Boys’ Booters Go Into Playoffs Peaking, Winners Of Six Straight Games

By Andy Hutchison

Nothing like a winning streak to get a team feeling confident as it heads into the playoffs. Newtown High School’s boys’ soccer team reeled off six straight victories to close out the regular campaign. The Nighthawks, in doing so, won the conference’s Colonial Division title and earned the second seed in the South-West Conference playoffs as well as a boost of confidence in their game play.

The Nighthawks earned five straight shutouts, capped by consecutive 2-0 wins over Immaculate of Danbury on October 18 and Valley Regional two days later. They edged Pomperaug in Southbury 2-1 on Monday to conclude the regular season at 12-2-2.

With the second seed, NHS earned a quarterfinal round home game and will take on either Pomperaug or Masuk of Monroe, the latter of which the Hawks defeated 4-1 earlier this season. The playoffs get underway on Friday, October 26 (Blue & Gold Stadium at 6 pm). Pomperaug trailed fourth-place Masuk by just a point in the conference standings heading into its last game, against a four-win Stratford team, on Thursday (after The Bee went to press). Regardless of which team NHS faces, the Hawks believe they are in good position to at least be a threat.

“I think we’re kind of hitting our stride now at the end of the season,” senior captain Eric Fiore said after scoring an unassisted goal in the win over Immaculate. “We’re going to kind of ride this wave into the playoffs.”

“We played, I think, really well tonight — possessional soccer,” added Coach Brian Neumeyer, who saw Connor Quinn bang home short-range shot off a corner kick setup from Nick Barreto to extend Newtown’s lead to 2-0 over Immaculate.

Immaculate mustered just one shot, a late-game clank off the crossbar, in a game otherwise dominated by the Hawks. Newtown kept up the strong play in the win over previously unbeaten Valley Regional as NHS goalkeeper Elijah Klorczyk had to make just one save. Pat Riccardi and Nathan Kalra found the net and Fiore earned an assist.

In the win over Pomperaug Newtown generated nine shots, Klorzcyk made two saves, and Riccardi and Charlie Helgren scored. Brenton Scott and Matt Mossbarger had assists.

The Nighthawks strive to control the ball and wait for their opportunities, something they’ve been able to do with regularity down the stretch. So what will it take to be successful in the postseason?

“I think just what we’ve been doing all year — just a little bit of patience, good soccer, commitment to win, and if we continue those trends we’ll be fine,” Neumeyer said. “We want to go into it relaxed, just healthy and in the right frame of mind. I think if we do those things we could work ourselves to where we want to be — and that’s the final.”

The championship game would be in front of the home crowd, on Newtown’s home turf on November 1, since Newtown High’s Blue & Gold Stadium is host to the boys’ and girls’ championships this fall. First things first. Newtown has to survive its quarterfinal round game, then a semifinal round test that will take place at neutral site Pomperaug on October 30.

“It’s always a challenge. There’s no expectation to win but we feel confident going into the tournament,” Neumeyer said.

Newtown lost only to Brookfield, which earned the four-team tourney’s third seed, and top-seeded and unbeaten Joel Barlow of Redding.