The September sky turned a shade of Pomperaug red Friday night, with the Panthers grounding out a 24-7 win at home against Newtown.
The win – Pomperaug’s first over Newtown in 12 regular-season matchups going back to 2012 – brings the Panthers to 3-0 on the season.
A pair of fourth-quarter touchdown drives helped the Panthers run away with the victory, and a clutch defensive stand resulted in Pomperaug head coach Tony Pereira jumping on the team bench to fire up the home crowd.
Pereira, a former player and assistant coach under the late coach Chuck Drury, said the feeling he got on Friday night reminded him of a different era of Panther football.
“It felt like Chuck was standing on the sidelines near me… and I was just a young assistant,” Pereira said after the game. “It brought back great memories.”
Pomperaug would score twice in the first half before Newtown got on the board.
The Panthers took advantage of positive field position with a 10-yard Jack Guinipero run to open the scoring – a drive made possible only by a Jaden D’Amico fumble recovery and a pair of Marco Russomanno sacks on Newtown’s second drive of the game.
Pomperaug’s next drive would be stalled at the goal line, but the Panthers would end up with excellent field position when Newtown was forced to ultimately punt it away. Guinipero returned the punt back to the red zone, where Gavin Lynch took over from there with four straight run plays, punching it in to make it 12-0.
Newtown’s final possession of the first half resulted in a Luke Gagnon 14-yard rushing touchdown, bringing the Nighthawks back before the break at 12-7.
The score remained a one-possession game into the fourth quarter, with the third quarter seeing the teams trade punts. Pomperaug’s punter, Cole Tracy, booted a pair of punts that pinned Newtown inside its own 10-yard line.
As the fourth quarter began, so did one of Pomperaug’s most methodical drives of the young season.
A 13-play drive that chewed up half of the fourth-quarter clock resulted in Josh Coughlin’s 20-yard touchdown run on a quarterback keeper. Facing second-and-long, the Panthers went aerial, with Lynch catching a pass for 20 yards to keep the drive alive.
Newtown’s comeback attempt fell short on their next drive when Pomperaug forced a turnover on downs with a defensive stand that included a sack from Dom Creaco.
With five minutes left and a lead to protect, the Panthers returned to the ground game. Starting at midfield, the Panthers converted three third downs on their final drive, two delivered from Lynch and a third from Coughlin for an 11-yard touchdown run.
The victory was sealed when Dougie Mottola intercepted Newtown’s final pass attempt.
Coughlin said after the game that Friday’s 24-7 win was “probably my favorite game I’ve ever played.”
“We put in so much hard work in the offseason,” said Coughlin, praising his teammates. “We have the guys to do it, and it’s just nice to show them all that.”
Newtown’s head coach Daniel Farina said that Pomperaug’s triple-option offense was tough to handle, adding that Coughlin’s reads to pull the football and call his own number made a difference in the game. Newtown faces Greenwich next week on the road.
“They’re a good football team,” Farina said. “The triple option is hard to stop when we don’t tackle who [we’re] supposed to tackle. They did really well on defense tonight and held us to seven points.”
For Pereira, the theme of the season continues to be earning respect. With Pomperaug having lost the last 12 matchups with Newtown – and being outscored 424-52 in the process – Pereira continues to tell his team that it’s no one’s job to give them respect, but, “it is our job to earn it.”
And what about the bench-hopping celebration?
“That was just my Pomperaug blood coming through,” Pereira said.
Pomperaug will face off against Bunnell on Friday, at 6:30 p.m. as the visiting team.
By Evan Triantafilidis
