The Junior Midgets took a step closer to a Candlewood Valley League championship with a convincing 30-0 win over New Milford on Saturday, October 27, at Taylor Field. Joey Devellis (2), Brian Poeltl and Cody Shpunt all scored touchdowns and Tommy Gaboriault added three extra point kicks in the rout.

From the moment Brian Stickles pounced on New Milford’s onside kickoff attempt, it was apparent that the ‘Hawks were ready to play. Tucker Kass started the offense moving with a 22-yard reverse-field run, Devellis kept it moving, and Poeltl finished it off with a five-yard TD run. Drew Adamek, Joe Bowen, Steve Orrico, Scott Perry and Jon Monaco were solid up front, leading the ‘Hawks to an 8-0 start.

On the other side of the ball, Teddy Gissen and Kass led a strong defensive effort in stopping New Milford. Retrieving the ball, the ‘Hawks moved behind the efforts of Stickles, Tom Jackman and Alex Middleleer, but New Milford picked off a pass that halted the threat. But Gissen, Shpunt, Jake Putnicki, and Bowen continued to lead a crushing defense, stopping New Milford cold again.

Back on offense, Steve Vichiola ran for six yards to get Newtown moving and soon Devellis, the quarterback, was sweeping 17 yards into the end zone for his first touchdown of the game. Gaboriault missed the kick, but that would be the only time he would all day.

Stickles, Gissen, Putnicki and Vichiola prevented New Milford from attacking through the air and a big tackle by Orrico halted any forays on the ground. That allowed Newtown to take a 14-0 lead into the halftime break.

Newtown opened the second half with an onside kick and Poeltl was the one who came away with the ball after the ‘Hawks swarmed all over the ball. It gave the ‘Hawks a chance, but New Milford stopped the locals with an interception.

The defense stiffened again and the offense returned to the field. Kass ran for 12 yards behind the lead block of Shpunt and then Poeltl bullied his way down the field on gains of nine and five yards behind the blocking of Nick Maurer, Tim Shepard and Matt Kuruc. Kass added another five-yard gain, but Devellis carried the ball into the end zone for his second touchdown of the game and a 22-0 Newtown lead.

In their final defensive stand, the ‘Hawks held on to the shutout behind tackles by Gaboriault, Kass, Putnicki, Vichiola, Bowen, Orrico and Joe Collins. Shpunt shot through the line on one play and executed a big tackle that sealed New Milford’s fate.

On their last offensive possession, the ‘Hawks moved the ball on the efforts of Collins, Devellis and a 12-yard pass reception by Shpunt. Kass picked up 17 yards on two carries and had to break several tackles to do it. Finally, Kass hit Shpunt with a five-yard touchdown to put an end to the scoring frenzy.

The Junior Pee Wees moved on, as well, with an 18-0 win over Brookfield.

Brookfield took possession of the opening kickoff, but was unable to move the ball against a very stingy Nighthawk defense. Jake Devellis, Ben Collins, and Brian Reszoly made big plays to stop the Bobcats early as Kyle McNamara, Mike Poeltl, Kevin Canavan, Matt Mascolo, Cody Marus, Dan Curtis, Jake Woolf, and Mike Hadgraft later followed with solid defense, combining on one gang tackle after another.

Devellis and Collins would finish the day with 20 solo tackles combined.

In the second Quarter, the Nighthawk offense was able to make a big play that made the first score of the game. On his own 20, Devellis made a perfect 10-yard pass to Scheunemann, who ran the ball the next 70 yards for Newtown’s first score. Scheunemann was hit or grabbed by at least three Bobcat players before breaking free and out running the rest of the players into the end zone.

The second half started with the Nighthawks moving the ball, but unable to score again. The offensive line work of Dan Cody, Paul Murphy, Justin Craparo, Charlie Lobosco, Timo Roehrs, Jacob Browning, and center Anthony Corletto helped the Nighthawks hold onto the football for most of the third quarter, but they could not score. Jaime Vavrek and Stephen Oberstadt alternated at QB to lead the offensive team.

The Nighthawks defense continued their tough play into the second half, and would not let the Bobcats move the ball at all.  On many offensive series for the Bobcats, they lost yardage on each play. As the game went into the fourth quarter, the Newtown offense came alive with another big play. This time big blocks by Reszoly, Marus, and the left side of the offensive line gave Devellis enough room for a 70-yard touchdown run to put the Nighthawks ahead, 12-0.

The Nighthawks put in some fresh faces on the next defensive series, and they were able to shut down the Bobcat offense as well. James Maher made a near perfect open field solo tackle on a Bobcat running back after Vavrek turned the play inside. Matt Taylor and Poeltl combined on another tackle at the line of scrimmage on the next play.

On the next play, Brookfield dropped back for a pass. After looking to his left, the QB turned to the right and threw a pass to his tight end in the flat but cornerback Rob O’Donnell stepped in front of the receiver and raced 50 yards down field for the final score and play of the game.

The Junior Pee Wees will battle Pomperaug for the Candlewood Valley League championship on Saturday at 4 pm at New Canaan High School.

The Midgets will be traveling to New Canaan this weekend, too, to face Pomperaug in the Candlewood Valley League finals.

The Midgets finished the regular season at 4-3 with a win over New Fairfield. It is the first Midgets team in several years to have a winning record.

After that, the Midgets moved on to host Bethel at Taylor Field. Once again, it was the defense coming through - with work on the line being taken care of by Scott Regnery, Billy Beatty, Joe Greenfield, James Wiedemann, Matt Berquist, Marc Ingerman,_Kevin_Regan, Max Reed, Roy Scheunemann and Matthew Courchene-Roy.

Max Rojo and Carey Olsen led scoring drives for the Midgets.

For the Pee Wees, though, the season came to an end with a 20-0 loss to New Milford.

Erik Dreher, Thomas Hutchison, Justin McGrath, Brendan Martin, Brett Mauro and Travis Speer all made big defensive plays early to halt New Milford. Ryan Manning and Lucas Vendel also made strong plays.

The Newtown offense – despite some nifty runs by Tarantino and Hutchison – couldn’t really move the ball. Once again, defensive plays by Manning, Vendel, Dreher (a tackle for a loss) and David DeLaVega stopped New Milford. But on New Milford’s next series, a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage put Newtown in a 7-0 hole.

Dan DeLaVega made a big hit later and Jamie Post recovered a fumble, but Newtown continued to have trouble moving the football. Then New Milford returned a Newtown punt for a touchdown and – after Hutchison batted the conversion pass away – took a 13-0 lead.

Hutchison put together a couple of good runs and Jeff Davis hit Vendel on a nice pass play, but the half ended before Newtown could score. In the second half, it was the work of Speer, Post, Hutchison and Kris Kling that helped stop New Milford again. Tarantino recovered a New Milford fumble on the Newtown nine yard line to prevent another score.

Mario Roehrs blocked well on the next Newtown offensive series, but the ‘Hawks were once again forced to punt away. Martin made a nice defensive play, knocking down a pass attempt, but New Milford scored again to take a 20-0 lead.

Later, Davis made a nice open field tackle and David DeLaVega, Post, Connor Martin, CJ Portolese, Dan DeLaVega, Eric Palmer and Davis put together a nice goal line stand to keep New Milford out of the end zone.

Jaime Goodwick and Greg Rodden made a couple of nice plays before time ran out on the Pee Wees.

The Pee Wees fell to 5-4 on the year.