Newtown High School’s field hockey team earned its first win of the season, a 3-1 victory at Masuk of Monroe on September 10, then avenged its first loss of the campaign with a 2-0 blanking of Brookfield in a rematch, at Blue & Gold Stadium on September 16.

The Nighthawks, heading into a September 18 clash with Immaculate of Danbury, began the year with a 2-2 record. The Hawks bounced back from a season-opening 2-0 loss at Brookfield on September 9 to defeat Masuk the next day. They got goals from Brianna Scalfani, Emily Campbell, and Caroline Tanner. Lauren Zimmerman and Megan Kelleher had assists.

“We played good field hockey. Our passes were pristine,” said Newtown Coach Stephanie Paproski, whose team kept the ball on Masuk’s end of the grass field throughout much of the afternoon. “Today we came back and we played together, and I think there were a lot of connections on the field — all the way through the defense, through the midfielders, and through the offense.”

Teamwork was the name of the game for the Nighthawks in this winning effort.

“What helped us was keeping our sticks on the ground — really getting the ball stick to stick, passing,” said captain and defender Brooke Hadgraft, adding that the team hopes to build off this momentum. “I’m really excited to see where it takes us.”

In their next game, the Nighthawks again allowed just one goal, but couldn’t put the ball into the opposing cage in a 1-0 setback at Joel Barlow of Redding on September 12.

The Hawks took advantage of a second chance to beat Brookfield in their homer opener, under the lights, and came through with a pair of second-half goals off the sticks of Zimmerman and Tanner.

Newtown will visit Watertown in a nonconference game at 6:30 pm on September 23, the first of a trio of consecutive road contests before returning home to renew acquaintances with Masuk for a 7 pm game at Blue & Gold on October 1.

After visiting Bethel on October 7, the Hawks will get another chance against Barlow when the Falcons come to Blue & Gold for an October 9 battle — the first of a half-dozen straight home contests scheduled for the Nighthawks to end the regular campaign.That stretch of games ends with yet another rematch battle when Bethel visits on October 22.