Steve Bigham

The Newtown High boys’ soccer team survived a lackluster performance Tuesday afternoon for a 3-0 win over Foran at Treadwell Park. The locals, now 10-1, may have been looking ahead to Friday night’s showdown at powerhouse Masuk in Monroe.

Foran (1-10-1) represents the bottom of the South-West Conference. However, the Nighthawks were unable to break the game wide open . . . although the outcome was never in question.

“We didn’t have the intensity that you need to hold on to the ball,” said coach Brian Neumeyer. “It was difficult not to think ahead to the end of the week. Even if you tell them, it’s still very tough to do.”

 Newtown opened the scoring 14 minutes into the first half when freshman Jake Rouse scored off a pass from sophomore Colin Armstrong. Ten minutes later, Brendan Cavanaugh hit paydirt when Andrew Smith centered him the ball on a semi breakaway. TJ Wolferseder closed out the scoring with a put back at the 39-minute mark of the first half. Cavanaugh was credited with the assist.

Tom Malloy and Bryan Shanahan combined for the shutout in goal. Brian Gossling re-injured his ankle and remains day-to-day.

Newtown put together one of its finest performances of the year last Friday in a 5-0 win at Jonathan Law in Milford. “We came out and played from the first whistle to the 80th minute. Everyone got involved and we played very quickly,” Neumeyer said.

 The Nighthawks, who have outscored their opponents 36-5 this year, scored their goals in a variety of ways. Rouse opened the scoring five minutes in on a fine pass from Gossling, who beat his defender down the left side, then pushed it to Rouse for the score.

Rob Weiss made it 2-0 at the 11:37 mark off a corner kick from Wolferseder. At 22 minutes, Cavanaugh scored on a pass from Rich Engel. Two minutes later, Gossling scored on a breakaway off an assist from Malloy. Newtown’s senior goalie came out to the top of the box for the save, then booted the ball over the heads of the Law defender to an open Gossling, who used his speed to sail in for the goal.

Senior Adam Gruendig closed out the scoring at the 70th minute with his first varsity goal off an assist from fellow senior Ben Kugielsky.

“Right after that I took all the seniors off the field and put on all underclassmen. It gave me an opportunity to see what I’ll have out there next year,” said Neumeyer. “I thought we looked pretty good.”

Engel scored a pair of goals October 13 for a 2-0 win at Bunnell of Stratford. The first score came 17:53 into the first half on a pass from defenseman Scott Walrath. Engel managed to chest it down and beat the keeper. Goal number two came at the 58-minute mark off a feed from Wolferseder.

At 10-1, the Nighthawks have now won seven matches in a row since losing to Joel Barlow in the second week. With four regular season matches to go, Neumeyer feels his team must win three of them in order to qualify “comfortably” for the four-team SWC playoffs, which are slated to begin November 3. The showdown with Masuk begins at 7 pm Friday in Monroe. The Panthers upped their record Tuesday night with a 1-0 win over Bethel, which has suddenly dropped to 7-3-1, and may struggle to make the playoffs.

Also on Tuesday, Joel Barlow (now 9-1-1) finished in a 0-0 tie against New Milford (7-3-1). Newtown’s remaining games included a home matchup with Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport (8-1-1) next Tuesday. The locals head to Pomperaug (7-2-1) in Southbury next Friday before closing out at home against Immaculate November 1.