Things are not always as they seem, look beneath the surface, don’t take things at face value.

Pick your cliché, they all apply to Newtown High School’s field hockey team when it comes to its hard-fought losses against strong competition. The Nighthawks, on October 8, suffered their third shutout loss to an out-of-conference opponent; the second by the slimmest of margins, ending with a 1-0 score courtesy of the Ridgefield Tigers out of the FCIAC.

Newtown, unbeaten — and scored upon only once — in five South-West Conference games heading into Wednesday’s clash with Brookfield (after The Bee sports section went to press), is all but losing by design with a purpose.

Well, that is a bit of a stretch, as the Nighthawks never want to fall short, but they have lined up some tough competition (even out of state with Mamaroneck, N.Y., handing them a 3-0 setback), with the end goal that these games will prepare them for the best of the conference and, ultimately being the best in the conference.

“I want to push the limit in our nonconference games because it’s only going to make us better for the conference games,” Newtown Coach Ellen Goyda said. “I want to come back with that championship banner we didn’t get last year.”

A season ago, the Hawks won all of their regular season games only to lose to eventual SWC North Division champion New Milford in the coronavirus-altered postseason.

The Nighthawks, who posted a dramatic 2-1 win over Trumbull and lost 1-0 to Branford in other nonconference tilts this fall, still have one left. They will host Greenwich which, for record and for what it’s worth, beat Mamaroneck 2-1 and lost to Ridgefield 4-3 in overtime, on October 23. Sounds like another tough game coming up.

Newtown did get a nice taste of victory two days before the Ridgefield contest, posting a 5-0 triumph. Reagan Schoen and Erin Shah both scored twice, Shannon Kelleher had a goal and an assist, and Izzy Butler and Maddy Twitchell both notched a pair of assists. The Hawks beat Brookfield 7-1 on October 13 (read about that game in the October 22 edition of The Bee).

As much fun as it may be for the Nighthawks players to pile up goals and win games, those low-scoring nail-biters only stand to better position the Nighthawks for playoff success, Goyda believes.

“They know why they’re doing this and they understand,” Goyda said.

“It really prepares us for other teams in our conference. We play up to their level,” said Schoen, a forward, who was double-teamed by Ridgefield for much of the night.

Goyda liked her team’s effort in the loss. The Tigers intercepted passes and kept pressure on Newtown’s defensive end for much of the night, finishing with a 6-3 advantage in penalty corners and a decisive edge in scoring chances. Newtown goaltender Cailyn Sullivan made eight saves to give the Hawks a chance. Sweeper Maggie LaBanca also stood tall in the back

“Ridgefield is a really good, polished team,” the coach said. “They’re just a solid team, they’re a fast team, they’re disciplined — aggressive. They cut off every shot pass we attempted to make and they got the better of us. But I’m proud of us. This is a prep game for a team like Pomperaug.”

Pomperaug of Southbury lost only twice in its first nine games, both in overtime. NHS and Pomperaug had an earlier October game rescheduled; it will finish off the regular slate Monday, October 25, when they meet at Treadwell Park starting at 4 pm.

Then, it is on to the playoffs. And that is when, Goyda hopes, her team’s overall record proves somewhat deceptive and those losses pay off in the form of a big win and the program’s first SWC title since 2016.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.