With just seconds left to play, Danbury scored a touchdown and added a conversion to shock the Midgets, 13-12, in the opening weekend of the 2003 Candlewood Valley League Pop Warner football season.

It was a downer for Newtown (the Midgets let a 12-0 lead slip through their fingers), but on other fronts the news was good: the Junior Pee Wees and Pee Wees both recorded 20-0 shutouts over Danbury.

The games –

Junior Pee Wees

In a 20-0 win over Danbury, the key was defense, defense, defense. The Hawks forced three first-quarter turnovers and converted all of them into touchdowns to take a very early hold of this game at Taylor Field.

On the Viking’s first running play, Max Nacewicz stripped the ball from the Danbury running back and scampered 45 yards into the end zone. John Fracker then followed with a quarterback keeper to convert the point after and give the Hawks a 7-0 lead with less than 5 minutes gone in the first quarter.

After the visitors received the kickoff, Newtown’s strong defense – led by William Arndt, Tyler Reszoly and Donny Gies – forced a fumble on Danbury’s first offensive play. It didn’t take long for the offense to score, as Andrew Murphy raced for the touchdown on the first play from scrimmage and gave the Hawks a 13-0 lead.

It was deja vu all over again for the Vikings offense, as the tough Newtown defense forced yet another fumble on their second play of the series. With John Fracker at the helm, the Nighthawks drove down the field with carries by Sean Maher and Mitch Udiskey. After a series of penalties, Newtown was faced with a 4th-and-12 but Fracker then hooked up with Neil Berthier for a 30-yard pass play, taking the Nighthawks to the 10-yard line. Four plays later, the offense showed some razzle-dazzle when Keith Reszoly took the ball on a reverse play, outran the defense and sailed into the end zone for the score. With Fracker converting the point after, the scoring closed out at 20 –0 at the end of the first quarter.

The Junior Pee Wees battle Ridgefield at home this Saturday at noon.

Pee Wees

Kyle “OC” O’Connor scored a pair of touchdowns and Robbie “the Diesel” O’Donnell scored one to lead the Pee Wees to a 20-0 win over Danbury. Jaime Vavrek passed for one conversion and ran for another to spark the Hawks.

Although the coin toss was won by Danbury and the Hawks were forced to kick, Kurt Nacewicz dribbled a perfect onside kick that O’Conner recovered. O’Connor quickly started gathering up the yards, rushing for 47 yards behind the blocking of Keith McGrath, Brian Kuruc, Dana Hansen, Mike Hadgraft and Zach Dent before scored the first TD.

Vavrek passed to Nacewicz for the conversion.

The Hawks – with tackles from Keith “the Truck” McGrath and Tim Wilmott – forced a fumble on Danbury’s next drive, but fumbled the ball right back and had to force Danbury to punt on its next possession to get the ball back. AJ “Mad Dog” Ritchie ran for a couple of yards and then O’Connor gained 46 yards on two carries (one of those a 30-yard scamper) to score another touchdown. Vavrek ran in for the point after to put Newtown ahead 14-0.

At the end of the first period, the Hawks had Danbury pinned deep within its own territory and following a punt were able to take over on the five yard line. Kevin McCarthy took the ball first and rushed for two yards, but then O’Donnell took the ball and rushed three yards for the touchdown and a 20-0 Newtown lead.

Midgets

Will Mahony scored a pair of touchdowns (one of those off a fumble recovery) and the Midgets built up a 12-0 lead on Danbury, only to see the Vikings rally late to earn a 13-12 win.

Eric Puffer and Will Paskey made some good defensive plays early, but Danbury was able to move to football inside the Newtown five. Then the defensive line of Chris Elias, Pat McNulty, John Aminti, Kurt Kolonaris and Paskey held tough – leading to stops by Tom Jackman and Ryan Manning and a great fourth-down tackle by Puffer.

When Newtown took over, Mahony picked up a pair of first downs, Erik Dreher rushed for nine yards and Matt Mascolo passed to Conor Martin for seven more yards, but Danbury intercepted a pass and the half ended with no score.

Dreher recovered a Danbury fumble early in the second half. Soon after, Jaime Goodwick was rambling 30 yards on a reverse and although Goodwick was stripped of the ball, Alex Dahlmeyer alertly fell on the ball and the Hawks retained possession at the Danbury 14. Mahony then took the ball over for the score behind the blocking of Aminti and Kolonaris.

Danbury took the ensuing kick and picked up two first downs before Mahony stripped a Danbury ball carrier and returned the ball 70 yards for his second touchdown of the game and a 12-0 lead for Newtown.

But Danbury came right back, scoring on its first play from scrimmage. Kris Kling tripped up the ball carrier on the extra-point attempt, keeping the Hawks ahead 12-6, but the Vikings later took advantage of good field position and – despite some solid defense from Lucas Vendel – scored the game-winning touchdown.