NHS Boys’ Soccer Team Experiences It All In States—

Hawks Win Penalty Kick Thriller, Then Lose In PK Heartbreaker

By Andy Hutchison

The ultimate level of suspense and nerve-wracking excitement played out — twice — for Newtown High School’s boys’ soccer team in the first two rounds of the Class LL state tournament at Blue & Gold Stadium.

The eighth-seeded Nighthawks got a taste of it all, experiencing the rush of winning in dramatic fashion and the low feeling of losing a game that they nearly pulled out. Newtown advanced in a thrilling come-from-behind penalty kicks win over visiting Ridgefield, a deceptive No. 25 seed out of the tough FCIAC, in the first round of tourney play on November 11, before falling to No. 9 Fairfield Prep, which is coached by Newtown’s own Ryan Lyddy, in another overtime/PK second-round battle on November 14.

Newtown overcame Ridgefield for a 3-2 win in a second set of penalty kicks following two scoreless ten-minute overtime halves. The season ended in a 1-0 (3-1 in kicks) loss to Prep after 100 minutes of double-shutout play.

Against Ridgefield, Trevor Carey netted the clinching goal in the fifth round of the second of a best-of-five penalty kicks slate. Charlie Helgren, Drew Sullivan, Ryan Dunnigan, Eric Fiore, Stephen Conway, Nick Barreto, and Wesley Morlock also scored for Newtown in PKs. The Hawks and Tigers each scored three goals in the first slate. Fiore gave Newtown a 1-0 lead on the first shot in the second set of kicks. Newtown goalkeeper Austin Puleri, who made two crucial saves and was aided by a shot over the top, robbed his counterpart, Ridgefield keeper Kyle Gurtowski, to preserve the lead.

“I absolutely hate ’em,” Puleri said of penalty kicks. “I can’t say enough about how good I feel to save two of them.”

After Puleri denied Gurtowski, the teams traded goals in each of the next three rounds before Carey sealed the win as NHS outscored Ridgefield a cumulative 7-5 in kicks.

This seems to have become an annual rivalry as the Nighthawks and Tigers have meet in the first round three years in a row. Newtown won the meeting three season ago, and avenged a defeat to Ridgefield in last year’s state tourney opening round. Newtown took a 1-0 lead on Connor Quinn’s tally, but trailed 2-1 at halftime before turning it on in the second half and forcing overtime behind Logan Puleri’s equalizer.

The tying goal came after the Nighthawks bombarded the Ridgefield goal area with long serves, crosses, and shots that somehow didn’t find the back of the net. Fiore headed a ball that went off the crossbar, and Gurtowski made several diving stops and aggressive plays to intercept through-balls. Finally, the hardworking Nighthawks got a break when Logan Puleri’s shot, set up by Dunningan’s corner kick, deflected off a Ridgefield defender and into the goal with 11:01 to play in regulation.

“We put enough pressure on them that it was going to come,” Newtown Coach Brian Neumeyer said of his team getting the tying goal. “I thought we were going to win it in regulation.”

The Nighthawks again found themselves in a penalty kick-deciding scenario when unbeaten (9-0-7 in the regular season/ Southern Connecticut Conference champion) Prep came to town with a berth in the quarterfinals on the line. Newtown, which went 11-2-2 this year, had the better of the chances, and Quinn clanked one off the crossbar from along the right sideline in the second half of overtime. A collision knocked Prep’s starting keeper, William Steiner, out of the game midway though the second ten-minute OT session; Steiner was taken away from the field in an ambulance following the game.

With their other keeper already sideline with an injury, field player-turned net-minder fill-in, Jack Grella, came up big in PKs, making three diving saves. Austin Puleri dove to stop a second-round shot, but Prep took a third-round 2-0 lead before Helgren finally got one past Grella. After Prep went ahead 3-1 on its fourth-round kick, Grella made his final save to end it before a fifth round became necessary.

“This is how we advanced and it goes both ways. It is tough because I thought we played well tonight,” Neumeyer said. “Usually, when you dominate a game you win a game. Soccer, it’s just not that way. You’ve got to put the ball across the goal line and we just didn’t do it. We had a ton of missed opportunities tonight.”

The coach was pleased with his team’s effort, but “That doesn’t make it any easier to swallow,” Neumeyer said.