By Michael Guerrera The Southington Citizen Southington High’s football season can be de­scribed as a Shakespearean play – tragic, heart-wrench­ing, and leaving you hoping for more.

After another tough three­point loss to Simsbury the previous week, their third loss of the year, all by the same margin, there is always uncertainty when dealing with a group of teenagers. But for the Blue Knights, on the football field, that ques­tion never even seemed to be an issue.

“Even through some ad­versity and some bad bounces and other things, we just kept fighting and that’s the greatest thing ever and I’m really proud of them,” Mella said after his team’s 32­21 win over Newington a week ago.

That adversity Mella talks about happened early with a 44-yard touchdown run by Newington’s Jeremy Ro­driquez to get the Indians on the board first at 8:03 in the first quarter. But Southing­ton answered back with two scores of their own in the first frame.

However, adversity reared its head again as Newington tied it at 14 before Southing­ton used a little trickery to get a touchdown to defense­man K.J. Gemmell with 6:47 to go in the first half.

“Sometimes the element of surprise can be your greatest weapon,” Mella said of Gem­mell’s score. Newington grabbed the lead again after converting an extra point following a 45­yard run with 9:35 to go in the third quarter. Southing­ton could have lay down, but two more Blue Knight touch­downs and a tough defense led the Knights to the victory. One of the defensive stars, Joe Pesce, had four sacks.

“I got to give credit to my DBs,” Pesce said. “They were sitting in coverage and (the quarterback) was just kind of sitting there and coach blitzed me and allowed me to get those sacks.”

“That was fun watching him tonight,” Mella said of Pesce. “Him being able to make (sacks) is because of the d-lineman in front of him and the support behind him. And he’s just an athletic, go­get- it kid.”

The defense played for its second-straight week with­out senior, captain, line­backer Jake Rodriques, who is out for the rest of the year with an injury. Pesce talked about the loss of their defen­sive leader.

“We miss him,” he said. “Especially being our cap­tain, our heart and soul. It was tough not having him.”

They got contributions in different areas.

“A lot of young kids stepped up and we just have everyone get in there and do their best and we did tonight,” Pesce said.

Connor Butkiewicz has had a good junior year, but at times has struggled because of good defenses against him. Against Newington, he had a performance similar to the one he had on opening day – when he threw seven touch­down passes – throwing five against Newington for 259 yards.

“I try not to let it get into my head,” Butkiewicz said of the season’s ups and downs. “But I’ve been working hard every week and just trying to get better for this year and for next year. It’s exciting that I have two years left (including this one).”

Tyler Dube, Butkiewicz’s favorite target, was at it again, catching 11 passes for 117 yards and two scores. An­thony Florian was good as well, making another big play as he usually does, with a 46-yard run and catch for a score. He finished with 77 yards on two catches.

Dylan Danko was his usual self: 20 carries for 123 yards.

Now, the challenges lie ahead. Tonight Southington will face undefeated Conard in an interdivisional matchup and then they finish with Cheshire on Thanksgiv­ing, with the chance to play spoiler in both.

“Cheshire ended our sea­son last year and we want to do the same thing to them,” Butkiewicz said. “Conard’s undefeated, so we want to take a win from them and if we do that, that’d be great. 7-3 is a good season.”

As for the head coach’s re­sponse, “It’s outstanding for See Football, page 36

Continued from page 34 our morale, especially going into next week with Conard. They’re a stud,” Mella said.

“A win lets us have a little bit of confidence and confi­dence can move mountains. And we’ll see if we can move Conard Mountain next week,” Mella explained.

The Conard game will be Southington’s final home contest of the year – senior night – and will kickoff at 7 p.m.