By Kim J. Harmon

T

he year was 1987 and the Watertown Indians were one year removed from their first – and only – CIAC Class SS state championship. Star quarterback Rico Brogna (now a first baseman with the Boston Red Sox) was in the last game of his high school career and buried under an avalanche of offers from more than 150 collegiate football programs.

Sure, Watertown and Torrington have butted helmets in some classic Thanksgiving Day games over the last 30 years or so. They had one that ended in an 8-8 tie and one that was decided on a late field goal.

The game in 1987, though, was better than all of ‘em – so good, perhaps, that it could be described with one word.

 Words like - awesome . . . amazing . . . wild . . . thrilling . . . astounding . . . breathtaking . . . and electrifying.

Take your pick after you hear about how the Red Raiders of Torrington defeated the Indians of Watertown, 49-43, on a glorious Thanksgiving morning 13 years ago (when, it should go without saying, most of the kids on the Newtown team were just three or four years old).

The shootout started just three plays into the game. Dave Holliday  swept down the right sidelines for a 70-yard touchdown to give Torrington a 7-0 lead. Shortly after, Watertown tied the score at 7-7 when Brogna tossed a 29-yard touchdown pass to Dave Yoder.

Brogna kicked the extra point (he had 111 in his high school career and nailed 91 in a row . . . believed to be the second-best streak ever in the nation). Brogna was a heck of a kicker. That year he had 11 field goals (including kicks that went for 52, 53, and 54 yards).

The first period ended, incredibly, with the two teams tied at only 7-7.

Then it really opened up.

In the second quarter, Holliday had two more touchdowns (he finished with five) for Torrington and Scott Lagenheim caught a 14-yard scoring strike from Brendan Abbott. For the Indians, Andy Kennedy scored on a one-yard run, Dave McDonnell brought back a kick (after Holliday’s 54-yard TD run) for a touchdown and Yoder ran in from three yards out.

Watertown led, 28-27, at the half.

In the third quarter, the Indians went ahead 35-27 when Kennedy scored his second touchdown of the game on a 14-yard run. But the Red Raiders answered back when Mike Cardello caught a 28-yard scoring pass from Abbott and Holliday ran in the two-point conversion.

At the end of three periods, it was all tied up at 35-35.

But Torrington took control in the fourth. Holliday ran in a pair of one-yard touchdowns to give the Red Raiders a 49-35 lead and that was left was for Brogna to hit Steve Barnosky with a 37-yard scoring strike. Nick DeMatteis caught the two-point conversion pass from Brogna, but the Indians could get no closer.

Holliday finished with 292 yards on 25 carries, leading a rushing attack that accounted for 465 yards of an incredible 690 yards of total offense. Barnosky, Brogna’s go-to receiver throughout his high school career, finished with 11 grabs for 258 yards (for the ’87 season, Barney had 66 grabs for 1,199 yards and 14 touchdowns)

And with the crowd of some 4,000 people gasping in the aftermath, Brogna – the greatest athlete Watertown had ever known – walked off the football field for the final time. He had finished the day 21-of-37 for 374 yards and had finished his career 363-of-690 (53%) for 5,790 yards and 59 touchdowns.

More than 150 colleges (such as Georgia Tech, Georgia, Miami, Wake Forest, and Penn State) were after Brogna (rated by USA Today as one of the top 50 athletes in the nation that year) to play football for them and Don Ford, the head coach of Clemson, had actually flown up from South Carolina to watch the game.

Brogna said, at the time, “It was nice to finish my high school career with such an exciting game. The way that game went back and forth for the offenses, it’s the best game I’ve played in in the three years I’ve been here. I can always remember that I ended up my career on a positive note in a thrilling game that could have been won by either team.”

It was a great way to end a football career – but after another stellar baseball season the following spring, Brogna was picked in the first-round of the amateur baseball draft by the Detroit Tigers and the rest, as they say, is history.

I know I’ll never forget that game, either.

Not ever.