Date: Fri 08-Sep-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: TOMW

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Football-History-1

Full Text:

Boys' Soccer History

l  Newtown captured its eighth Wild Division championship in ten years when it

played to a 6-2-1 record in 1979, but failed to defend its WCC crown. The

throne didn't even get a chance to cool, though, as the Indians went right

back and regained it the following year.

l  In 1980 the Indians moved to the Briggs Division and played to an 8-1-1

record with their only loss coming to Immaculate by a 20-0 score in Week Four.

Coach Kohut's blue-collar offense didn't post the big points like his great

teams of the past, but instead used defense and outscored their opponents by

an average of 13.3 to 6.3.

The defense was anchored by monsters like Bob Hickson, Rick Gepfer, Chris

Matern, Randy Gunther, Pete Weaver, and Tony Baldino most of whom also

controlled the offensive line for All-WCC halfback and leading scorer, Butch

Mark. At season's end, Briggs Division champion Newtown got the chance to

venge its only loss of the season when it met Immaculate in the first-ever WCC

Football Championship game. Newtown did just that.

Sophomore quarterback Lyle Wells replaced injured starter Steve Teichert and

guided the Indians to a 21-0 win in the mud at the championship game.

Newtown then made a return trip to the Class L state championship but lost

again, this time 12-7 to Rippowam of Stamford.

l  In the fall of 1981, behind 6-foot-7, 230-pound Randy Gunther, NHS finally

won it all. Everything. But it took a big of last minute heroics.

In the final week of the regular season Newtown and Masuk matched 7-1 records

in a game for the Briggs Division title and the right to play New Fairfield in

the WCC Championship Game. Newtown trailed Masuk 7-0 with only 1:05 left in

the game when Kevin Booker scooped up a fumble and sprinted 59 yards for a

Newtown touchdown as the euphoric home crowd exploded with elation. Coach

Kohut decided then chose to go for the win and Wells, in the grasp of a

defender, found Gino Estores on his knees in the endzone for the two-point

conversion that made Newtown's season.

The Indians won the game 8-7 and then went on to roll New Fairfield 32-6 in

the championship. The win over Masuk also earned Newtown its third trip to the

state finals in four years.

This time, against Branford, Chris Medve got loose out of the backfield for a

19-yard touchdown run giving the Indians a 14-7 lead with only 1:18 left in

the game. Bill Ainsworth came up with an interception during Branford's last

gasp, and returned it 25 yards to seal Newtown's 20-7 win and first-ever state

championship. Gunther and Booker were both named to the All-State and were

named to the All-WCC team along with Pete Weaver and Tim Williams.

Nobody could have predicted it that day, but Newtown's double championship

conquest would mark the end of a twelve-year run that saw 90 wins, only 16

losses, and eight WCC crowns.

It was time for a ten-year hiatus from championship trophies.

l  The 1982 Indians suffered the school's first losing season in 14 years when

it played to a 4-5 mark. The next four seasons brought winning records, but

despite big peformances by players like Rick Gunther, Karl Svensson, John

McMahon, Tim Williams, John Grimardi, Dave Constant, John Lelas, Jeff Wyatt,

Jeff Saputo, Glen Dean, Steve Medve, Tony Gramatico, Pat Sullivan, John

Pallas, and Scott Trapp, it was never enough to get back to the conference

finals. In 1987 after a 3-7 season, Pete Kohut resigned as coach of the

Newtown Indians with a career record of 135-55-7, eight WCC titles, and a

state crown. He would be succeeded by long-time assistant Zygmunt Olbrys.

l  The NHS teams of 1988 and 1989 played to records of 3-7 and 4-6, and coach

Olbrys was soon forced, by petitioning parents, to step down as the team's

head coach. He was replaced in 1990 by a coach from Stratford named Bob Zito.

The Zito Era

Coach Zito flew in the face of NHS football tradition from day one as he

instituted the Wing-T offense to replace the school's conservative Wishbone.

Zito's Indians lost their first game that season, to New Fairfield and its new

head coach Pete Kohut, but wouldn't lose another.

Behind junior QB David Brookes (1,040 yards), junior back Jeff Chontos (11

TDs), senior All-WCC reciever Scott Lish, and senior linemen Brian Gleason and

Sean McVey, Newtown won all eleven of its remaining games including the Class

MM state championship in which the Indians beat Ledyard 14-6 in overtime on

the Kansas tiebreaker. In the state final on the astro-turf at West Haven,

Jeff Chontos (who had set an NHS record with five TDs in one game during the

season) broke loose for a ten-yard TD run on the first play of OT. Chontos

then stopped Ledyard's Daggett at the one-foot line on fourth down to preserve

the NHS win.

l  Newtown's lone defeat in 1990 had cost the team a chance to play for the

WCC championship. So the Indians followed up their state-championship season

with an unbeaten one. With shades of the 1970 team, the most dominant offense

in school history scored 374 points behind the high-powered arm of All-State

QB David Brookes who shattered every school record with 1,737 yards passing

and 26 touchdowns.

Senior reciever Josh Lubin led the WCC with 16 TDs, while Jeff Chontos scored

13, and Joe Lato 11 for the Indians as well.

The 1991 Indians won every regular season game on the way to Thanksgiving Day

where they thrashed Immaculate 32-2 in the WCC finals to secure the school's

first conference title in ten years.

In a return trip to the Class MM state championship game with Ledyard, Newtown

got out to a 20-7 first-half lead only to see it slip away in the form of a

33-26 defeat which ended a 22-game win streak (the longest in the state).

Brookes threw for four touchdowns in the state final and was later named to

the All-State team along with Chontos.

l  With the graduation of Brookes, Chontos, and Lubin, coach Zito was forced

to come up with a new offensive game plan in 1992. It was called, Give the

ball to Joe, and it was met with unparalelled success .

Senior Joe Lato would proceed to snap every NHS rushing record as he rumbled

for 1,406 yards (2,512 career) and scored 17 TDs (32 career) while leading the

Indians to their fourth undefeated season in school history. Newtown and Lato

rolled over everything in their path as they finished the season 12-0 by

beating New Fairfield 14-6 in the mud for the WCC title, and then whipping the

Windham Whippits 18-0 for the school's third state title.

Lato was named to the All-State team along with two-way lineman Ryan McCain,

who opened the holes for him to run through.

l  After quarterbacking the Indians to the finest season in school history,

Rob Markin was moved deeper into the Newtown backfield where he became NHS's

ultimate weapon in 1993. The speed merchant scored 17 touchdowns for NHS, most

of them of the long-gaining variety.

For the first time in the Zito era, though, Newtown missed out on the post

season when an extra-point kick against Bethel in the season finale, was

called wide left. The Indians finished the year with a 7-3 mark, second place

in the Briggs.

l  Newtown didn't bring any surprises to the table in 1994; no high-powered

toys, and no secret weapons. But what the 94 team did bring was a blue-collar

mentality that saw it go 7-4 and win the Briggs Division title. The prize: a

chance to play Brookfield for the WCC title. Brookfield had humiliated Newtown

at its own homecoming, and did it again at the finals. Newtown was no match

for the Bobcats who stormed off to a 32-0 win. Newtown's All-WCC stars were

two-way linemen, Keven and Keith Belden and Will Chuongvan.

Though the South-West Conference is beginning in the fall of 1995, football

will remain a WCC sport for one more year.