Newtown High School's boys' soccer team kicked off the Class LL State Tournament with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory on the road against Southington, on November 8. The Newtown girls dropped a 2-1 decision to visiting Brien McMahon of Norwalk, also in LL play, the next day. Newtown High's field hockey team, seeded 15th in the Class L bracket, defeated No. 18 Conard 4-3 in the qualifying round, on November 7, then traveled to second-seeded Enfield for a first-round clash on November 9. The Nighthawks fell 2-0, ending a season highlighted by a South-West Conference championship.

In the boys' soccer game, Jack Oltran scored twice in the second half to help the No. 18 Nighthawks defeat No. 15 Southington after falling behind 1-0 at the intermission. Elliott Bennett assisted the first goal, and Mike Meyer had the helper on the second net-finder. Newtown goalkeeper CJ Trivers had 15 saves.

"That was awesome," Newtown Coach Brian Neumeyer said of his team's efforts to come back on the road. "They just came out and we did everything we needed to do - a gut-check type thing."

With the triumph, the Nighthawks earned a second-round battle with unbeaten Greenwich, the No. 2 seed in the bracket. The game is scheduled to be played in Greenwich on Thursday, November 10, beginning at 2 pm.

On the girls' pitch, things started off looking bright for the eighth-seeded Nighthawks as they controlled the possession game against No. 25 McMahon only to enter into the half scoreless.

Great second-half chances were generated by Sarah Houle, Emma Curtis, and Makenna Cerney, the latter of whom was robbed on a diving save by McMahon goalkeeper Tatiana Arias after Cerney received a send from Karsen Pirone down the right wing and moved in alone on the McMahon keeper less than 15 minutes into the half.

Finally, with 17:20 remaining in regulation, Houle scored from a step or two inside the 18-yard box, from the left side, after collecting the ball and making a move on a defender following a cross from Julia Sughrue.

Newtown goalkeeper Megan Doyle came up with a save with ten-plus minutes remaining, but the Senators got even on a goal by Sophia Tarasidis with 6:27 to go.

The game went into extra play, with a pair of ten-minute overtime periods separating the teams from penalty kicks. In the first OT period, Cerney made a nice cutback move to get a clean look, but again was robbed by a diving Arias.

In the second overtime, Jane Maston got behind the Newtown defense and put home the eventual game-winner, with just 3:20 remaining.

The Nighthawks fought feverishly to score in the waning minutes and narrowly missed three times. Curtis used her speed to create an opportunity that Arias knocked over the top bar, setting up a corner kick with 2:45 to play.

Houle took the kick and set up Grace Corcoran for a chance that went off the post on right side. Houle hit the same post with a header, after taking a well-placed lob from Brooke Antous, in the final seconds.

Arias made 11 saves, and Doyle had six denials. Newtown manufactured a 10-4 advantage in corner kicks.

The Nighthawks mounted numerous late-game chances after being tied and falling behind, but Newtown Coach Marc Kenney believed didn't push hard enough to score early or build on its lead. The coach added that the Hawks did not play as well as they usually do in the midfield or on defense.

"I don't think we did what we needed to do to win the game. They really wanted it a little bit more than us in spots," Kenney said. "We certainly had chances."

Newtown had a strong overall campaign, posting an 11-2-3 record in the regular slate, but Kenney and company were looking to do more in the postseason.

"It's super-disappointing. I really thought this group was going to have a better run than this certainly," Kenney said.

The NHS coach is hopeful that the end of the season serves as a learning experience for the players, many of whom are underclassmen with little or postseason experience coming into the season.