By Kim J. Harmon

In case you missed it (and you may have, considering the somewhat light turn out last Friday night at the stadium that is no longer being referred to as Jenner stadium), the deal with the 2000 Nighthawk football team pretty much can be summed up in one play.

Just one play.

Adam Hayden explained it all in the third quarter of Newtown’s 50-20 win over Foran last Friday. With the ‘Hawks stuck deep in their own end, right down there at the four, Hayden took the ball and crashed into the line.

And crashed into the line again.

And again.

Then he finally broke free, found a place to run down the left sideline, and was off with nothing but open field between him and his second touchdown of the game.

Except, he stepped out at the four.

Just stepped out.

No one pushed him, he didn’t come up with a twinge in his hamstring (although, talk on the sideline was he should have probably used a few skills from Acting 101 to make it look good) – he just stepped out.

Somewhere along his path Hayden came up with the idea and maybe the coach of Foran might have felt he was being showed up or something (after all, the ‘Hawks did have a 50-12 lead already and another touchdown hardly would have mattered), but it was for a purpose.

It was time for someone else, another senior, to get a crack at the end zone.

I think it’s a heck of a thing. Sure, he gave up a touchdown, but it was already a spectacular 90-yard run (maybe the best run of the year) and a touchdown would have only made it slightly more spectacular.

Hey, the same people who looked askance when Nykesha Sales set the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball scoring record with a cheap set-up basket while get a little squirrely about this, but I’m a little stunned because I know I_never would have though about it . . . certainly not if I was on my way to my second touchdown after pulling off one of the most spectacular runs of the year.

But, as one coachremarked, “Hayden’s a different breed of kid.”

A couple weeks ago, coach Roberts said, “It’s all about the team, now.”

I_suppose he couldn’t be more right.

It was a heck of a thing. A decidedly uncommon thing. And even though the ‘Hawks didn’t get into the end zone after Hayden reached the four (senior Steve Santanello had a couple cracks at it, but the Foran defense chose that moment to stiffen up) it was the thought that counts and since it was a thought of the team, then that counted the most.

+ + +

Larry Petretti has made it a point, the last couple of weeks, to remark about how lucky Newtown has been with the weather this season. Every game has been played in glorious weather – never too hot, never too cold, and never rainy.

Chill, Larry. The last thing we need to do is tempt fate . . . not with the Thanksgiving Day game with Masuk (which is actually the day before Thanksgiving) coming up.

Remember the Mud Bowl of 1998?