Gold Rushes Carry Hawks To Victory

By Andy Hutchison

Cooper Gold rushed for three touchdowns and caught a TD pass from quarterback Drew Tarantino to lift the Newtown High School football team to a 42-7 pounding of visiting Pomperaug of Southbury at Blue & Gold Stadium on September 21.

The Nighthawks, for the second week in a row, held the opposition to just one touchdown; NHS defeated New Milford 21-7 in the season opener.

Gold got the scoring started with a four-yard run and added a three-yard score, set up by his carries of 17 and 32 yards. The defense got into the scoring act when defensive back Justin Devellis (two interceptions in the opener) recovered a fumble at the Pomperaug 18 yard line and ran it back for a three-TD advantage.

Newtown padded the lead before halftime behind a combination ground and aerial attacks. On third and two at the NHS 45, Dan Hebert took a handoff and made a cutback move to elude the Pomperaug defense en route to a 24-yard scamper. On the next play, Hebert slashed through the defense for 31-yard dash to paydirt, giving Newtown a 28-0 lead.

Tarantino moved the Hawks downfield in less than a minute for a last-second score and 35-0 halftime advantage. He connected with Julian Dunn for a 40-yard pass play, completed a 17-yard pass to Chris Devaney, hooked up with Gold for a four-yard play, then completed a 13-yard pass to Dunn just short of the goal line. NHS called its final timeout with just four seconds left, setting the stage for a Tarantino to Gold one-yard scoring pass play as time expired.

A 34-yard touchdown run by Gold in the third quarter gave Newtown a 42-0 lead. Newtown kicker Christian Mather was accurate on all of his point-after attempts.

Gold credited the offensive linemen for blocking well to open up plenty of running room. “The line played great — gigantic holes. You could drive a truck through them,” Gold said.

“We’ve been trying to pound it into the linemen’s brains that they’ve got to get off the ball and they got off the ball tonight, and moved them off the ball and opened up some holes. They did a great job,” Newtown Coach Steve George said.

Gold, a junior and first-year varsity starter, is thrilled about how things are going early on this fall. “I think we’re really coming together as a team,” he said.

Tarantino completed 8 of 11 passes for 124 yards, Hebert had six rushes for 80 yards, and Gold carried 14 times for 118 yards. “It was nice that we were able to run and throw the ball,” George said.

On defense, Tim Krapf made nine tackles, and Pat Thornberg had five tackles. George credited assistant and defensive specialist Doug Cotto for doing a nice job of preparing the defense as always.

The Hawks will look to improve to 3-0 when they visit Stratford (at Bunnell High School) for a 7 pm kickoff on Friday, September 28.