By Kim J. Harmon

MILFORD – When things are not going all that well – which they aren’t for the Newtown High School football team – then it must seem that everything and everyone is somehow conspiring against you.

At least, the Nighthawks must have gotten that impression when they walked off the field last Friday night in Milford after suffering a 19-14 loss to Jonathan Law. Two controversial calls at the goal line – yes, two – kept Newtown out of the end zone just as the ‘Hawks were desperately trying to rally back from a 19-6 deficit.

The situation was like this:

On a third and goal from the six yard line, quarterback Tom Ryan took the snap and rolled right. He found a break in the defense and darted towards the end zone. As he reached it, he was met by the Law defense – but not, according to video replay, before crossing the end zone.

Then, as he was taken down, he fumbled the football. Chad Thomas recovered and tumbled into the end zone.

One referee thought Ryan had scored the touchdown.

Another did not. After much discussion, it was decided that an inadvertent whistle had halted the play before Ryan crossed the plane of the goal line. Once the ball was spotted, the nose was kissing the end zone.

As if that wasn’t enough to raise the ire of the Newtown coaching staff, Ryan took the fourth-and-goal snap and snuck behind his center and again – according to video replay – appeared to cross the goal line.

The referees thought otherwise.

Law took over on downs and eventually moved the ball out to the 35 yard line. But when the Lawmen were forced to punt, Kyle Nowak burst through the line, blocked the kick, and Newtown recovered on the seven.

One play later, Ryan hit Rob Konkos on a little curl play for the touchdown and then hit Casey Kirch in the back of the end zone for the two-point conversion, trimming the Jonathan Law lead to 19-14 with less than a minute remaining.

The ‘Hawks nearly recovered an attempted onside kick, but Law covered it up, took a knee and closed out the game.

The trouble with the controversial touchdown calls will stick in the craw of the Newtown coaching staff for some time, even though, as head coach Ken Roberts admitted, “We don’t know if it would have changed anything.”

The ‘Hawks scored on the first drive of the game, going 62 yards in 10 plays and getting into the end zone on a nine-yard run by Mark Boland (his first touchdown of the season). The two biggest plays of the drive were the 33-yard pass play and 14-yard pass play from Ryan to senior Drew Narcum.

The ‘Hawks looked like they would be on the move again after picking off a Law pass. An acrobatic catch by Tim Byrne, which led to a 30-yard gain, got the ‘Hawks started – but the drive stalled on the Law 34.

Newtown held on to the 6-0 lead until just 34 seconds were gone in the second period. The Lawmen scored on a three-yard touchdown run by Matt Patterson. Later, the Lawmen took advantage of great field position to put together a 40-yard, four-play drive that put them ahead, 13-6, with 3:25 left in the half.

In the third quarter, the ‘Hawks had a nice drive starting at the 29. Ryan hit Joe Gantert for a 14-yard gain and then hit Kirch for gains of 11 and 19 yards. But four straight incompletions halted the drive at the Law 24.

The Lawmen turned it around on a 17-play, 76-yard drive and took a 19-6 lead on a one-yard touchdown with 9:47 left to play. The ‘Hawks were still in it, though, yet circumstances thwarted their efforts to rally. A drop on a sure touchdown pass was only the first thorn that poked into the collective side of the ‘Hawks.

With the loss, the ‘Hawks dropped to 2-4-1 on the season after opening with wins over Bethel and Brookfield. The ‘Hawks will look to snap their streak against Weston (and former coach Bob Zito) this Saturday.

Kick off is 2 pm.

Newtown    6   0   0     8  - 14

Law           0  13   0     6  - 19

I.               

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

 

Rushing

NEWTOWN: Boland 17-55, Nowak 8-36, Ryan 6-20, Gleason 1-5.

Passing

NEWTOWN: Ryan 8-26, 123 yards, 1 TD

Receiving

NEWTOWN: Narcum 2-37, Kirch 2-30, Byrne 1-30, Gantert 1-14, Censabella 1-6, Konkos 1-6.