It's been feast or famine for Newtown High School's boys' soccer team, which has either won with ease or lost close games or settled for ties when not coming out on top.

A 5-0 win over visiting Masuk of Monroe, highlighted by Jack Oltran's natural hat-trick (three goals in a row) to begin the game, on October 7, is the kind of performance the Nighthawks have had on multiple occasions this fall. Newtown has won by three or more goals a trio of times, but has also struggled to pull out the nail-biters. This includes the two games that sandwiched the Masuk blowout - a 1-0 loss at Pomperaug of Southbury on October 5 and a scoreless deadlock with Joel Barlow of Redding, at Blue & Gold Stadium, on October 10.

Neither outcome sat well with Newtown Coach Brian Neumeyer, whose team stands at 4-3-4 overall.

"We've scored goals. It just seems like when we're dry, we're dry," Neumeyer said after the Barlow contest, one in which his team had the better of the scoring chances, piling up numerous first-half chances but settling for its fourth draw of the campaign. "I just think when you get that many opportunities you've got to figure out a way to score."

Neumeyer was even more frustrated with the outcome of the Pomperaug game since Newtown had an even more decisive advantage in opportunities, peppering 18 shots toward the goal, only to come away empty-handed.

The Nighthawks believe they need to find a way to pull out these close ones especially come playoff time, when the margin of victory typically is slim.

"We just need to come together more as a team and play with more intensity. We need to really step up our game," Oltran said.

Oltran and the Nighthawks will look to build off their performance against Masuk. Oltran scored twice to give the Nighthawks a 2-0 halftime lead, and netted the first tally of the second half - all three goals were unassisted - before Brendan O'Hara cashed in on a penalty kick and Mike Meyer headed in a corner kick feed from Shane Gattey to cap the onslaught.

"It was a good feeling. I was happy to score three goals - it was a big boost for the team," said Oltran, adding that the Nighthawks built momentum and got contributions from throughout the lineup to pull away.

"It was a good win for us. We came out hungry, big crowd, and I think they were jazzed up - ready to play," Neumeyer said.

The Hawks have four regular-season games remaining, beginning with a Tuesday, October 18 visit from Stratford to Blue & Gold Stadium, beginning at 7 pm.