Boys’ Booters Taking Care Of Business In Soft Part Of Schedule

By Andy Hutchison

Playing for home field advantage in the first round of the South-West Conference Tournament, Newtown High School’s boys’ soccer team has picked up wins the coaches and players expected to get considering the part of the schedule they are in as the season winds down.

The Nighthawks, after a tough 1-0 loss to Brookfield on October 10, earned three consecutive shutout victories with ease against weaker SWC opponents Notre Dame-Fairfield, Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport, and Oxford, heading into Thursday’s home clash with a competitive 6-6-1 Immaculate of Danbury team (after The Bee went to press).

Newtown improved to 8-2-3 this fall and has put itself in good position to host an SWC quarterfinal round game as one of the top four seeds when the tourney kicks off October 26 or 27.

“Hopefully these games will help us with that,” Newtown Coach Brian Neumeyer said. “We want to come out of this uninjured, healthy — with a little bit of momentum going into the last part of the season.”

A makeup game against one-win Notre Dame made an already easy portion of the schedule that much softer. Newtown capitalized with a 3-0 win behind goals by Matt Mossbarger, Charlie Poarch, and Charlie Helgren on October 12. The next day winless Kolbe came to Blue & Gold Stadium and was overmatched from the start in a 6-0 NHS triumph. Connor Quinn scored twice, and Eric Fiore, Noah Sock, Drew Sullivan, and Nick Barreto also hit the net. Sullivan and Barreto both scored on long-range free kicks — soaring shots into the top portion of the net.

Against two-win Oxford on Monday, Newtown won 2-0 and finished with a decisive shots advantage. NHS racked up 14 shots and Newtown goalkeeper Elijah Klorczyk had to make just one save. Logan Puleri and Helgren scored.

The Nighthawks expect to win, but still have something to prove in there mismatches.

“We want to still play really well — do the little things correctly,” Neumeyer said.

“We still like to go hard and we just like to keep the ball as much as we can,” said Fiore, who in addition to scoring, added a pair of assists against Kolbe.

And the Nighthawks know it is important not to look past the opposition — regardless of how tough it is not to.

“You have to focus. If you’re not focused you don’t have control of the game,” said Mergim Bajraliu, who assisted Sock’s tally in the win over Kolbe. “You always have to have the urgency.”

The final three games of the regular season are against competitive squads. Immaculate carried a 6-6-1 mark into Thursday’s scheduled clash. NHS will face nonconference foe Valley Regional on Saturday, October 20, at 7 pm, and close out the year at Pomperaug of Southbury on October 22. Valley Regional is unbeaten. Pomperaug had lost only to Joel Barlow (one of two teams to defeat Newtown) and Immaculate, and tied Brookfield.