Four touchdowns by Louis Fenaroli – two on the defensive side of the ball – led the Newtown eighth-grade football team to an easy 40-20 win over the Ridgefield Orange last weekend.

Meanwhile, three touchdowns by Dan Hebert led the seventh-graders past Bridgeport; two touchdowns by Matt Hoyt led the sixth-graders past Southern Dutchess; and three touchdowns by Colton Smith led the fifth-graders past Ridgefield.

Here is what happened –

EIGHTH GRADE

Newtown 40, Ridgefield Orange 20

Louis Fenaroli scored on two runs of 51 yards, a fumble return of 46 yards and an interception return of 36 yards as the Newtown eighth-grade football team pounded the Ridgefield Orange, 40-20.

Evan Noonan also got in the end zone a couple of times, scoring on a run of 23 yards and an interception return of 28 yards.

Ridgefield got on board first, taking a 6-0 lead, but Sean Ross blocked the extra point attempt to start things off for Newtown. Later, Fenaroli tied the score with a 51-yard blast up the middle behind the front line of Kevin Dennis, Eric Samuelson, Cory Fisher, James Hooks Ian Kirner and Jack Curry.

On the next Ridgefield offensive possession, Noonan jumped in front of an out pattern, picked off the pass and ran it back 23 yards to put Newtown up, 14-6, following the extra point kick by Josh Barrett.

After a quick three-and-out defensive effort by Newtown, Fenaroli once again burst up the middle for a 51-yard touchdown. Another Barrett extra point made it 22-6 in favor of Newtown.

Ridgefield got back in the end zone to bring the score to 22-12. Several series later, Ridgefield scored again on a pass play and converted the extra point to move to within two points of the Nighthawks, 22-20.

But early in the third quarter, Noonan picked off his second pass and later scored on a 23-yard run to put Newtown ahead, 28-20. In the fourth, Fenaroli swiped the ball from a Ridgefield ball carrier and returned it 46 yards for another Newtown score.

The defensive efforts of Colin Morris, Andrew Cebry, Ross, Hunter Basset, Mario Pizighelli and Robbie Daigle kept the heat on the Ridgefield offense all day. This effort was highlighted by another interception and touchdown return of 36 yards by Fenaroli for the late score to put Newtown up, 40-20.

Newtown will host the undefeated Norwalk Packers this Sunday at Treadwell Park at 12 noon.

SEVENTH GRADE

Newtown 31, Bridgeport 7

Dan Hebert threw two touchdown passes and ran in another and Ivan Hutchison booted a 23-yard field goal to lead the Newtown seventh-grade football team to a 31-7 win over Bridgeport last weekend.

The Big Blue moved to 2-2 on the year. Phil Reynolds grabbed a TD pass from Hebert and ran one in, as well, while Justin DeVellis snatched a 20-yard scoring aerial from Hebert to help fuel the Newtown offense.

Big Blue got things started right away with a nifty reverse on the opening kickoff as Hebert took the hand off from DeVellis and with strong blocking by Thomas Bauer, Chris Stanton, John Meyers and Joe Davis, Hebert was able to get into Charger territory at the 30. From there, Big Blue was able to eat up big yardage with the strong running of Joe Davis and Josh Villa.

Leading the way up front with strong blocking Chris Devaney, Robbie Hughes, Alec Woznick and Trevor Parsons enabled Hebert to punch the ball in from the two for a 6-0 lead.

Newtown stopped the first Bridgeport drive in four plays and regained the ball in good field position. Pat Mullins, Dean Baye, Stanton and Jack Kearney were the work horses up front for the D line and stopped the Chargers cold with strong penetration and hard tackling.

Big Blue took its second possession of the game right back down field and with the hard running by Reynolds and Ralph Strocchia and strong blocking by JP Kitzmiller, Jack Champagne and Michael Daubert, Reynolds reached pay dirt on a sweep right.

Right before the first half ended, the locals put another TD on the board as Hebert rolled right and hit DeVellis with a 20-yard strike. DeVellis was then able to shed a tackle to reach the end zone. Blocking by Graham Derrickson, Dean Demers and KC Condon gave Hebert to have the time to find DeVellis.

With the two-point kick by Hutchison, Newtown had a 20-0 lead.

A strong defensive stand by the Big Blue defense at the start of the third – led by Zachary Clyne, Dan Poeltl, James Marusi and Pat Thornberg – forced Bridgeport to punt and it didn’t take the Newtown offense very long to get going again as the running of Strocchia and a couple of great catches by Devaney carried Big Blue deep into Charger territory.

On a fourth and goal, Hutchison booted the 22-yard field goal thanks to a perfect snap from John Meyers.

Soon after, Bridgeport got a drive going and finally scored despite the efforts of Matt Shannon, Mike Senf and Taggert Schmidt. Nick Madden also recorded a sack.

With the lead cut to 23-6, Newtown went back to work and Marusi was able to cut and slash his way through the Bridgeport defense. The drive ended when Hebert tossed a long pass to Reynolds for the TD. Hutchison added the two-point kick to put the locals up, 31-6.

Christian Barrett, David Cartisano, Mike Daubert, Mason Flynn, Brian Kruger and Senf stiffened on defense and kept Bridgeport out of the end zone the rest of the way.

Newtown will host Hudson Balley on Sunday at 2 pm at Treadwell Park.

SIXTH GRADE

Newtown 33, S. Dutchess 0

Matt Hoyt scored a pair of touchdowns and Justin Dunn returned an interception 75 yards for another score to lead the Newtown sixth-grade football team to a 33-0 win over Southern Dutchess White last weekend.

