By Kim J. Harmon

Head coach Ken Roberts liked his chances heading into a South-West Conference game with Bunnell – on Homecoming Day, no less – because the Bulldogs were without their superstar running back, Shannon James.

But the ‘Dogs showed that, even in the absence of James, who rushed for 218 yards on 20 carries in a 27-8 win over Newtown last year, they still had plenty of weapons – like Christian Rutter, Claude Petrucelli and quarterback Peter Gierying.

Rutter rushed for 86 yards on 10 carries, Petrucelli scored a pair of touchdowns, and Gierying was 4-for-4 for 104 yards and two touchdowns (with a four-yard rushing TD of his own) as Bunnell swamped Newtown, 41-6.

But as well as the Bulldogs played, coach Roberts felt there was something the Nighthawks could have done about it.

“We didn’t play aggressively and we made a lot of mental mistakes,” said coach Roberts. “I don’t care who it was out there – we just weren’t prepared to play. Usually you can leave a game like that thinking we did this well, or we did that well. We did nothing well.”

Bunnell was quickly in control of the game, scoring twice in the first period alone. Gierying ran one in from four yards out with less than four minutes gone and six minutes later hit Matt Falzarano with an 11-yard scoring strike to put the Bulldogs ahead, 13-0.

Newtown did manage to creep close about five minutes into the second quarter when Tom Ryan (7-of-16, 61 yards) hit Rob Konkos with an 11-yard touchdown pass that put the Nighthawks within seven, 13-6.

But the ‘Dogs began pulling away. Less than a minute after the ‘Hawks scored, the ‘Dogs were in the end zone again as Gierying and Daryl Staley hooked up on a 70-yard pass play that gave Bunnell a 20-6 lead at halftime.

In the third, Petrucelli (6 carries, 64 yards) scored from eight yards out and 39 yards out to put Bunnell ahead, 33-6. All that was left was for EJ Yearwood, with 8:19 left to play in the fourth period, to gather in a 51-yard scoring pass from Sean Murray.

Bunnell amassed 331 yards of offense (176 on the ground, 155 in the air) to Newtown’s 187 yards (93 on the ground, 94 through the air). Kyle Nowak, who had been a workhorse in the Nighthawks’ wins over Bethel and Brookfield while gaining a total of 218 yards, was limited to just 34 yards on 16 carries.

Newtown dropped to 2-1 on the season and this weekend will be putting The Boot on the line when it travels to New Milford on Friday, October 5, for a 7 pm game. The Green Wave boosted its mark to 2-1 after a 43-7 shellacking of Bullard Havens last Saturday.

“This will be the true test of a football player,” said coach Roberts. “We got knocked down and we’ll see who gets up. We talked about this on Saturday – we got knocked down last year by Bunnell and went 9-1. We’ll see what happens this time.”

BHS        13    8   13   7 - 41

NHS          0    6    0   0   - 6

 

First Quarter

B – Gierying 4 run (Heath kick)

B – Falzarano 11 pass from Gierying (kick failed)

Second Quarter

N – Konkos 11 pass from Ryan (kick failed)

B – Staley 70 pass from Gierying (Petrucelli pass from Quiricone)

Third Quarter

B – Petrucelli 8 run (Heath kick)

B – Petrucelli 39 run (kick failed)

Fourth Quarter

B – Yearwood 51 pass from Murray (Heath kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATS

 

Rushing

NEWTOWN: Nowak 16-34, Ryan 5-2, Deluca 4-21, Gleason 7-26, Whipkey 3-10. BUNNELL: Gierying 3-16, Rutter 10-86, Petrucelli 6-64, Martino 2-10.

Passing

NEWTOWN: Ryan 7-16-2, 61 yards, 1 TD; Whipkey 4-6-1, 33 yards. BUNNELL: Gierying 4-4-0, 104 yards, 2 TD; Murray 1-1-0, 51 yards, 1 TD.

Receiving

NEWTOWN: Byrne 4-16, Konkos 3-35, Barrett 1-7, Narcum 2-22, Whipkey 1-(-)4. BUNNELL: Disco 1-2, Falzarano 2-33, Staley 1-70, Yearwood 1-51.