By Kim J. Harmon

With a host of serious challenges (Pomperaug, Brookfield and Joel Barlow) waiting to be faced in the final week of the 2003 regular season, the Newtown High School boys’ tennis team had the good fortune to be able to breeze through a couple of matches.

But being a couple of men short, the Nighthawks couldn’t breeze through one on Tuesday afternoon in Stratford.

Newtown slammed Immaculate and New Milford by identical 5-2 scores to run its record to 8-1 on the year, but the ‘Hawks – without the services of Sean O’Mahoney and Jason Garbarino – saw that record slip to 8-2 with a 4-3 loss to Bunnell on Tuesday.

“They were unavoidably absent,” said coach Marty Margulies, “and they almost certainly would have altered the outcome. Nevertheless, we are still on track to make the playoffs if we can win two our remaining three matches against Brookfield (Thursday), Pomperaug (Saturday) and Joel Barlow (Monday).”

Jon Perachio dominated Frank Poniatowski 6-1, 6-0 at No. 1 singles while Matt McFadden defeated Chris Kelly 6-4, 6-1 at No. 3 singles and Justin bass defeated Josh Hollaman 6-3, 6-2 at No. 4 singles. Dan Kinsman of Bunnell was awarded a default win at No. 2 singles.

“Perachio, McFadden and Bass were dominating as usual in the singles,” said coach Margulies, “and (Felipe) Moura and Drew Adamek deserve credit for a gutsy performance in the third doubles position, where they almost pulled it out for us.”

Mark Stephenson and Matt Lask were defeated 6-1, 6-4 by Tom Heath and Dave Howard at No. 1 doubles while Bruno Moura and Tom Rodbell were defeated 6-3, 6-4 by Chris Nolan and Emmett Garbo at No. 2 doubles. Moura and Adamek suffered a tough 6-4, 3-6, 2-6 loss to Tom Fardy and Matt Miller at No. 3 doubles.

In the win over New Milford, Perachio set the tone at No. 1 singles with a tough 6-4, 7-5 win over Igor Podoprigora. Perachio – one of the top talents in the SWC – repeatedly rallied from love-40 deficits to pull out games against Podoprigora. O’Mahoney was defeated 6-2, 6-0 by Erich Wachs at No. 2 singles, but McFadden defeated Ajay Pandurouga 6-4, 6-3 at No. 3 singles and Bass slipped past Mike Silverman 6-2, 6-0 at No. 4 singles.

The decisive match of the afternoon was at No. 1 doubles, where Garbarino and Stephenson defeated Nick Birseu and Steve McFarland 6-1, 6-0. Lask and Jim He defeated Miles Crassky and Mark Crassky 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2 doubles while Rodbell and Felipe Moura were clipped 2-6, 6-7 (6-8) by Tyler Hood and Chris Silverman at No. 3 doubles.

“Match honors belong, again, to Jason Garbarino,” said head coach Marty Margulies. “This time he was playing in his accustomed first doubles position and with partner Mark Stephenson played with exceptional poise and control.”

In the win over Immaculate, the Nighthawks lost just two games in the singles portion of the match. With Perachio resting, O’Mahoney breezed past Joshua Hecht 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 singles while McFadden blanked Drew Doyon 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 singles. Bass moved up to No. 3 singles and handled Stephen Lopes 6-0, 6-1 while Garbarino dismantled Sean Mulready 6-0, 6-1 at No. 4 singles.

Lask and Bruno Moura defeated Michael Leone and Ron McNiff 6-2, 6-3 at No. 1 doubles. But Drew Adamek and Max Magulies were defeated 2-6, 7-5, 6-7 (1-7) by Danny Tomas and Ryan McDonough at No. 2 doubles and Jim Wilkins and Peter Kim were defeated 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (0-7) by Brian Ranaghen and Kevin Hudak at No. 3 doubles.

“Inexperience showed in the lower doubles teams,” said coach Margulies, “but the freshmen nevertheless played well in extending their older opponents.”