The New Britain defense tackles Drew Grenier. Photo: Dave Burnham, www.esnapsport.wordpress.com
Mistakes Prove Costly for Newington Indians
NEWINGTON - The celebration by the New Britain football fans quickly dissipated Friday, Nov. 14, as Veteran’s Stadium grew somber late in the fourth quarter of the match up with neighboring rival Newington.

       Their joy from seeing the ‘Canes turn Karrell Largent’s interception of Jake Hedberg into Kyshawn Gunn’s one-yard scoring lunge evaporated into the cold night air as emergency medical personnel tended to NHS junior Dante Phillips as he lay motionless on the artificial turf. After immobilizing Phillips, who had gone up to try and block the conversion kick, on a backboard, they whisked him away with 1:16 left on the game clock and the host ‘Canes comfortably ahead, 26-14.

       With players having taken a knee on the sidelines, the clock ran down and the firing of a cannon signaled the end of the game, which brought Newington’s record to 5-5 and the ‘Canes to 7-3.

       NHS head coach Eric Hennessy confirmed Saturday that Phillips, who plays on the offensive and defensive line, â€"is fine. Everything checked out. Dante was released from the hospital, so we got good news, though he’s going to be sore for a few days.”

       The bad news for the Indians, who are idle until they finish the season at home Wednesday, Nov. 26, at 6:30 p.m., is that their last chance for a winning season comes at home against the 10-0 Wethersfield Eagles.

       The multi-weaponed and potent WHS offense averages 39.2 points per game, while its equally talented and stingy defense yields a meager 7.8 ppg. The Eagles total a quartet of shut-outs and have tallied 41 or more points in six games. The Indians score an average of 20.5 ppg, which is just over 2.0 ppg more than they concede.

       â€"We’re .500 and we have one game left. It’s really up to this team how we want to end the season,” said Hennessy. â€"Do we want to have six wins or do we want to have five? We have one opportunity in front of us to have a winning season and it’s against our rival.

       â€"We’ve had opportunities throughout the year to beat some good teams--like Manchester and Glastonbury. Those were one-score deficits for us and one-score victories for them. We just didn’t take advantage. We’re a size L school playing in an LL conference--probably the best LL conference in the state. It would’ve been nice if we could’ve gotten to the playoffs because we’d match up well with some of the schools out there.”

       After the Newington defense held the ‘Canes to three plays and out to start the game, the Indians’ offense self-destructed on its first possession by committing four penalties.

       â€"Our first drive was embarrassing,” Hennessy said. â€"Play-wise, that was some of our more successful drives on the night, but we had penalties that backed us up.”

       The Indians’ defense picked up its offensive counterparts when senior Joram Sanchez snuffed out the ‘Canes’ next drive by intercepting Marcus Torres to give Newington great field position on the New Britain 15. Hedberg delivered a swift response, needing just one play to turn Newington’s second possession into a 7-0 lead by connecting with sophomore wide receiver Isaac Ortiz.

       The ‘Canes missed a 28-yard field goal in the second quarter before using a nearly 5:00 drive to tally the equalizer as Torres found a waiting Elvin Silva in the end zone with a 21-yard scoring strike for the 7-7 halftime deadlock.

       The Indians erased a 13-7 deficit with 7:04 left in the game after senior Drew Grenier forced Torres to fumble a punt return, with the subsequent recovery putting the visitors in good stead at the New Britain 38. After Torres broke up a Hedberg pass, the senior signal caller authored a deep completion down the sidelines to Ortiz before hitting wide receiver Jorge Rivera with an eight-yard toss that gave the Indians their second and last lead.

       A pass interference call--one of many penalties that plagued the Indians on both sides of the ball--on an uncatchable ball on third and long proved costly late in the final quarter. Torres, who stepped into the quarterback position when Charles Gaskins injured his throwing hand at Glastonbury Nov. 7, capped the drive with his second of three rushing touchdowns to push New Britain to the 19-14 advantage. The diminutive Torres, who logged plenty of playing time on offense, defense and special teams, finished the game with 199 yards rushing and passed for 81 yards and a TD.

       â€"The bottom fell out on us. With three or four minutes left in the game, things just backfired on us,” said Hennessy. â€"The offense didn’t help out the defense very much. Sometimes Jake looked great and sometimes he struggled. The defense set us up in good situations but our offense just wasn’t able to answer.

       â€"Defensive backs Joram Sanchez, Kyle Armour and Mathias Smith had great nights for us. Defensive tackle Jordan Allen has done a great job for us all season. He has a lot of hits in the backfield and causes constant problems for teams running the ball,” Hennessy said.
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