Newtown High School's boys' soccer team members can look at a 2-1 season-opening loss to Notre Dame-Fairfield, at Bridgeport's Veteran's Park on September 9, as a building block for the fairly inexperienced roster. The team that lost eight of 11 starters to graduation a year ago, but still has conference championship goals, can learn from the first of many games this fall.

"I think we need to be a little quicker on the ball. We need to look up, find space, and we need to take shots," captain Elliott Bennett said.

The Nighthawks fell behind 2-0 before Thomas Shkreli scored late in the opening half. A Newtown player was red-carded midway through the second half, meaning the Nighthawks had to try to get the game-tying tally while playing a man down for about a quarter of the game.

"It was not a great scenario," Newtown Coach Brian Neumeyer said.

If there's a positive of sorts to pull from a loss, it's that the Nighthawks were competitive with a Notre Dame team that won a dozen games a year ago, and brought pretty much the entire roster back.

"It's going to be one of the better teams we play this year, if not the best team we play this year," Neumeyer said.

Of course, from Neumeyer's perspective, the Nighthawks didn't challenge the Lancers enough.

"We've got to be more competitive," the coach said.

It's just one game, and the Nighthawks left the field, many of them with their first as a varsity starter, with 14 contests to go until the postseason.

"You always want to win, but we look at the big picture. We're just looking to improve record- and playwise from here," Neumeyer said.

The Nighthawks went on to play host Bethel to a scoreless tie on September 13, then played visiting New Fairfield to a 1-1 deadlock at Treadwell Park, on September 15.