NEWFANE — Newfane had to learn how to lose again. It had been a while since the football team had suffered a regular-season loss when it played Randolph on Sept. 11.
But the loss has not defined Newfane’s season. In fact, quite the opposite, it has allowed the Panthers to refocus as the team heads into October with a 3-1 record.
“We’ve taken it,” Newfane senior Jake Morello said. “We slept on it. But … it’s nothing too big. We had a bad game. We’re coming back, making our adjustments and getting back to our scheme.”
When Newfane lost to Randolph 34-0 in week two, it was the team’s first overall loss since Nov. 30, 2025, and its first regular season loss since Oct. 4, 2024, a stretch of 707 days.
In the loss, Newfane was held to 154 yards of total offense, which is a season low for the team. In the contest, Nagel felt like his team was out-hustled and was not as physical as their opponents.
That loss helped Newfane because it taught the coaches that they needed help to get bigger on defense. The loss also humbled the Newfane players and renewed their hunger to go on a deep postseason run.
“After that game too, we found that we needed a little bit more size in our middle linebacker,” Nagel said. “So we were able to bump (Jake) Morello off out to an inside guy like he’s used to playing. We put a big (defensive) tackle on there that’s been having a heck of a season at the middle, help slow down the run game a little bit.”
The early part of this season was all about finding out what this year’s team looks like without all of the production lost from last year’s squad.
After last year’s run to the state semifinal, Newfane has had to replace 12 seniors, including quarterback Mac Capen and 3,941 yards of offense and 308 tackles.
The way that the team is going about replacing all of that production is by having no jobs guaranteed.
“We got 35 kids on the team,” Nagel said. “It’s an open tryout, just because you’re starting this week or that week doesn’t mean you’re going to be starting the next week. We watch a ton of film, the kids watch a ton of film, we film our practices. We watch that every night. We have film sessions before practice if we need to, to discuss the practice film and the kids love it, they eat it up.”
Last year, through four games, Newfane was 4-0 while outscoring its opponents 155-52. This year, Newfane is 3-1 while outscoring its opponents 138-72.
Through the first four weeks of the season, Newfane’s opponents have a combined record of 10-6 with all four opponents sitting at .500 or better. It is a stretch that has allowed Nagel and his staff to learn a lot about the team through the first month of the campaign.
“If you look at other teams around the section, their first couple games are not as challenging as the path that we had,” Nagel said. “… We knew we were going to have a major target on our backs from last year … Teams want to come out here and smack the crap out of us. So we got to make sure with that mindset that we’re preparing and we’re going to be ready for something like that.”
During this year’s team’s fourth game of the season, Newfane had to battle against Franklinville/Ellicottville in the first half when they were only up 16-12. But the team was able to pull away from there, getting a 40-18 win.
It meant that the Panthers have won all three of their games this season by double digits.
“We just stick back to the things that work,” Morello said. “… It just kept our faith in Christ and just tweak a little bit of things, make some adjustments and stick to it.”
Newfane will be looking to continue the hot start to the season at 7:30 p.m. Friday when it takes on Southwestern/Frewsburg. After the loss to Randolph, Nagel and his team are looking to get revenge if the teams meet up again in the playoffs.
If the teams do face off, they know the result will be significantly different from the previous game.
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