last Wednesday, the sleet and freezing rains over the weekend, and the snows on Tuesday five contests were wiped off the slate – but even with their opportunities few and far between, Newtown High School teams put together a few very nice performances.

eWith Andrew Heller winning two events and freshmen Anthony Fiore and Stefan Toi winning big events, the swim team defeated Shepaug Valley to improve to 3-1.

eWith Anthony Santella scoring 25 points (18 of those on his six three-pointers) the boys’ basketball team captured its first win of the season, defeating Weston 55-52.

eThe girls’ basketball team pushed its winning streak to four games and slipping above the .500 mark for the first time this season with a 67-28 win over Weston last Friday.

Read on –

SWIMMING

Newtown 96, Shepaug 90

A fast front line, bright young freshman – it is pretty clear to anyone paying attention that the Newtown High School swim team is a pretty strong unit. But it doesn’t hurt if the Nighthawks would make a statement to that fact.

That statement came last Friday night when the ‘Hawks finished second and third in the final relay and held off perennial powerhouse Shepaug Valley, 96-90, to improve to 3-1 on the year.

The 400 freestyle relay may have been the clincher, but freshman Anthony Fiore may have had the most important race of the evening when – with the ‘Hawks already down two points – finished first in the 100-yard backstroke.

Although the ‘Hawks lost two points in the event (freshman Lisa Isabella took fifth), the first-place finish was critical.

“Anthony had to win it,” said head coach Matt Childs. “If he doesn’t win it, then we’re down eight and that’s it.”

Then Jake Maher and Stefan Toi went one-two in the 100 breaststroke and – with Allen Hubbard finishing fourth – the ‘Hawks had the least for the first time since the 50 freestyle in the first half of the non-conference meet.

With a two-point lead, all the ‘Hawks needed to do was either finish first or finish second and third to hold off Shepaug.

It left coach Childs with something to ponder.

“I was thinking about splitting up our relays,” he said, “but decided not to. We went out there to win the event – and we did.”

Coach Childs sent the ‘A’ relay out there and Andrew Heller, Chris Jacob, Max Barrett and Fiore carried Newtown to the win.

Senior co-captain Heller (200 individual medley, 100 butterfly) was a double winner for the ‘Hawks while Barrett (50 freestyle), Toi (500 freestyle), Fiore (100 backstroke) and Maher (100 breaststroke) were solo winners.

The 200 medley relay foursome of Fiore, Maher, Heller and Toi started the ‘Hawks off with an 8-6 lead by taking first. Then Jacob – normally a sprinter – competed in the 200 freestyle and finished second as Shepaug grabbed the lead, 17-13.

The ‘Hawks re-took the lead, 25-21, in the 200 individual medley when Heller and Fiore finished one-two with Dave LaMarche finishing fourth and held on to that four-point lead when Barrett and Maher went one-four in the 50 freestyle.

But Shepaug turned the tables by finishing one-three-four in diving, taking a 40-38 lead and going up as much as eight points after the 100 freestyle. But Toi and PJ O’Dell (one-three in the 500 freestyle) had strong swims to keep Shepaug from slipping further away.

A first-place finish by the 200 freestyle relay of Jacob, Maher, Barrett and Toi pulled the ‘Hawks to within two points and set the stage for the thrilling finish.

“We swam the best lineup we could,” said coach Childs, “and it was fun meet.”

The ‘Hawks hosted Bethel on Thursday (after press time, in a meet postponed from Tuesday) and will battle Bunnell/Stratford next Tuesday at Flood Junior High School. The locals will host powerhouse Brookfield on Tuesday, January 25.

NOTE: No times have been reported due to a failure in the touch-pad system at Shepaug and the lack of backup timers for each lane.

Newtown 96, Shepaug 90

200 medley relay – 1. Newtown (Fiore, Maher, Heller, Toi), 2. Shepaug, 3. Shepaug; 200 freestyle – 1. Carlson (S), 2. Chris Jacob (N), 3. Kimball (S), 4. Anderson (S), 5. Nick Maurer (N); 200 individual medley – 1. Andrew Heller (N), 2. Anthony Fiore (N), 3. Connolly (S), 4. Dave LaMarche (N), 5. Koslosky (S); 50 freestyle – 1. Max Barrett (N), 2. Napp (S), 3. Torpey (S), 4. Jake Maher, 5. Digaetano (S); Diving – 2. Bryan LaCouture (N), 5. Britta Cedergren (N); 100 butterfly – 1. Andrew Heller (N), 2. Wescott (S), 3. Hal (S), 4. Chris Fragoso (N), 5. Baron (S); 100 freestyle – 1. Torpey (S), 2. Chris Jacob (N), 3. Digaetano (S), 4. Kimball (S), 5. Max Barrett (N); 500 freestyle – 1. Stefan Toi (N), 2. Piersall (S), 3. PJ O’Dell (N), 4. Hora (S), 5. Scott Whalley (N); 200 freestyle relay – 1. Newtown (Jacob, Maher, Barrett, Toi), 2. Shepaug, 3. Shepaug; 100 backstroke – 1. Anthony Fiore (N), 2. Decker (S), 3. Connolly (S), 4. Belanger (S), 5. Lisa Isabella (N); 100 breaststroke – 1. Jake Maher (N), 2. Stefan Toi (N), 3. Gillespie (S), 4. Allen Hubbard (N), 5. Carlson (S); 400 freestyle relay – 1. Newtown (Heller, Jacob, Barrett, Fiore), 2. Shepaug, 3. Shepaug.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Newtown 55, Weston 52

