Late Goal Propels Girls To Victory
Newtown High School’s girls’ soccer team had a tie and pair of one-goal decisions — a win and a loss — during a mini stretch of competitive games as the calendar turned from September to October.
The Nighthawks edged visiting New Fairfield 2-1 at Blue & Gold Stadium on October 1. Ana Morris headed the ball home off a long free kick from Maddy Gioiele with ten minutes to go in the first half. New Fairfield scored early in the second off a miscommunication by Newtown’s defense, but with two minutes left to go Gioiele had another free kick chance; this time the ball rattled around in front of the goal and popped perfectly to Lyla Kopp who smashed home the game winner.
Newtown was coming off a 1-0 setback to visiting Brookfield in a nonconference game (the second meeting of the season between the South-West Conference foes) on September 28. This was a back-and-forth game, very similar to the first matchup, also a 1-0 Brookfield win, NHS Coach Adam Bourret said. “This time, they scored off a corner kick that was headed in with 15 minutes to play. Our opportunities to tie the game late were thwarted,” the coach added.
Bourret’s Hawks finished a September 26 visit to New Milford in a scoreless tie. “We didn’t play our best but controlled the game — couldn’t put home our opportunities. New Milford did a great job defensively,” the coach said.
NHS will visit Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport Saturday, October 5 at noon and returns to Blue & Gold Tuesday, October 8 to take on Stratford in a 6 pm contest.