Newtown High School's football team lost to visiting Ridgefield 24-13 in a hard-fought Class L State Playoff quarterfinal-round game Blue & Gold Stadium on a chilly December 3 night.

The No. 7 Tigers, out of the FCIAC and deceptively seeded, pulled off an on-paper upset of the No. 2 Nighthawks by forcing several turnovers and containing Newtown's typically high-powered offense.

The game was scoreless throughout almost the entire first quarter with the Tigers scoring on a 65-yard fumble recovery and return on the final play of the period.

Newtown evened the score when quarterback Marcus Gerace connected with Emmet Regan on a yard touchdown pass with just 3:22 left in the opening half.

The Tigers booted a 41-yard field goal for a 10-7 halftime lead. The first half was eventful for such a low-scoring game. Newtown narrowly missed a first-quarter field goal when Jake Roszman's line line drive kick from 36 yards out had the distance but clanked off the right upright. Nick Pavia intercepted a deflected pass in Ridgefield territory.

Ridgefield went up 17-7 on a 25-yard TD rush on third and five with 8:22 left in the third. Newtown lost the ball on the ensuing kickoff when return man Graham Spencer was stripped of the ball at the Nighthawk 43 yard line, but Spencer got it back with a fumble recovery a few plays later.

The Hawks got a clutch fourth and 10 pass and catch play from Gerace to Grady Marks for a 24-yard gain all the way down to the 11 yard line. The Tigers dug their heels in and limited Newtown to Roszman's 21-yard field goal That made it 17-10 with 5:22 to go in the third.

After an NHS stop on defense the offense went back to work hoping to knot the score. Another Gerace to Marks fourth down conversion set the Hawks up with first and goal from the eight. A penalty backed the Hawks to the 13 and Newtown wound up settling for a 30-yard Roszman splitting of the uprights to make it 17-13 with just eight seconds showing on the third-quarter clock.

Ridgefield carried that slim lead into the fourth. A Ridgefield interception at the Nighthawk 12 yard line set the Tigers up with an extremely short field and they capitalized with a score to make it a two-possession game.

Gerace completed passes to Cole Stockwell, Travis Rekos, and Luke Stewart to move the chains but the Hawks were unable to put points in the board. Henri Quirk intercepted a pass with only 1:10 remaining but the Tigers got the ball right back with an interception of their own and ran out the clock.

Newtown's defense, especially Kieran Garrity, pressured the Tigers and came away with some quarterback sacks and tackles in the backfield.

Newtown went 8-2 in the regular season, reeling off eight consecutive wins after losing a pair of challenging out of conference tilts out of the gate.

"It was a good football game. They played hard, we played hard. They created turnovers — at the end of the day that's what wins football games," Nighthawk Coach Dan Farina said.

Ridgefield's defensive line made things tough on Gerace and company. Newtown was not able to establish its run game and Gerace was pressured throughout the night, on some occasions getting rid of the ball with defenders draped on his back.

"We found ourselves behind the chains," Farina said.

Newtown managed to keep some drives alive with cluth third- and fourth-down conversions. Regan had multiple sideline tip-toeing catches to help move the chains.

Farina will miss the players who suited up for their final game.

"The seniors won a lot of games for us. They represented the blue and gold the best way they could. I'm proud of them not only for this season but past seasons," Newtown's coach said.