Sure, Newtown High School’s girls’ soccer team — which came into the campaign with a fairly inexperienced varsity lineup — has had a pretty nice go of it thus far, matching its win total of a year ago with five victories in as many games to start its 2015 season. But there were plenty of positives to be found in a 3-1 loss at Immaculate of Danbury on October 8. Although this setback extended the Nighthawks’ winless skid to six (including a pair of ties), Coach Marc Kenney had nothing but good things to say about his squad after Thursday’s game ended.

“The takeaway here has to be — this is a good effort, now this has to be the standard going forward,” said Kenney, who also said he thought his team worked hard consistently, from the opening kick until the final whistle.

“We were much better than we were [in a 2-0 loss to Joel Barlow of Redding in October 6], in terms of effort, in terms of physicality, in terms of taking chances,” the coach added.

Immaculate, which Kenney notes has a senior-led lineup, won more of the battles to 50-50 balls and used its speed to turn a scoreless game at the half into its tenth consecutive win to start the season. The Nighthawks hustled to not make things easy for an Immaculate squad that has scored three or more goals in six if its ten games thus far.

“We did a good job dealing with their speed; we did a good job dealing with their physicality,” Kenney said.

The fact the Nighthawks hung in there with the unbeaten Mustangs was all the more impressive under the circumstances, the coach noted.

This was Immaculate’s Senior Night, making for an enthusiastic home crowd and, thus, a tough atmosphere on the road for the Hawks. What’s more, Immaculate High’s home field (Mustang Valley), doesn’t have light fixtures. The school brought in ten temporary generator-powered light stanchions which, while sufficiently lighting the field, were not nearly as high as the permanent lights the Nighthawks (and Mustangs for that matter) are used to.

Add to all of this the fact a late bus and traffic caused the Nighthawks to arrive late for warmups and Kenney was pleased with how his team adapted to the various unfamiliar circumstances. For Newtown’s coach, this was somewhat of a sampling of what his team will encounter come playoff time given the teams don’t know, often until the day or two before playing, who their opponent will be, or where they’ll be playing in the South-West Conference and state tournaments.

“That’s what the playoffs are about — reacting appropriately to whatever is thrown at you, and we did well with that today,” Kenney said.

In addition to all of the unusual elements, a really tough foe was put in Newtown’s way.

“That’s what we’re going to face going forward in the SWC and state tournament — assuming we’re going to make it,” Kenney acknowledged.

The Mustangs broke the scoreless stalemate less than three minutes into the second half, and tacked on two more goals before the Nighthawks put one in the back of the net. The Hawks, even after finding themselves in a three-goal hole, didn’t give up.

Sophomore Sarah Houle, with about 11 minutes remaining, made a nice move in the left corner before crossing the ball into the 18-yard box, but the Mustangs cleared the ball. The Hawks kept pressing, and one of the team’s many newcomers — freshman Carly Swierbut — scored with 3:02 remaining. Newtown kept pressuring the Mustangs, amidst chants from the home crowd about the win being eminent, until the clock ran out.

The Immaculate game may have helped make the Hawks playoff-ready, but this team has already proven it can win tight, postseason-like contests. All but one of Newtown’s wins were one-goal outcomes decided in the finals minutes or seconds; and both of the team’s ties were earned in comeback style with a late-game equalizer.

The Nighthawks still have five regular-season games remaining, and the schedule seems to be a bit more forgiving down the stretch, at least in terms of the win-loss records of Newtown’s opponents. Beginning with a Tuesday, October 13 battle with Stratford, at Blue & Gold Stadium, under the lights at 7 o’clock, the Hawks (5-4-2 overall) face three opponents in consecutive games that have combined to win less games than Newtown has to this point.

Stratford and Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport, whom the Nighthawks are slated to visit on October 15, beginning at 3:45 pm, have one win apiece; and nonconference team Torrington, which will host the Hawks on October 17, at 11 am, has two victories. Newtown closes out the season with four straight road contests, ending with visits to Notre Dame-Fairfield and Bethel, October 18 and 20, at 3:45 and 4 pm, respectively. Notre Dame won four of its first nine games through the first week of October, and Bethel had logged five wins in its first ten.