The Junior Pee Wees showed some offensive spark against Monroe on Saturday, but couldn’t overcome two costly turnovers … which resulted in a 19-6 loss.

After holding Monroe on its first possession, the Nighthawks lost the ball on their first drive, fumbling on their own 35. Monroe scored five plays later on a 15-yard end around, gaining an early 6-0 advantage.

Newtown’s next offensive series was impressive, as strong runs by Max Nacewicz and Mitch Udiskey racked up three first downs. Once again, the drive stalled due to a turnover. But the Newtown defense stepped up and stopped Monroe’s next possession with an interception by Sean Maher.

In fact, Newtown’s only score came after the defense drove Monroe back to its own 15-yard line. John Fracker scored on the next series, knotting the score at 6–6. However, Monroe came right back with two scores of their own in the forth quarter to clinch the victory.

Pee Wees In 8-8

Deadlock

 

Newtown met its match on Saturday, but remained unbeaten after an 8-8 tie with Monroe.

It was all defense, with the Nighthawks stopping Monroe on downs its first series with a hard hit by Robbie “The Diesel” O’Donnell. The ‘Hawks capitalized as Jaime Vavrek, Dent and Kevin “Legs” Canavan broke loose for some huge gains.

Legs scampered 30 yards on a sweep for the initial touchdown and Kurt “Golden Toe” Nacewicz added a two-point conversion kick to give the ‘Hawks an 8-0 lead.

On defense, Vavrek, Dave “Hutch” Hutchinson, Kyle “OC” O’Connor and O’Donnell stopped Monroe at the Newtown three-yard line as Canavan, Deakin and Mike “The Animal” Hadgraft stymied the attempt to score.

Newtown moved the football, with O’Connor rushing for 12 yards and a first down, Vavrek and AJ “Mad Dog” Ritchie breaking loose for some healthy gains, and Tucker Schmidt – behind the blocking of Brian Kuruc, Keith McGrath and James Sharpe – firing a 14-yard pass to Nacewicz. Schmidt barreled up the middle for a first down.

Later, Newtown was forced to punt and Monroe came up with a big block, returning it 20 yards for a touchdown. When the kick sailed through the uprights, the game was tied 8-8.

O’Connor, Kuruc and Nicky “Bones” Tarantino anchored the defense the rest of the way, keeping Monroe out of the end zone. Great plays by Tyler Davenport, Mike Poeltl, Dylan Huebner, Brendan Blawie, Mike Kearns, Tim Wilmott, Mike Fridfertig, Kevin Brown, Eric McCabe, Jeremy Schaniel, Kevin McCarthy and Lewis Thomson kept the Newtown hopes alive in the second half, but the locals were unable to break into the end zone.

– Reported by Matt Kuruc

Junior Midgets Rally With

22 Unanswered Points

Mitch Rucinski, Jake DeVellis and Conor Martin scored touchdowns as the Junior Midgets rallied from an early deficit to defeat Monroe, 22-6, and improve to 4-1 on the year.

The Nighthawks took charge on defense right away, forcing fumbles on the Lions’ first three possessions. Jake Woolf caused the first two and Dan Curtis caused the third, but the ‘Hawks were unable to capitalize.

Despite the fumbles, Monroe got on the scoreboard first with a 61-yard pass play that put it ahead, 6-0.

Brendan Martin later intercepted a pass to give the ‘Hawks possession near midfield. Although they were able to get just one first down, a Charlie LoBosco punt took a high bounce in front of the Monroe returner. A Monroe player tipped the ball as it tumbled back towards the end zone and Rucinski was there to pounce on it for a touchdown.

Brian Reszoly added the point-after kick to put the ‘Hawks ahead, 22-6. Collin Babbage recovered an ensuing onsides kick, but could not convert it into a score before the half ended.

Newtown received the kick to open the second half and drove the ball 61 yards on 11 plays (taking almost all of the third quarter) to score its second TD. The offensive line of Paul Murphy, Jacob Browning, Jake Woolf, Kris Arndt, Mike Iorfino, and Ian Cooper controlled the line of scrimmage, while Cody Marus, Zach Conger, and DeVellis carried the ball.

DeVellis scored on a short run and the Nighthawks led, 14-6. And after the defense halted Monroe and took over on their own 26, the ‘Hawks scored on a quarterback sneak by Martin to take a 22-6 lead. Rucinski set up the TD with a 12-yard run.

 

Midgets Stymied By

Monroe, 22-0

Monroe didn’t waste time – scoring on its first two plays from scrimmage – and never looked back in a 22-0 win over the Midgets.

The Newtown defense had its back to the wall and stiffened up the rest of the way. The efforts of Chris Elias and Matt Mascolo on punt coverage and Ryan Manning, Eric Puffer, Will Mahony, Lucas Vendel, Tom Jackman, Tyler Tarantino and Erik Dreher all over the field helped keep Monroe out of the end zone on its third series.

Dan DeLaVega and Matt Boland helped push the offense to midfield early in the game and later on Manning and Mascolo rushed for some tough yards to pick up a first down, but both times the Nighthawks had to punt away.

The defense continued to play better. A nice tackle by Mahony, a gang tackle by Kris Kling and Manning, and a fourth-down tackle of the punter by Conor Martin had Newtown in fine position. But a couple of nice plays by DeLaVega, Kling and Martin couldn’t get the ‘Hawks to the end zone in time to beat the end of the half.

In the second half, Mahony had some nice carries, Tarantino picked up a first down on a neat second effort, and Jamie Goodwick caught a nifty pass from Mascolo, but the ‘Hawks were still unable to break through.

Tanner Schmidt and Kris Koloniaris made some big stops, but Monroe still added a late score.