Scoring has been a pretty big problem for the Newtown High School boys’ basketball team – until last Friday night, that is.

Senior co-captain Anthony Santella canned six three-pointers and poured in 25 points to lead the Nighthawks to a 56-53 win over Weston … the locals’ first win of the 2004-05 season.

Through the first four games of the season, the ‘Hawks averaged fewer than 50 points a game and had just one individual – Marcus Tracy – averaging better than 10 points a game. Despite strong defensive performances, the ‘Hawks were at a loss offensively.

But last Friday night Santella – who had just 32 career points entering the 2004-05 season – gave the offense a huge lift with his outstanding performance (17 points in the first half alone). The six three-pointers is one shy of the school record set by John Fiscella in 2001.

Santella out-gunned Weston’s Robbie Sisca, who also canned six three-pointers (finishing with 20 points). Jon Galvin helped power the Trojan offense with 18 points, but the ‘Hawks were able to overcome the Sisca-Galvin tandem with Marcus Tracy scoring 11 points (with a pair of three-pointers), Josh Rouse scoring eight and Brennan Coakley scoring six.

The ‘Hawks hosted Pomperaug on Thursday and will travel to New Milford on Friday before returning home next Tuesday to take on New Fairfield.

Newtown 56, Weston 53

NEWTOWN (56): Brennan Coakley 3 0-0 6, Josh Rouse 4 0-0 8, Kevin Quinn 0 0-0 0, Anthony Santella 8 3-3 25, Marcus Tracy 3 3-4 11, Joey DeVellis 1 2-3 4, Ryan McGrath 1 0-0 2, Dave McLaughlin 0 0-0 0, Kevin Troy 0 0-0 0, Adam Drummond 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 20 8-10 56.

WESTON (53): Robbie Sisca 8 0-1 22, Dave Chase 2 2-2 6, Jon Fishman 0 5-6 5, Jon Galvin 4 3-4 11, Steve Poppen 0 1-2 1, Kevin Kopesky 4 0-1 8, Sam Baskin 0 0-0 0, Dan Seymour 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 18 11-16 53.

Three-pointers: Anthony Santella (N) 6, Robbie Sisca (W) 6, Marcus Tracy (N) 2.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Newtown 67, Weston 28

The first quarter of the season was a brutal stretch for the Newtown High School girls’ basketball team, but it seems the Lady Nighthawks have finally gotten their legs under them.

With a 67-28 win last Friday night over Weston, the ‘Hawks – who won just once in their first five games – increased their winning streak to four games and improved their record to 5-4 overall, 2-1 in the South-West Conference.

Twelve different players got onto the floor and 10 of them score at least two points as the ‘Hawks put this one away early.

The locals put 22 points on the board in the first period alone to take a 15-point lead and that lead ballooned to 27 points at the half. The ‘Hawks coasted in the second half, but still managed to increase the final margin of victory to 39 points.

Meg Kelley canned 13 points and hit her sixth three-pointer of the season. Carly Curran scored 10 points while Siobhan Cooper added nine points and Ashley LaRocque chipped in with eight. Christie Iwanicki scored seven points and nailed down her first three-pointer of the season.

The ‘Hawks were slated to take on Pomperaug on Tuesday, but the snows postponed the game until Wednesday. The locals will host New Milford on Friday and then travel to New Fairfield next Tuesday to take on the Lady Rebels.

Newtown 68, Weston 27

WESTON (27): Danne Harrison 5 0-3 10, Julia Levi 1 7-10 10, Amanda England 0 0-0 0, Liz Ogiba 0 0-0 0, Anna Feingold 2 1-2 5, Kate Butlein 1 0-2 2, Olivia Chase 0 1-4 1, Carolyn Judge 0 0-0 0, Ashley Cordisco 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 9 9-21 28.

NEWTOWN (68): Meghan Kelly 6 0-0 13, Darcy Fiscella 0 0-0 0, Katie O’Connor 1 0-0 02, Ashley LaRocque 2 4-4 8, Carly Curran 5 0-0 10, Ciara Simek 3 0-0 6, Siobhan Cooper 3 3-4 9, Kristi Nowak 1 0-0 2, Christie Iwanicki 3 0-1 7, Kacy Foehrenbach 3 0-0 6, Jill Logan 2 0-0 4, Amy Kelly 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 29 7-9 67.