Hoyt scored on a 29-yard run and on a 15-yard pass from Drew Tarantino. Cooper Gold also scored on a 46-yard run.

But what really got the sixth-grade team moving was a 52-yard touchdown run by Justin Saint on the first play from scrimmage. The offensive line of Alex Romeo, Sean Donnelly, Hayden Savoia, Nick Landau, Billy Begg, Jordan Headford and Victor Vasquez sealed off the Southern Dutchess pursuit, while Matt White and Greg LaRussa led the way with crushing blocks that allowed Saint to bounce to the outside.

On its first possession, SD was able to move down to the Newtown 26 … where the defense stepped up with strong inside play from Jimmy Leidlein, Patrick Afryie and Tommy Gleason and a sack by Gold that pushed SD back to the 34.

The next time out on the field, the Newtown defense continued to stymie Southern Dutchess and on a fourth-and-15 play, Dunn picked off a pass and returned it 75 yards for a score to put Newtown ahead, 12-0.

Connor Noonan, Matt White and Saint led the defense on the next SD series. The Newtown offense stalled, but the defense returned to the field and, again, refused to yield. Dunn picked off another pass and returned it for an apparent 73-yard touchdown, but the play was negated by a blocking penalty.

Nevertheless, the locals, starting from the Southern Dutchess 29, were very quickly back in the end zone. On the first play from scrimmage following the penalty, Hoyt grabbed the ball and followed the blocks of Dunn, Gold and Mike Davis into the end zone. Tarantino then hit Hoyt on the PAT pass to give Newtown a 19-0 lead at the half.

At the start of the second half, the strong defense led by Noonan, Tarantino and Gold shut down the SD team and forced it to give up the ball at the Newtown 40. Gold churned up 59 yards on seven carries and from the SD 15, Tarantino rolled left and hit Hoyt with a touchdown pass that put Newtown – following the conversion run by Tarantino – ahead, 26-0.

Once Newtown got the ball back, the line of Nick Strokis, Matt White, Davis, Noonan, Leidlein, Gleason and Afryie led the team back down the field. Jack Lago gathered up 25 yards on three carries, but Gold finished off the drive with a 46-yard jolt over the left side for the 33-0 lead.

The locals will host Ridgefield on Sunday at 10 am at Treadwell Park.

FIFTH GRADE

Newtown 27, Ridgefield 0

Colton Smith ran for two touchdowns and tossed a 60-yard scoring pass to Troy Frangione to lead the Newtown fifth-grade football team to a convincing 27-0 win over Ridgefield.

The Nighthawks improved to 4-0 with their third straight shutout. Frangione helped that by tossing a 60-yard scoring pass to Nick Lotrecchiano.

Smith’s touchdown pass to Frangione came on Newtown’s first place from scrimmage. Taking turns throwing, Smith and Frangione combined to go 3-for-4 through the air for 130 yards. And as the Ridgefield defense reeled to recover from the air attack, the Hawks concurrently pounded them on the ground as Smith and Lotrecchiano combined for 15 carries and 151 yards.

The ground game was rounded out with some nice carries by Jaret DeVellis, Jonathan Sherman, Will Dalton, Max Rucinski, Ryan Sullivan and Chris Koch who, together, rambled for another 90 yards on 12 carries.

Once again, the offensive line made this all possible with Aidan Petershack, Harry Duffy, Matt Bouton, Markus Elken, Ryan Szalay, Nolan Fisher, Kevin Conte and Michael Cirone opening up holes for the run game.

Jack “Bubba” Condon and DeVellis “sealed the deal” for the ‘Hawks by adding the PAT’s.

The Newtown defense hammered the Ridgefield offense and allowed just 118 yards of total offense. Smith, Tim Krapf and Rucinski led all Newtown defenseman with six tackles each, with Smith adding an interception to the stat sheet and Krapf recording a huge fourth down sack.

Lotrecchiano had four ground shaking tackles from the outside linebacker position while Logan Walsh and Will Dalton crashed hard from the corners with three tackles each. Jake Lambert and Kevin Conte anchored the inside with three tackles each while Petershack, Sherman and Michael Cirone each had two.

The fifth-graders will host 3-1 Bethel on Sunday under the lights, at 8 pm, at Treadwell Park.

79ER GOLD

Newtown 18, Norwalk 7

Mitch Savoca rushed for 228 yards and 3 touchdowns on just 11 carries to lead the 79er Gold team to it’s second straight win.

On the first Gold possession, after solid runs from Sam Duffy and a keeper by quarterback Austin LeBlanc, Savoca broke free around the left side behind an incredible block from Michael Garner and burned for 47 yards and the score.

The Ramblers answered back on their first play from scrimmage with a 65 yard TD run and took a 7-6 lead, but later in the first half the locals – behind the blocking of linemen Adam Bell, John Reardon, Henry Korth and Stephan Pansa – punished the Ramblers and Savoca made his second trip to the end zone on a 61 yard carry to put Newtown ahead, 12-7.

In the second half, Newtown turned it up a notch.

Kyle Martinez, Conner Flint, Noah LaFerriere and Colin McCafferty buttoned up the corners while Pansa, LeBlanc, Ryan Norton and Grant Varnum made it impossible to run inside. Anchoring the D were Sam Duffy (7 tackles) and Anthony Falbo (6 tackles).

The Gold scored again late in the third period on a Savoca run of 55 yards, sprung by another “highlight-reel” block from Spencer Burden.

The Gold team is 2-2 and will face Bethel on Sunday at 8 am on the turf at Treadwell Park.