October 6 was quite a night for the Newtown High School field hockey program, which used adjustments to find its goal-scoring ways on the field and raised money for breast cancer awareness off the field. The Nighthawks put four consecutive games without a goal behind them with an early strike and a second-half finish on the way to a 2-0 blanking of Weston, at Blue & Gold Stadium.

The players wore pink socks in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Fundraising efforts by player families, including donations, raffles, and concessions, pulled in about $1,600, which will be donated to both the American Cancer Society/Making Strides Against Breast Cancer and to Play 4 The Cure.

Against Weston, Reese Lischuk was assisted by Shannon Hegarty on a play also set up by Summer Harrell, only a few minutes from the start, and Annika Bozentko was assisted by Harrell in the second half.

“This was a competitive game. We played one of our best offensive games we’ve played,” said Coach John Savage, adding that the team did a good job of moving the ball up the field from the defense through the midfield to the attack.

Some lineup adjustments led to Newtown’s newfound offense. Savage moved center midfielder and slick stick-handler Summer Harrell up top, a risky move leaving big shoes to fill in a challenging offense/defense midfield position — but a move that paid off with Harrell factoring in on both tallies. Jenna Lagan slid up from defense to fill that center mid void. “Jenna made a big adjustment. She’s doing a good job,” Savage said.

“He’s doing what he can to make the team better and it’s working out well,” Harrell said of the Newtown coach’s efforts.

Strong defense has been there all along, led by goaltender Riley Alesevich, behind the back line of sweeper Jules Battaglia as well as Brooke Bulkley, Nella Walsh, and Mo Murphy. Culminating with the Weston game, Newtown held seven straight opponents to one or no goals.

“I’m really happy with the progress of these kids,” Savage said after the win over Weston.

Newtown fell 2-1 at Branford on October 8 and edged host Brookfield 3-2 on October 11. The Hawks carried a record of 4-5-2-1 and 4-1-1-1 in South-West Conference action (wins, losses, ties, overtime losses) into the final four regular-season tilts. Harrell scored twice and Rachael Albrecht had a goal against Brookfield. Murphy and Hegarty had the assists. Bulkley played stellar defense and Alesevich made six saves of which three were game savers, Savage said.

The breast cancer awareness efforts are important to all, and hit close to home for some involved in the program.

“Just getting to come out here and play for a bigger cause than field hockey is awesome,” Harrell said.

“I think it’s very important. So many people support us and I feel like we should support other things,” Lagan added.

Kris Powers, who has two children on the team — Alison and Jessica — has been impacted significantly by breast cancer.

“I’ve lost friends and, most recently, my mom went through breast cancer treatment. Her prognosis is good so we’re all very positive, but it’s a terrible disease,” said Powers, adding that it is encouraging to see the progress that has been made with treatment.

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