After a tough 2-1 loss to visiting Masuk of Monroe at Blue & Gold Stadium on October 6, Newtown High School’s boys’ soccer team members listened to their coach talk about the importance of earning wins in upcoming games.

“If we do not collect points we will not make the SWC tournament,” he told them.

Newtown entered an October 8 scheduled game with Joel Barlow of Redding with eight points — tied with Immaculate of Danbury for 11th in the South-West Conference and just three points behind Notre Dame-Fairfield, which holds the eighth and final playoff spot. Between them are Bethel (ten points) and now Masuk, which leapfrogged the Nighthawks into tenth place with nine points.

Teams earn three points for wins and one point for each tie in conference play. Heading into their final five conference games — not knowing how the competition will do in other contests — the Hawks seemingly need as many victories as they can get just to climb into contention to be among the top eight.

“Now we just need wins. Every game now we don’t get points makes the next game more important,” said senior captain Clay Gattey, who scored on a long-range shot to tie the score with Masuk at 1-1 early in the second half.

The Hawks appeared poised to earn an ever-important win in this matchup, as they applied heavy pressure on the Panthers’ goal. Blake Jarvis worked hard to keep control of the ball as he worked into the 18-yard box despite heavy pressure from defenders. He drew a foul and was awarded a penalty kick with 17:31 to play. Jarvis was denied on Masuk goalkeeper Kyle Kalotai’s diving stop.

The Panthers, perhaps fueled by their keeper’s save, brought the ball in for a good chance to reclaim the lead only 30 seconds later. A shot sailed over the top, and the score remained tied — although not for too long.

The Panthers weathered a Newtown barrage with about a dozen minutes to play. NHS keeper Alex Daignault made a nice save of his own before the Panthers cashed in on a deflection off a long-range free kick with 4:57 left.

Newtown has displayed signs of looking like a playoff team, including in a 2-1 win at Pomperaug of Southbury on October 2 — a game in which Gattey and Albert Dean each hit the back of the net. But there’s been no winning streak; Newtown has twice followed up wins with ties.

The Nighthawks went all the way to the conference championship game before losing to Brookfield last fall. The new-look lineup following the graduation of several key players will need to improve quickly for a chance at getting back to the big game.

“We need to be consistently good and we need to try to put games away,” Neumeyer said. “I think we need to just kind of figure out a better way to get this going.”

The Hawks entered the middle of the week at 3-4-2 overall (2-4-2 in SWC play). Remaining games, after the Barlow clash, are against Immaculate, Stratford, Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport, and Notre Dame-Fairfield. The regular season ends with a rematch against Barlow in what is recognized as a nonconference battle.

Heading into the stretch run, the competition may not be as overall tough as it was in the first few weeks, but only Kolbe (with just one point) is behind NHS in the standings.

Barlow is in third place, Stratford is tied with Pomperaug for sixth place, and Notre Dame is tied with Weston for fourth.