Newtown High School Soccer Teams Earn Home Field Advantage For Playoff Openers

By Andy Hutchison

On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, Newtown High School’s boys’ soccer team members booted the ball around at the start of practice in one of their final tune-ups for the start of the “second season” — the postseason.

The Nighthawks, locked into the South-West Conference’s No. 2 seed, will have the luxury of hosting a first-round/quarterfinal round game on Friday, October 28. But it stands to be anything but a cakewalk when the boys play at Blue & Gold Stadium at 5 pm. After all, pending the outcome of Joel Barlow of Redding’s final game with Immaculate of Danbury on Thursday (after The Bee went to press), the Nighthawks will open up against either Barlow or New Milford. A No. 2 versus a No. 7 seed? Sounds like a lopsided matchup on paper, but the results show otherwise. Newtown narrowly beat both of those teams by 1-0 scores en route to an 11-2-2 campaign.

“At moments I think we’re playing really well. We just need to be really consistent so we don’t get caught in the first round,” said Newtown Coach Brian Neumeyer, acknowledging that the opening-round test will be anything but easy. “I’m happy with where we’re at,” Neumeyer said.

The coach added that there is a lot of parity in the conference — particularly among the teams jockeying for position in the fifth through eighth playoff spots, which remained up in the air earlier this week. Pomperaug of Southbury, one of two teams to deal NHS a loss this year, is the top seed, and Bunnell of Stratford, a team Newtown lost to in last year’s conference playoffs and tied in the regular season this fall, is third.

“I think they’re really high,” Newtown captain and defender Josh Barrett said of his team’s chances of winning the tourney. “If we keep doing what we’ve been doing we’ll win. Obviously, we have to step it up because it’s the playoffs. It’s not going to be easy.”

Newtown’s quarterfinal round game will be held in honor of Marilyn Imbimbo, who passed away this week. Imbimbo’s children, Luca and John, participate in the Newtown Samba soccer program, which is run by Neumeyer.

The Nighthawks wrapped up the regular season with a 2-0 win over Oxford in the home finale on October 20, a 1-0 loss at Bethel on October 22, and a 1-0 win at Immaculate on Monday. Connor Quinn and Charlie Helgren scored in the win over Oxford. Eric Fiore set up Helgren’s goal with a throw-in. Quinn scored again in the Immaculate game. Goalkeeper Austin Puleri came up with some big saves, including two on breakaways and one on a free kick, to preserve the win over Immaculate.

Girls Earn Third Seed

Newtown High’s girls’ booters earned the third seed and secured a first-round home game thanks to back-to-back 4-0 wins to close out the season, which culminated with a blanking of visiting Immaculate in Tuesday’s Senior Night game.

The girls, like the boys, have a deceptive tourney ranking scenario. Newtown will host the No. 6 team, which happens to be one of its biggest rivals — Masuk of Monroe. The Hawks blanked Masuk in a 1-0 nail-biter during the regular season and can expect another battle to the finish with the Panthers. They will kick off at 7 pm, following the boys’ game.

If the Hawks survive the tourney opener, things don’t stand to get any easier as they will tangle against the best the conference has to offer in the semifinals and, they hope, the championship round.

“It’s going to be tough but I think if we keep up the intensity and how hard we’ve been working we can win,” Nighthawk defender and senior captain Maddy Keane said.

The top teams in the conference include a Barlow team that won 12 regular season games, a Lauralton Hall of Milford squad that won 11, and New Milford, Masuk, Immaculate, and Pomperaug of Southbury teams, all of which earned ten victories. The Nighthawks went and impressive 11-1-4, and beat or tied all of the teams in the SWC playoff mix.

In Newtown Coach Marc Kenney’s eyes, there is no clear-cut favorite. “It’s a coin toss this year. No favorite — everybody beats everybody,” said Kenney, whose team fell only to non-playoff-bound Bunnell of Stratford. Kenney is optimistic his team has what it takes to come out on top.

“I think this team is built for a good run in the SWCs and in the state tournament. They’re prepared, they work hard — they know what they need to do,” he said.

Newtown, behind its always-strong defense and goalkeeper Cait Yakush, held each of its last four regular-season opponents scoreless, and got goals from Bridget Power, who scored twice, along with Sarah Lynch and Amy Martin in the 4-0 win at Oxford on October 20. Martin and Power both netted a pair of goals in the triumph over Immaculate.

No matter which teams win, both the girls’ and boys’ tournaments will continue with semifinals on Tuesday, November 1. The girls’ games will be held at New Fairfield and boys’ games at Pomperaug’s field. The championships will be held at Newtown High’s Blue & Gold — the girls at 4:30 pm and the boys at 7 — on Thursday, November 3.

Newtown High will host the title games. The question is, will the Nighthawks, themselves, be hosting those pinnacle matches? Let the games begin.