Members of Newtown High School’s field hockey team have certainly had an exciting week, and they will try to keep it going in the playoffs. The Nighthawks earned a berth in the South-West Conference Tournament, getting in as the eighth and final seed of the bracket, and capped off the regular season with a dramatic overtime win over Joel Barlow of Redding on Senior Night on October 22.
Newtown High School’s girls’ and boys’ cross country teams competed in the South-West Conference championship meet on a warm-for-the-season October 17 afternoon. The Nighthawks and their SWC rivals ran the 5K race on the scenic trails behind Bethel High School and, after climbing the steep hill affectionately known as “The Beast,” came to the finish line on the school track.
Newtown High School’s football team has four games remaining before the scheduled SWC championship game on November 21. In three consecutive years, Newtown and Masuk of Monroe have carried the best conference records into that week and, thus, the championship game has been pushed back a week and annual Thanksgiving Eve clash between the foes has become the winner-takes-all game (and no game was played in the preceding week).
There’s nothing like a good start for any team to build momentum. In volleyball, a sport in which teams get fresh start after start with restarts after sometimes dozens of points in as many as five games in a match, momentum shifts occur numerous times. It all begins with the serve, and that first hit is serving Newtown High School’s girls’ spikers well this fall.
As the regular season gives way to the postseason, Newtown High School girls’ swimming and diving Coach Zach Gauvin couldn’t be more pleased with the direction in which his team is headed. The Nighthawks have been increasing yardage in practices, yet event times have been dropping in meets.
Not a whole lot — in terms of points — separates the fourth- through eighth-seeded teams in the upcoming South-West Conference tournament. And not much — in terms of head-to-head competition — differentiates the Newtown High School’s girls’ soccer squad from any of the top teams. The Nighthawks, however, will have to go on the road and pull off an upset of sorts to make it through the Saturday, October 26, quarterfinal round.
The Newtown High School boys’ soccer team faced off against Pomeraug of Southbury in a battle for second place in the South-West Conference, at Blue & Gold Stadium on October 17. The two teams got together for Newtown’s senior night in the last regular season home game for the Nighthawks. Newtown came out victorious, 2-0.
You can take the Newtown High School football team out of conference, but you can’t take the domination out of the Nighthawks. The Hawks made it look easy once again, clobbering host Wolcott 56-14 under the lights on a crisp October 18 evening in a rare nonconference clash. It marked the second straight game in which the Hawks racked up 56 points, who previously beat South-West Conference foe New Milford 56-13. Newtown improved to 6-0 and Wolcott, which plays in the Naugatuck Valley League, fell to 4-2.
Newtown High School’s girls’ soccer team — just as it did during the previous Thursday through Tuesday stretch — had a win, loss, and tie this past week. The Nighthawks, following a scoreless deadlock with Lauralton Hall of Milford on October 10, clobbered Oxford 6-2 two days later, then fell 2-0 to Immaculate at Blue & Gold Stadium on October 15.
Halloween isn’t here just yet but there have been tricks — hat-tricks for both Clay Gattey and Charlie Poarch in a 6-1 win at Immaculate of Danbury on October 14 — and treats — four lopsided wins over conference foes to begin the month of October — for Newtown High School’s boys’ soccer team.
