It’s no coincidence that Newtown High School’s girls’ soccer team played five ties in their first nine games of the campaign.

“The parity is better than ever,” Newtown Coach Marc Kenney said of his and the other 13 South-West Conference teams, after playing Pomperaug of Southbury to a 2-2 draw at Blue & Gold Stadium on October 3.

After their third straight tie — Hailey Conrad netted Newtown’s lone goal in a 1-1 stalemate with host New Milford on September 30 and the team played Weston to a scoreless battle three days earlier — the Nighthawks stood at 3-1-5 overall this fall.

“They’re a little bit frustrating to an extent, but they’re better than losses,” the coach said of ties.

On one hand, the Nighthawks had only three wins to show for their efforts through the midpoint of the campaign; on the other, they had just one loss — until a 3-1 setback to 9-1 Masuk of Monroe, on the road, on October 6.

Even in that game, Kenney found a bright spot. He noted that his team matched Masuk’s strong play in stretches. The Panthers capitalized on a few Newtown mistakes, overshadowing Sarah Houle’s goal.

“This type of game is certainly going to help us going forward,” said Kenney, whose team went into an October 9 visit to Joel Barlow of Redding with six games remaining before the start of the postseason.

Heading into this week, 11 teams were seriously in contention for one of the eight SWC playoff spots, and points earned in ties have proven to be valuable to the Nighthawks. Teams earn three points for wins and one point for each tie in conference battles. Newtown, Pomperaug, Bethel, New Milford, Joel Barlow, Bunnell of Stratford, and New Fairfield were all clustered within two or three points of each other halfway through the season.

Some of Newtown’s ties have been good ones. Others, including the most recent deadlock — the game with Pomperaug — have been tougher to swallow.

Down 1-0 at the half, Newtown scored twice in the second half thanks to the same combination —Houle assisting Makenna Cerney. Houle, after making a nice move around a defender, clanked a hard blast off the post moments out of the break. Shortly thereafter, she took a long send from Jess Keller, and centered for Cerney, who put a low shot into the back of the net to even the score less than three minutes into the half.

Newtown kept pressing, and Houle lofted a lead pass for Cerney who tapped the ball past Pomperaug’s charging goalkeeper, Morgan Jones, then put the ball in for a lead with 13:17 to play.

“I trust her because she’s fast and she has good skills,” Houle said of Cerney.

“We both can tell where each other’s going to be without saying anything,” Cerney added.

Kenney is thrilled to have these weapons up top, especially with the loss of standout forward Sarah Lynch, a senior, to an injury sustained playing basketball in the offseason.

“Those two — they’re going to be special. One’s only a freshman, and the other a sophomore,” Kenney said of Houle and Cerney, respectively.

The Nighthawks held that 2-1 advantage for nearly the remainder of the game, but the Panthers put together a late surge, suddenly keeping the ball on Newtown’s side of the field, during most of the final seven minutes. Newtown midfielder Nevan Gattey made a stop on the goal line to preserve the lead with just 1:25 to go. The ball bounded over the end line to set up a corner kick, and Maddie Sumple’s kick was one-timed into the goal by Nicole Murphy to knot the score.

“We had it all under control — they were fine,” Kenney said. Then, the coach noted, the team didn’t win some balls out of the air, opening the door for Pomperaug to counterattack and, eventually, set up that corner kick opportunity.

“I think we let one slip away a little bit,” the coach said.

Kenney was pleased with the way his team performed after halftime of that game. “Their fight and their energy and all that stuff was really good in the second half,” he said.

The Nighthawks will have a chance at redemption when they visit Pomperaug in the last game of the regular slate, on October 22.

First things first: After the Barlow contest, Newtown hosts Immaculate of Danbury at Blue & Gold Stadium for a 7 pm game on Saturday, October 11. Then, after a visit to Stratford on October 14, the Hawks host Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport and Notre Dame-Fairfield. Stratford and Kolbe have combined for one win (Stratford’s victory over Kolbe), but the rest of the games look like tough ones on paper. Immaculate and an improved Notre Dame squad each have five wins in SWC play.