Three-pointers: Meg Kelley (N), Christie Iwanicki (N), Julia Levi (W).

WRESTLING

Stratford 42, Newtown 25

An old fashioned rumble – that’s what the South-West Conference wrestling match between Newtown and Stratford looked like, early on.

But after Bob Pattison (171), Alex Read (189) and Brandon Thomas (215) battled through all (or nearly all) three periods in their matches, the Red Devils stormed through seven of the next nine matches with three pins, two major decisions and a technical fall and eventually earned a 45-22 win.

It was the ‘Hawks first loss in four matches.

With Pattison working over Jordan Belle for an 11-4 decision at 171 pounds to start the SWC battle on Monday night, the match appeared to have all the makings of a long, drawn out battle. Read did nothing to dispel that at 189 pounds, falling into a 9-2 hole against Ralph Brunko before pulling off a reversal and recording three back points to get right back into the match. Down five points in the third period, Read earned a takedown but couldn’t get any closer.

Then Brandon Thomas worked a tough match against Steve Figueroa at 215 pounds before finally getting pinned at 4:22 of the third period.

Even though the ‘Hawks were down 9-3 at that point, they still had the meat of their order coming up shortly.

With Chris Muccherino pinning Joel Minalgo in 42 seconds at 275 pounds and Anthony Ricco earning a major decision over Kim Solheim at 103 pounds, the Red Devils started tearing through the ‘Hawks lineup.

Two key matches in that run came at 125 and 140 pounds.

At 125 pounds, the ‘Hawks might have started turning the tide but Kevin Wasicki – who had built up a 10-5 lead over Jesse Inmann – suddenly found himself on his back and suffering a third period pin. And at 140 pounds, Justin Bass found himself in an 8-0 hole against Steve Flathers at the end of one period before fighting his way all the way back to tie the match, 9-9. But when Bass tried to turn Flathers in the third period and take the lead, Flathers instead earned a takedown and quickly put the match away.

The ‘Hawks finished the proceedings off with a couple of strong performances as Ryan Peters earned a 10-1 major decision over Hector Soriano at 152 pounds while Jagi Eaknabaatar nailed down a 40-second pin of Brian Drury at 160 pounds.

At 3-1, the ‘Hawks hosted Bethel on Wednesday and will host Thomaston on Saturday (with an 11 am start) before returning to the Newtown High mat next Wednesday against Brookfield.

Stratford 42, Newtown 25

171: Bob Pattison (N) dec. Jordan Belle, 11-4; 189: Ralph Brunko (S) dec. Alex Read, 12-9; 215: Steve Figueroa (S) pinned Brandon Thomas, 4:22; 275: Chris Muccherino (S) pinned Joel Minalgo, :42; 103: Anthony Ricco (S) major dec. Kim Solheim, 12-1; 112: Pete Janoski (S) pinned Mark Bonamici, :49; 119: Jeff Lipnick (N) major dec. Jess Rea, 14-4; 125: Jesse Inmann (S) pinned Kevin Wasicki, 5:36; 130: Steve Giacolone (N) pinned Stanley LaFortune, :56; 135: Rich Rapice (S) tech. fall Ben Snyder, 15-0; 140: Steve Flathers (S) major dec. Justin Bass, 17-9; 145: Mike Baldino (S) dec. Colin O’Connor, 6-2; 152: Ryan Peters (N) major dec. Hector Soriano, 10-1; 160: Jagi Eaknabaatar (N) pinned Brian Drury, :40.

HOCKEY

Immaculate 9, Newtown 1

It sure was a tough situation for the Newtown High School hockey team, facing off against Immaculate on Saturday at the Danbury Ice Arena.

Not only were the Nighthawks facing a Division I opponent, but the Mustangs boasted a strong Newtown connection – including Steve Murtha (who scored three goals in the game) and former Newtown hockey tri-captain Harrison Kass. On top of that, former Newtown co-coach Paul Esposito was now on the Immaculate bench.

A tough situation all right – made worse with a 9-1 loss that dropped the Nighthawks to 4-4-0 overall, 1-3-0 overall in the South-West Conference and 1-2-0 in the SWC’s Division II.

Murtha recorded a natural hat trick to open the scoring for the Mustangs, who got four assists from Tom Burdick. As the hosts peppered Newtown goaltender Mike Jurasek with 58 shots, they built up a 9-0 lead before the ‘Hawks finally came away with something.

Senior co-captain Sean LaPorta scored a third period goal as the ‘Hawks avoided the shutout.

The locals will host Joel Barlow on Saturday at the Danbury Ice Arena (puck drops at 3:50 pm) and will battle New Fairfield next Wednesday (with the puck dropping at 5:30 pm).