The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
FOOTBALL MIRACLE UPLIFTS AT HOLIDAYS
Newtown wins Connecticut LL title with touchdown on final play of game
Solace is precious, amid the most enduring pain one can imagine.
Over the last few weeks, state football champions have been crowned across the United States — schools large and small, sixand eight-player football, too.
But for all the ubiquitous displays of emotion, the exhilaration release as an arduous task is accomplished, there was one state champion crowned for which we can all be thrilled.
Newtown — 2019 Class LL state champion in Connecticut.
Its community lore will forever be linked to that tragic day Dec. 14, 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary School, when 20 first-graders and six staff members perished in the fourth-deadliest mass shooting in our nation’s history.
Newtown is undoubtedly reminded regularly of what it has lost.
But amid continuing to process loss, the Nighthawks’ football team won in remarkable fashion.
Prior to this fall, Newtown had not been to a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference state championship game on the gridiron since 1992. The Nighthawks won state titles in 1981, 1990 and 1992, with runner-up finishes in 1978, 1980 and 1991.
The Nighthawks’ squad of 70, including 19 seniors, is coached by Bobby Pattison, in his first year guiding his alma mater.
The Class LL state tournament is a grind, with the eightteam bracket requiring three wins over 11 days.
Newtown recorded a pair of shutouts in its first two playoff games, its sixth and seventh of the season, to earn a berth in the Class LL final against Darien.
The date of that title tilt was
Dec. 14, seven years to the day of the Sandy Hook tragedy.
“We knew obviously there would be challenges, obviously emotional challenges on that date,” Newtown superintendent Lorrie Rodrigue told The Associated Press.
“So we did, the principal and the athletic director, we consulted not only the team, but the family of loss who plays just to make sure we heard their voices. They wanted to play.”
One of the seniors on this year’s squad is Ben Pinto, a linebacker whose brother Jack died at Sandy Hook.
Jack Pinto was buried in the jersey of his favorite player, then-Giants star wide receiver Victor Cruz.
“For football to be able to be that kind of escape for them, to provide that moment for them, it’s just incredible,” Cruz told the AP. “I just want to congratulate them and Ben and the whole town for staying strong. I just remember how strong they were. And this is a testament to how strong they actually are.”
For the final played in Trumbull, Conn., on a foggy, wet afternoon, fans wore green and cheerleaders had green bows in honor of the Sandy Hook victims. A pregame moment of silence was held.
The Nighthawks were down, 7-0, as the midway point of the fourth quarter approached.
Newtown junior quarterback Jack Street connected with senior wide receiver Riley Ward for a 75-yard touchdown pass, down the right sideline into the dense fog.
Darien faced a fourthand-1 at the Newtown 31 with 56 seconds remaining, when the Nighthawks’ Jack Zingaro wrapped up Sam Wilson after an initial penetration and chip behind the line of scrimmage to slow up Wilson.
Newtown got to the Darien 36 with 3.6 seconds left, and Pattison called timeout.
The original call was a double move to the middle, but Pattison sensed with Darien’s coverage a double move to the corners might be more effective.
Pattison later said on NBC’s “Football Night In America” the team hadn’t practiced that play leading into the championship game.
Street took the snap and went for Ward down the right side on the double move.
“All I could hear my assistant coach say is, ‘He’s open! He’s open!’ “Pattison told NBC. “And the next thing you know, touchdown and game over. And the rest is history.”
Ward caught the pass and ran toward the back right corner of the end zone,where he left the football. He shed his helmet and ran past the goalpost with his index finger raised and teammates sprinting in.
“It’s a very emotional time, and what happened the other day, winning a state championship and the way the kids executed on the field and how it ended, has been a wonderful thing.” — Newtown football coach Bobby Pattison
“I couldn’t have asked for anything more,” Ward told the Hartford Courant. “I love this town. I love everybody. I’m at a loss for words.”
Street told WFSB, the CBS affiliate in Hartford: “It feels so good for the whole community, the whole town. We really needed this, especially on a day like today. It’s just an unbelievable win for an unbelievable town.”
Seven years to the day, after unspeakable tragedy, if only for a moment, Newtown could find some joy in Dec. 14.
Understandably, school officials requested media not ask players and coaches about Sandy Hook in relation to the significance of this state championship run.
“It’s always so difficult to explain what it feels like to hold grief in your heart while celebrating these precious moments,” Tricia Pinto, Ben and Jack’s mother, told the AP. “Our grief sometimes gets lost in this story of survival. That’s not our story. Our story is of loss and of love.”
Amid a sea of Newtown faithful, Ben Pinto briefly spoke to Hearst Connecticut Media.
“I come off the field, I look into the crowd and I can barely see an empty seat,” Ben Pinto said. “Knowing that we have the whole town just right there behind us, it’s unbelievable.”
It really is the aim of aspiration and the desire for destiny.
Newtown hadn’t been to a state football final in 27 years. The Nighthawks went 10-0 in the regular season and hadn’t had a one-possession game since Week 3, a 21-14 victory over West Haven.
Tied on the last play of the game in a state final, Newtown walked off an unbeaten campaign and hardware.
“Everyone started running, and I was looking for somebody to hug,” Pattison told the Newtown Bee. “I don’t think you could have written a better ending than this one.”
Pattison, on Newtown’s football Twitter account, expressed his appreciation, writing, “Thank you to all who have supported our team on this incredible journey. A special bunch of young men who just wrote a storybook ending.”
Darien, in a classy gesture, offered affirmation, tweeting, “While a State Championship loss is never easy to swallow, the joy it is bringing (Newtown) and the entire #Newtown community is certainly numbing our pain.”
NBC’s Mike Tirico, as so many of us did, saw the viral video of the winning TD for Newtown that night, traveling back from the Army-Navy game.
He suggested to the producer of “Football Night in America” that NBC reach out and bring the team to its studio during its “Sunday Night Football” broadcast.
NBC contacted the school, arrangements were made, and players, coaches and cheerleaders boarded buses for NBC’s studios.
“It’s a very emotional time, and what happened the other day, winning a state championship and the way the kids executed on the field and how it ended, has been a wonderful thing,” Pattison told Tirico.
“Football is amazing, because it can bring people together. Sports in general, moments like that bring people together and put a lot of smiles on people’s faces.”
As he closed the segment, Tirico told the team and a national audience, “Newtown, Connecticut, you better put up the biggest state championship sign that’s been seen in any town in America, because no group deserves it more than these guys.”
America will second that.
One football win certainly won’t eliminate the pain in Newtown on Dec. 14 and all of the days since.
But amid that fog for the state final, if it afforded them even a moment to stare above and honor what was lost, then it is helpful.
Charlotte. Daniel. Olivia. Josephine. Dylan. Madeleine. Catherine. Chase. Jesse. Ana. James. Grace. Emilie. Jack. Noah. Caroline. Jessica. Avielle. Benjamin. Allison.
Rachel. Dawn. Anne Marie. Lauren. Mary. Victoria.
May their names and memories endure.
And may one football victory bring solace, albeit brief, to a community that deserves that and more this holiday season.