Hawk Gridders Survive Scare, Pull Away In Oxford

By Andy Hutchison

OXFORD — After holding each of its first four opponents scoreless through the first two quarters, and never trailing en route to a perfect start to the campaign, Newtown High School’s football team found itself in some very unfamiliar territory on October 13. The Nighthawks were actually trailing at halftime of their visit to Oxford, down 21-12 at the intermission, before reeling off 28 third quarter points en route to a 47-21 win — in the team’s first game on grass this fall.

“We didn’t panic,” Newtown Coach Steve George said.

The Nighthawks picked up on Oxford’s cross blitzes and found ways to move the ball through the home team’s zone defensive schemes in the second half, the coach explained. Newtown improved to 5-0 heading into the Friday, October 19, home game with Notre Dame-Fairfield, and the Wolverines dropped to 3-2.

The second half was much like Newtown’s first four opening halves this campaign — pure Nighthawk domination. The Hawks, after failing to score until their fourth possession of the game, got things started quickly in the second half. They put the ball into the end zone twice in a span of 1:02 midway through the third quarter and never looked back.

A pair of Cooper Gold runs and Drew Tarantino completion to Julian Dunn, with a facemask penalty tacked on, helped NHS move the ball deep into Oxford territory, setting up Gold’s two-yard score with 6:53 to play in the third quarter. Just 30 seconds later the defense forced a punt and, on third and six, Tarantino aired it out to Dan Hebert for a 56-yard pass-catch-and-run play to the Oxford six. On the next play, Hebert broke through the middle on a six-yard scoring rush for the team’s first lead, with 5:02 left in the third. Newtown went for the two-point conversion and connected as Hebert took a handoff and threw to Julian Dunn in the paint for a 27-21 lead.

A pair of late third quarter fumble recoveries enabled Newtown to gain some breathing room with a pair of TDs in the final 1:19. Josh Krapf pounced on the loose ball at the NHS 48. Moments later, Dunn caught a pass over the middle to set up Hebert’s 25-yard TD reception.

Nick Rubino recovered a fumble on the ensuing kick return at the Oxford 35 and all of the momentum had shifted. Two plays later, Gold took a handoff, fought for extra yards, and made it pay off in the form of a 35-yard scamper to pay dirt, just 20 seconds after Hebert’s touchdown, and with only 59 seconds left in the quarter, making it 40-21. NHS went for two but got stopped, just about the only time the resilient Nighthawks were halted in the second half.

In the fourth quarter, Gold broke a 60-yard run to set the stage for Tarantino’s late-game four-yard pass to Dunn for a score.

For a while it looked as if Oxford might come out on top. After a scoreless opening quarter, Hebert gave Newtown a 6-0 lead with 8:36 to play in the half, on a one-yard run. The touchdown was made possible by Hebert’s 34-yard run in which he was ruled out of bounds just before diving into the end zone. Christian Mather missed his first extra point attempt of the campaign and Oxford scored next on a fourth and goal conversion when quarterback Brennen Diaz hooked up with Kevin Loschiavo from six yards out. The extra point gave the Wolverines the lead with 5:19 left.

Tarantino was intercepted, leading to a Diaz to Chris Vankamerik 65-yard scoring play with 4:18 to go. Suddenly it was 14-6 Oxford. Newtown’s Jaret Devellis recovered an onside kick at midfield. Gold caught a 20-yard pass from Tarantino to pull NHS to within in 14-12 with 2:34 left, but the two-point conversion and attempt to tie the score failed. Oxford quickly moved the ball downfield, picking up a key first down on fourth and ten with just four seconds left, setting up a TD catch by Kyle Chudoba as time expired.

“They made some really good defensive adjustments. They shut down our running game pretty good,” George said of his team’s rare first-half struggles.

Tarantino said the field conditions took some time to adapt to. Early in the game he overshot an open Hebert on a deep ball, an incompletion he thought resulted from the slow surface.

“It felt really nice,” the quarterback said of the comeback. “Our timing wasn’t down at the beginning because of the field. We’re not used to it. We picked it up in the second half.”

In the end, Tarantino put together some good numbers. He completed 14 of 22 passes for 221 yards. Gold made five catches for 44 yards, Dunn had five receptions for 69, and Hebert three for 101. Gold rushed 16 times and racked up 144 yards on the ground, and Hebert carried ten times for 75. Krapf, Josh Villa, and Justin Devellis had eight, seven, and six tackles, respectively.

“It’s good — it feels real good,” George said of pulling out a hard-fought win. “It’s a good football team over there. They’re going to win a lot of games, and best of luck to them the rest of the way.”

Newtown will try to keep rolling along against a winless Notre Dame squad on Friday. Kickoff is set for 7 pm at Blue & Gold Stadium.