Hawk Football Team Keeps Rolling Along

By Andy Hutchison

The Nighthawks continue to dominate the competition. Newtown High School’s football team cruised to a 35-7 win over Brookfield at Blue & Gold Stadium on October 5, scoring all of its points in the first half en route to a 4-0 start to the campaign. Brookfield, meanwhile, suffered its first loss and stands at 3-1.

Approximately 1,000 fans packed the stadium to support the Nighthawks — and the American Cancer Society. Roughly $3,200 was collected from fans decked out in pink in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Newtown’s used a little razzle-dazzle to build its early cushion. Quarterback Drew Tarantino handed off to Cooper Gold who gave the ball to Dan Hebert on a reverse. Hebert then tossed a 30-yard scoring strike to Julian Dunn.

“It’s exciting when you hear that play call and you know it’s coming,” Hebert said. “When you execute something like that, that you’ve practiced all week, there’s not a better feeling.”

Hebert also caught a first-quarter touchdown pass from Tarantino, a 35-yard play. The Nighthawks established a 35-0 halftime lead; Newtown has yet to allow a first-half score this year.

“Once our defense made a stop and we were able to put one in early I felt like our kids had the momentum and we took that momentum into the second drive, and the third drive, and the fourth drive, and the fifth drive,” Newtown Coach Steve George said.

When all was said and done, Newtown had driven the opponent off the field with relative ease — yet again.

Gold caught a five-yard TD pass from Tarantino when he got his feet down just inside the line in the left side of the end zone, and Newtown established a 21-0 advantage after one quarter of play.

It didn’t take the Hawks long to add to the lead in the second quarter as they got back into the end zone on the first play of the second. Tarantino found an open Hebert in the middle of the field and Hebert, in stride, made a juggling catch en route to a 53-yard scoring play. Tarantino later connected with Justin Devellis on a 28-yard scoring play over the middle for a 35-0 lead before the break.

“We felt they were giving us the deep middle,” Tarantino said. “We watched them on film. We knew we were going to have to play our hardest against a good team.”

With the game well in hand, NHS kept the ball on the ground and its reserve players made the second half plays to preserve the win.

“The kids executed the game plan real well,” George said. The Hawks mixed and matched their ground and air attack to keep the Bobcats off balance.

Tarantino completed nine of 15 passes for 192 yards. Devellis had three catches for 45 yards, Dunn had two for 50, Gold two for 21, Jack Lago one for 24, and Hebert two for 82. Newtown used eight players to amass 165 rushing yards on 33 carries.

On defense, Josh Villa and Tim Krapf both came up with five tackles and two assists. Robbie Hughes had six tackles and an interception. Hughes, Krapf, and PJ Hickey all had quarterback sacks, and Pat Thornberg was credited with a half sack.

The Nighthawks will visit Oxford on October 13 and return home to face Notre Dame-Fairfield on October 19. “We’re just going to keep staying focused week by week no mater who we play,” Tarantino said.