Kyle Vignone scored a pair of touchdowns and Andrew Murphy recorded four sacks to lead the Newtown Pop Warner Pee Wees to an 18-14 win over New Fairfield in the Candlewood Valley League Friendship Bowl championship.

Vignone scored his first touchdown (a 45-yarder) in the opening quarter thanks to key blocks by Louis Fenaroli and Lewis Thompson. New Fairfield answered back with a long TD run and the first quarter ended with the teams knotted at 6-6.

The second quarter was all defense. Cody Fischer, Kevin O’Connell, Max Nacewicz and Murphy were wreaking havoc in the Falcons backfield. Murphy repeatedly shot the gap from his linebacker spot to throw New Fairfield for losses.

Will Arndt, James Sharpe, Ryan Murphy, and Sean Ross were everywhere, pressuring the offensive line with blitzes and shutting down the Falcon’s long passing game. Fenaroli, Thompson, Andrew Seymour, Eric Samuelson, and Brian Kilmurray clogged the middle, forcing the New Fairfield ball carriers to the outside where Nacewicz, O’Connell, Brendan McNamara, and Tyler Reszoly made sure tackles. With less than a minute remaining in the half, Thompson forced a fumble with a hard tackle on a Falcon runner’s inside cutback, and Newtown recovered at midfield.

Fracker had several attempts to reach deep into New Fairfield territory on long throws fall incomplete and the half ended as the second quarter had begun, 6-6.

The second half was a dog fight all the way to the end.  After Newtown was stopped on their initial possession, Sean Ross picked off a Falcon pass. Then Fracker swung a pass out to the left to Vignone, who broke free for thirty yards down the sideline before being pushed out at the New Fairfield five.  Vignone then swept right and got the ball down to the one. From there, Fracker took it into the end zone behind crushing blocks from Fenaroli and center Chris Giglio for a 12-6 Newtown lead that ended the third quarter.

In the fourth, New Fairfield scored on a 47-yard run to take a 14-12 lead.

O’Connell answered with a strong kickoff return up the middle to the Falcon’s 45. After a Vignone sweep gained eight, Nacewicz bulled his way to a key first down at the New Fairfield 20. Later, on fourth-and-seven from the 17, Vignone swept around the right end and following the punishing blocks of Fenaroli, Thompson, and Fischer into the end zone for the 18-14 lead with 2:45 remaining in the game.

On the ensuing drive, New Fairfield was on its way for a go-ahead touchdown, but Nacewicz drove the ball carrier out of bounds at the Newtown five. New Fairfield ran the ball up the middle to the goal line, and then spiked the ball to stop the clock as Newtown dug in for what will be remembered as the defensive stand of the year.

On third down, the Newtown defense filled all gaps and stopped the New Fairfield runner cold. Time was quickly running down, and the two teams lined up for the final battle over this one small yard. It was here that the Newtown defense reached down deep – all the way back to August when their lungs and legs burned in the summer heat and they all wondered why they were doing this in the first place – and as the ball was snapped the defensive line and linebackers surged forward, pushing the ball carrier into the backfield as time expired.

It was a satisfying end to an amazing journey for the Pee Wees.

JUNIOR PEE WEES

Newtown 25, New Fairfield 20

Andrew Cebry scored three touchdowns (one on a fumble recovery) and Joey Pieretti scored one as the Junior Pee Wees stopped New Fairfield, 25-20, in recent action.

Pieretti opened the scoring with a 15-yard run, but New Fairfield answered back and took a 7-6 lead. Cebry then rushed 20 yards for a score before scooping a fumble and bringing it back 45 yards for another score (Michael Lord made the extra point on a play action pass).

But New Fairfield maintained a 20-19 lead late in the game despite the strong defensive play of Justin Spath, Trey Trudell and Rob Frangione.

Then on fourth-and-eight with five seconds left in the fourth quarter, Cebry swept around the blocks of Michael Lord, Max Lopez and Shane Wurtz for a 25-yard touchdown run to lift the Junior Pee Wees to the win.