By Kim J. Harmon

The first win in Ken Roberts’ head coaching career simply could not have come at a more dramatic – a more Made-For-TV – moment than last Friday night at Bruce Jenner Stadium.

With his team at 0-2 after disappointing losses to Notre Dame of Fairfield and Bunnell, coach Roberts was looking for something to help his team refocus on its objectives in the 1999 season. And what better thing is there than the return of the team’s former head coach, Bob Zito, now at the head of the Stratford Red Devils?

Refocussed, the emotional Nighthawks made Zito’s homecoming a little bit more of a roast than a party as they came up with a stirring 30-14 victory.

“It’s starting to come together,” said coach Roberts. “Since we first put everything into place, this was the first time we saw success. They were just teasing me, showing signs of life. We were very inconsistent the first two games and we had to realize we need to play four quarters.”

He got four quarters last Friday – four very good quarters.

“I attribute it all to the Thursday practice,” coach Roberts said. “We had to make a decision about what was important now and we all decided that football should be the most important thing. The kids were kind of taking the game and playing for Newtown for granted. Nothing was going to be given to us. We had to go out and start playing well.”

Just about everyone played well last Friday. The rushing attack (46 carries for 264 yards) was nearly unstoppable and the passing attack (Les Russell was 5-of-6 for 68 yards and three TDs and Rich Petretti was 2-of-3 for 32 yards) was nearly flawless. Meanwhile, the defense held Stratford to just 112 yards on the ground and Melvin Dixon to just 49 of those.

“Stratford is a very good football team.” Said coach Roberts, “but what we did defensively is we did our assignments. Everyone played their positions well and there were no missed tackles.”

The ‘Hawks struck twice in the first quarter, scoring on a 16-yard pass from Russell to Brian Cascone and a 29-yard pass from Russell to Nick Savino. Stratford nipped at that 12-0 lead with a short touchdown in the second quarter, but Newtown went into the half with an 18-7 lead thanks to a three-yard touchdown pass from Russell to Matt McCarthy.

In the second half, Adam Hayden and Adam Hunzeker both scored on one-yard carries and well into the fourth period the ‘Hawks held an insurmountable 30-7 lead. All that was left was for Steven Condor to toss a 54-yard pass to Ron Christy for a late Stratford touchdown.

“For now, it’s great,” said coach Roberts. “But we still have a long way to go to be considered a good football team. We have to realize that we need to be fired up all the time.”

Hayden led the ‘Hawks on the ground with 105 yards on 18 carries, but Hunzeker added 101 yards on 14 carries. Fullback Sean Raby got 14 carries of his own and gathered up 58 yards in a tenacious ground attack. Out in the patters, Cascone caught four balls for 64 yards while McCarthy caught two balls and Savino caught one ball.

With that first win under their belts, the Nighthawks will travel down to Brookfield on Friday night for another battle with the Bobcats.

Stratford    0   7   0   7  -  14

Newtown  12   6   6   6  -  30

Individual Statistics

Rushing

STRATFORD:_Galich 12-63, Dixon 12-49, Condor 3-4, Jackson 1-minus 4. TOTALS: 28-112

NEWTOWN: Hayden 18-105, Hunzeker 14-101, Raby 14-58. TOTALS: 46-264.

Passing

STRATFORD:_Condor 7-9-0, 140 yards, 1 TD.

NEWTOWN: Russell 5-6-0, 68  yards, 3 TDs; Petretti 2-3-0, 32 yards.

Receiving

STRATFORD: Christy 2-68, Tanucci 2-20, Dixon 1-39, Ross 1-15, Galich 1-minus 2.

NEWTOWN: Cascone 4-64, McCarthy 2-7, Savino 1-29.