By Steve Bigham

The dream season is over.

One of the all-time best seasons in Newtown High School sports history ended a week too soon in a nightmarish loss to Guilford in the quarterfinal round of the CIAC LL state tournament Saturday night.

The previously undefeated Nighthawks – ranked No. 1 in the state – were beaten soundly, 3-0, before a huge crowd at Blue & Gold Stadium. Players were left to wonder where it all went wrong. The loss came just eight days after Newtown had defeated Brookfield, 3-0, in the South-West Conference championship game.

Ninth-seeded Guilford, the defending Class LL champion, scored a pair of goals two minutes apart midway through the first half and never looked back. It added a goal late in the game, leaving behind a devastated Newtown squad.

“I wasn’t ready for the season to end Saturday night. It wasn’t supposed to end this way. We didn’t want it to end this way,” said coach Brian Neumeyer, who has taken the loss especially hard. “No one’s destined to win anything. We got caught up in this thing that we were destined to win the state championship. But you’ve got to play the games and win the games and we didn’t go out to win the game on Saturday.”

The fourth-year Newtown coach credited the play of Guilford, which showed why they are defending champs. On Tuesday, however, Guilford lost to Naugatuck, 2-1, in the semifinals. It sets up Saturday night’s Class LL state championship game between Naugatuck and Westhill of Stamford. Westhill had previously been ranked second in the state by The Hartford Courant and will no doubt move up to the top spot following Newtown’s loss.

Westhill beat Cheshire on overtime penalty kicks.

Coach Neumeyer admits he had a bad feeling about things early on in Saturday’s game, as he noticed no one on his team taking control. And his worst fears came true at the 24:52 mark when CJ Christensen managed to head in the first goal from 25 yards out. Neumeyer said there were several miscues that enabled the score.

“That first goal was a multiple of minor errors on players’ parts. That goal stung, then they got the second one two minutes later and essentially the game was over at that point. To come back from a 2-0 deficit against a team of Guilford’s caliber is very difficult to do,” coach Neumeyer said.

The second goal came as an even bigger shock than the first as Newtown’s defense got caught on the right side of the field and eventually beaten on a back side run that left Newtown goalie Matt Pachniuk one-on-one with Guilford’s Seth Nere, who managed to slip the ball into the net. That goal came at 26:44.

“When you let in goals that close together, especially with this team, it says something about where we were at that time,” said coach Neumeyer, who owns a 58-14-6 coaching record at Newtown.

Newtown had only given up six goals all season, so to give up two in such a short time seemed almost inconceivable. Almost as inconceivable as the fact that the season is now over.

“What burns the most is you can’t bounce back and say we’ll get them next week. We’ve got to wait nine months,” coach Neumeyer said. “You’re always going to have a last loss of the season. Those losses stink. Regardless of what we did prior, unfortunately the way it is in sports this will overshadow slightly what we did throughout the year. We’ll sort it out, though.”

Coach Neumeyer’s passion for this team was evident at halftime as he urged them to regroup. But the damage had been done and it was just a matter of time before the tears began to flow.

“The group came out and showed some energy, but we just didn’t have it as a group. I can’t put my finger on one thing or one guy. The blame doesn’t lie on one person. The group didn’t have it,” he said. “There were a lot of high points on the year and a lot of positives. We’ll reflect on those when the time is right. But we’re not even a week away from the loss and that’s not what I’m thinking about right now.”

Junior Mike Troy (a school record 43 goals this season) was doubled and tripled teamed for much of the game. Ryan Tracy was one of Newtown’s lone bright spots, but even he had trouble finding the back of the net.

Newtown, which received a bye in the first round, advanced to the quarterfinals November 8 with a 4-0 win over Bulkeley of Hartford, which had beaten Norwalk, 4-1, in the opening round.