The Pee Wees kept their playoff hopes alive with a 13-6 win over Pomperaug.

Justin McGrath, Tyler Tarantino, Zach Conger and Lucas Vendel made big defensive plays early to stop Pomperaug. The first time on offense, Erik Dreher had two nice carries and Jeff Davis followed with a quarterback keeper that brought the ball to the Pomperaug five.. Thomas Hutchison then took it close to the goal linebehind a Connor Martin block and Tarantino took the ball in from there to give Newtown a 6-0 lead.

After David DelaVega made a nice tackle to kick start the defense, Newtown over the ball on their own 25. Tarantino, McGrath, Vendel and Conger ran the ball very well behind blocks from Chris Elias and Hutchison, but Newtown was still forced to punt.

Newtown was unable to take advantage of a roughing  penalty or a fumble recovery by Brendan Martin by the close of the first half.

DeLaVega and Hutchison made a big stop on the opening kick of the second half. Great defense by Hutchison, Travis Speer, McGrath and Chris Cardelle slowed Pomperaug down, but they made a 20 yard gain on a draw play to move the ball to the Newtwon 30. This time CJ Portolese, Cardelle, Chris Salvatore and McGrath forced a Pomperaug punt.

After a Pomperaug penalty, Hutchison broke away, cutting inside a Conger block for a 50-yard run to the Pomperaug 25. The drive stalled there, but the Newtown defense held tough and – when Pomperaug tried to punt – a tackle by Vendel gave Newtown the ball at the Pomperaug 15.

This time the Nighthawks offense would not be denied. Hutchison scored on the next play and followed with the extra point to put Newtown up 13-0.

Josh Friedman, McGrath and Tarantino were solid on defense and slowed Pomperaug down, but Pomperaug still managed to bring the ball all the way down to the Newtown seven. But this time the defense of Speer, Vendel, Dan DeLaVega, Dreher, Ryan Manning and McGrath forced Pomperaug to turn the ball over on downs at the Newtown.

Pomperaug did get the ball back in good field position when a fourth-down pass on a faked punt fell incomplete. The defense of Dreher, Conger, Davis and Speer held Pomperaug for three plays, but on fourth down Pomperaug was able to take it in. Vendel and Hutchison made sure the extra point was no good as Pomperaug got on the board 13-6.

With very little time left Pomperaug tried an onside kick hoping to get the chance for another score, but Chris Elias of Newtown recovered the onside kick to secure the Newtown win.

The Pee Wees will play next week at New Milford in the next round of the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the Junior Pee Wees received a bye in the Candlewood Valley Division playoffs – by virtue of finishing second – but they kept their focus sharp last week by playing a so-called friendly game with Monroe.

The Lions won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball first, but the Newtown defense was ready, holding the Lions on the first series of downs. The Nighthawks took possession of the ball and began punching it up the middle of the Lion defensive line. After a couple of solid gains on the ground, Jake Devellis busted one loose off of the right offensive tackle’s block for a touchdown run of about 40 yards.

Timo Roehrs, Dan Cody, Paul Murphy and Kyle McNamara handled the blocking on the right side of the line.

The Lions came right back and after being held on a couple of big plays by the defense, broke a big run for a touchdown to tie the score at 6-6. Newtown got the ball back and began going off tackle again. After four solid runs by Devellis and Cody Marus, Mark Scheunemann took the ball on a mis-direction play and went more than 50 yards for the Nighthawks second touchdown.

Newtown now led, 12-6.

The Nighthawk defense shut down the Lion’s offense on the next series of plays. Newtown took possession of the ball and began to move down the field again. Jaime Vavrek had two big runs up the middle on quarterback sneaks. Vavrek kept the ball again when he dropped back for a pass and his receivers were covered. In what looked like a perfectly executed QB draw, Vavrek gained about 10 yards and another first down for the Nighthawks. Runs by Rob O’Donnell and Vavrek helped the Nighthawks to drive to the Lions ten-yard line before a penalty took the steam out of the drive for Newtown.

Brian Reszoly, Mike Poeltl, Jake Woolf, Dan Curtis, and Kevin Canavan made big tackles in the third quarter to stop the Lion’s offense.

In the fourth quarter, both teams were able to move the ball, but unable to sustain a drive. Matt Mascolo made a big play when he intercepted a pass from the Monroe QB, on Newtown’s 30. The Nighthawks looked to be in the driver seat. However, a fumble by Newtown gave the Lions the ball inside the 30.

The Lions were able to drive the ball in from there and – with the kick – take a 13-12 lead. Later, the Lions scored again on a 10-yard run and took a 20-12 lead.

The kickoff by Monroe again went to Devellis, who had a big run back and got back to Monroe’s 40-yard line. Devellis was just one block away from going all the way. With less than two minutes to go and no time outs, the Nighthawks had to score a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie the game - but it was not to be.

The Junior Pee Wees will open the playoffs against Brookfield. Day and time were still unknown at press time.