Football Preview: Shelton Gaels vs. Newtown Nighthawks
The Shelton Gaels will venture away from home to face off against the Newtown Nighthawks at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Shelton has struggled recently with seven losses in a row, while Newtown will arrive with five straight wins.
Shelton is headed into the game out to prove that what happened against Fairfield Prep on Friday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Shelton lost 41-15 to Fairfield Prep. While losing is never fun, the Gaels can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Connecticut football rankings (they are ranked 85th, while the Jesuits are ranked 19th).
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Logan Sepkaski, who threw for 215 yards and a touchdown, and also rushed for 38 yards. Those 38 rushing yards gave him a new career-high. Cole Ostrosky was Sepkaski's top target, picking up 99 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Meanwhile, Newtown owes their defense a big pat on the back after their performance on Thursday. They took down Pomperaug 17-0. The 17-point effort marked the Nighthawks' lowest-scoring matchup of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Ryan Schoffstall continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, throwing for 203 yards and a touchdown on only 17 passes, while also punching in a touchdown on the ground. A healthy portion of that aerial production (90 yards to be exact) went to James Hartigan.
Shelton's defeat dropped their record down to 0-5. As for Newtown, their victory bumped their record up to 5-0.
Shelton and Newtown were almost perfectly matched up in their previous meeting back in November of 2023, but Shelton suffered an agonizing 29-28 loss. Can Shelton avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
