Newtown High School Football Team Suffers First Loss

By Andy Hutchison

SOUTHBURY — In a battle of unbeaten South-West Conference rivals, the Newtown High School football team could not overcome a combination of injuries, turnovers, penalties and … the clincher — a strong opponent.

Newtown showed plenty of fight, but host Pomperaug High pulled away in the second half for a 33-9 victory on October 16.

The Pomperaug Panthers improved to 5-0 and, in doing so, handed Newtown (4-1) its first taste of defeat this fall.

The Panthers built an early 12-0 lead and never looked back. Newtown appeared to recover a fumbled ball early in the game, but the call was not made in Newtown’s favor and things never got much better for the Nighthawks.

Down 6-0 in the first, the Nighthawks seemed to be turning things around when Rory Noonan picked off a Pomperaug pass in the NHS end zone. Newtown, however, proceeded to turn the ball back over to the Panthers at their own 29 yard line, setting up Pomperaug’s second score.

Early in the second quarter, the Nighthawks thought they had broken through and scored a touchdown, but after quarterback John Fracker and Kyle O’Connor hooked up for an apparent 72-yard scoring play on a screen pass, a block in the back penalty on Newtown negated the TD and brought the ball back to the Pomperaug 16. Newtown settled for a Rory Noonan 33-yard field goal to make it 12-3.

Down 19-3 midway through the second, the Nighthawks again seemed to seize some momentum when Jamie Bowers stepped up and intercepted Pomperaug quarterback Andrew Clement’s screen pass and returned the ball 45 yards for a score. Newtown went for a two-point conversion but could not get the ball into the end zone and trailed 19-9 with 5:50 to play in the half.

The Nighthawks had a chance to make it one possession game before the break when Bowers came up with a fumble recovery at the Panthers’ 29. Newtown, though, turned the ball over on downs and went into the break trailing by 10.

“We had our opportunities. We just didn’t capitalize,” NHS Coach Steve George said. “You can’t win if you don’t score on offense.”

Pomperaug, behind a tough defensive effort, and the work of Clement and running back Ben Crick, kept Newtown from coming back in the second half and put two third-quarter touchdowns on the scoreboard to put the game out of reach.

The Nighthawks, who were without offensive guard and defensive lineman Dana Hansen because of an undisclosed injury, lost offensive lineman and middle linebacker Eric McCabe to a knee injury early in this game. Bowers, although he came up with some key plays on defense, was used sparingly because he was nicked up, George said.

“We had a lot of injuries. We were a little lumped up on the offensive line,” said George, adding that, at one point, only two starters were on the line.

Newtown will try to get back to its winning ways in an October 24 game at Weston. Kickoff is set for 3 pm. The Hawks host Oxford October 30 at 7 pm.

“We’ve got a lot of season left,” George said.