Newtown defense off to flying start
NEWTOWN — Newtown senior captain Andrew Jacobs could not wipe the smile off his face after Newtown’s first scrimmage of the preseason against Greenwich Saturday morning.
“It was so good, so good,” Jacobs said. “It felt great being back out there. I have been sick of this 7-on-7 stuff for the last year. It felt so good to get back out there and hit someone.”
Jacobs is a running back and linebacker for Newtown.
While the offenses of both Newtown and Greenwich could best be described as being rusty, the Newtown defense came out flying as the Nighthawks beat the Cardinals 14-0.
Newtown’s defense sacked Greenwich quarterbacks multiple times and intercepted two passes while holding the Cardinals running attack to virtually nothing.
With the offenses of most teams trying to get back into rhythm after missing last season, it will be the defenses making big impacts early in the regular season.
That is not lost on Newtown coach Bobby Pattison.
“I think our defense is further
ahead than our offense,” Pattison said. “That is one of the challenges I have noticed. Skill players got to do the 7-on-7 and athletes know how to do that stuff. It is the development of the line on both sides and the line play that I feel will be a challenge for a lot of teams. We are still sorting out who our lines are as a lot of teams are.”
Along with having fun hitting people, Jacobs said he was pleased with how the defense functioned for the first time out, knowing that side of the ball will make or break the Nighthawks.
“I think we executed really well,” Jacobs said. “Most of it was just our mentality. Our intensity and flying to the football and wanting to hit someone, that is the base of it. It will be so important early in the season to be firing on defense. The state championship year (2019) the defense was our anchor. When the offense couldn’t get it done, the defense held us up. If that’s how it has to be this year, then we will do that again. It is important for our defense to anchor us.”
Pattison said he saw several players step up defensively Saturday.
“A few guys stood out today. Noah Clark is a senior for us and Mike Carbone is another senior who played well. Jack Chappa is a sophomore with a great motor. All three of those guys did a great job today,” Pattison said. “We also have a big nose tackle in Sean Gordon who played well today. Overall, I was happy to see our kids be more aggressive, but it is still far from perfect.”
Pattsion said there is still plenty to evaluate. He said that after he watches the game film, he will focus on what the team needs to do to be ready for the real opening game on Sept. 10 against Pomperaug at 7 p.m.
“It was a good scrimmage and I thought there was some good, but there is also a lot we need to clean up with mistakes. The film is probably going to show us a lot of mistakes. This is a scrimmage and we still have a lot of work left to get ready for next week’s scrimmage and the opening game a week after that,” Pattison said. “It’s a scrimmage so you want to use it for evaluation purposes. A lot of guys have been working hard in the offseason and today was an opportunity to go tackle someone for the first time. There were few kids in particular I was excited to see when the pads came on.”