NHS Football Team Improves To 3-1—

Nighthawks Pull Away In Second Half, Knock Off Oxford

By Andy Hutchison

OXFORD — Locked in a 20-20 battle after two quarters on October 9, Newtown High School’s football team put together the sort of second half NHS Coach Steve George wants to see out of his team every week. The Nighthawks buckled down defensively and went on to romp host Oxford High 41-27 to improve to 3-1.

Oxford, which has made substantial improvements since its first season, a winless one, three years ago, made things difficult on the visiting Hawks from the onset before being handed its first loss in four games to begin the campaign.

“It felt good,” Newtown’s Dan Hebert, who scored the go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter, said after the game. “A lot of people don’t know how good [Oxford] is but they were good and we stepped up. It feels great to beat this team.”

This game started out as an offensive shootout with Newtown carrying a 20-13 lead into the second quarter. The Nighthawks were held without another touchdown until Hebert’s 8-yard TD run, which gave the Hawks a 27-20 advantage, with 6:53 left in the third quarter. Newtown never looked back, eventually pulling ahead by three scores before surrendering a virtually meaningless late-game TD.

Max Nacewicz opened the scoring on a 4-yard run which capped a 65-yard drive. The teams traded scores as quarterback Will Arndt connected with Louis Fenaroli on a 46-yard TD pass play for a 14-6 lead and hooked up with Hebert on a 61-yard scoring strike for a 20-13 edge.

Oxford got the game’s only second-quarter points as Newtown mustered only as many first downs as it had touchdowns — three — a quarter earlier.

In the third, Newtown’s defense took over. Following Hebert’s go-ahead score, Justin Devellis came up with a timely interception to help preserve the 27-20 lead going into the fourth.

Fenaroli barged into the end zone for a two-touchdown lead and, on the ensuing Oxford drive, Nacewicz had a quarterback sack to help the Hawks continue to stymie the hosts. Arndt capped Newtown’s scoring barrage with a 25-yard pass to Brendan McNamara with 4:17 to play.

Newtown has won two straight games since a frustrating 34-28 loss to Bethel, a Newtown game uncharacteristically loaded with penalties.

“We needed this — show everyone we’re actually a good team. We made a mistake against Bethel and it won’t happen again,” McNamara said.

The key to the second-half turnaround was that “We just made a lot of adjustments,” McNamara said.

Oxford’s Nick Donofrio had success running the ball in the first half but was mostly-contained in the third and fourth quarters.

“We made some halftime adjustments. We had to obviously stop their power running game which is what we set out to do,” George said.

Any win’s a good win, but this one was particularly satisfying for the Nighthawks given the team’s recent injury bug problems. Both kicker/wide receiver/defensive back Rory Noonan and receiver/defensive back Ryan Korth, who suffered knee injuries, were among those sidelined. Others were overcoming some bumps and bruises and came back in time for the game.

“It felt good. We’ve got a lot of new faces on the field. At practice it was like a MASH unit this week, but we got kids healthy and we’re getting some young kids prepared for the ride here and they stepped up today,” George said. “A lot of those younger kids that didn’t expect to be on the field this year are now on the field.” Among them are junior kicker Justin Brophy and sophomore defensive back/receiver Devellis.

Arndt completed 14 of 21 passes for 259 yards; Hebert had 167 total receiving, rushing and kick return yards; and Fenaroli had 142 combined rushing and receiving yards. On defense, Nacewicz had ten tackles, Michael Lord had seven and a sack, and Matt Datin had five and two sacks. Doug Brede also got to the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage for a sack.

Newtown will visit Notre Dame-Fairfield this Saturday, October 16, at 7 pm. The game will be held at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield.