Newtown title gets national buzz.

Video of the final play and victory celebration went viral on Twitter

When Newtown High School’s football team won the Class LL state championship on the last play of the game Saturday, the timing brought chills—the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting had happened seven years to the day.

Less than 24 hours later, the win became a national news sensation.

A video of the final play and victory celebration by Pete Paguaga, senior producer for Hearst Connecticut Media’s GameTimeCT, went viral on Twitter. At the time of publication, the clip had gathered 2.4 million views. Sports outlets like ESPN, Barstool, and Sports Illustrated shared the news out to readers across the world.

But, it’s not just sports fans impacted by the inspiring story. People across the world want to hear more about the determined players, most of whom were students at Sandy Hook seven years ago. Washington Post’s coverage of the game was trending on Google last night.

National outlets like CNN, The Hill, TIME Magazine, NowThis, and more are talking about Newtown’s perseverance. Even local papers are feeling the ripple—the story has made it to places like Chicago, Denver, Houston, and Minneapolis, to name just a few.

Late Sunday, players and coaches from the Newtown football team were scheduled to appear at halftime of the NBC Sunday Night Football broadcast between the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers.

They were to join Football Night in America’s Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy, and Rodney Harrison instudio at NBC Sports’ International Broadcast Center in Stamford for a segment during halftime of the game.

The director of athletics at Cheshire High School tweeted that his wife cried tears of joy after Newtown High School scored their gamewinning touchdown. This is influential considering his brother is the coach of the Darien Blue Wave, Newtown’s opponent.

This unifying power of sports is also seen in national politicians and activists, who seem to bipartisanly support the inspiring message the Nighthawks represent. Senator Chris Murphy shared

Paguaga’s video on Twitter for his more than 830K followers to see. Dan Scavino Jr., assistant to President Donald Trump and director of social media for the White House, also shared the video and article. His tweet was one word: “AMAZING.” And the founder of Moms Demand Action, Shannon Watts, was another prominent member of the country’s gun violence conversation who retweeted the video.

Newtown is no stranger to international attention, but this time, they’re rejoicing. The victorious football coach, Bobby Pattison says it best in his tweet: “A special bunch of young men who just wrote a storybook ending.”