NHS Girls’ Soccer—

Big Win Over Rivals Keeps Hawks’ Unbeaten Streak Alive

By Andy Hutchison

The month of October has been interesting — and rewarding — for the Newtown High School girls’ soccer team.

The Nighthawks are unbeaten in six games since the calendar turn. Their biggest win of the season came the day after the Nighthawks earned their biggest margin of victory thus far. The Hawks, after blanking Notre Dame-Fairfield 6-0 on October 9, pulled out nail-biting 1-0 win over the Masuk Panthers — the team that beat them in last year’s South-West Conference championship game — at Blue & Gold Stadium on October 10.

Freshman Amy Martin made the difference on offense and defense. She scored on a direct kick from about 30 yards out. Her decisive shot went in when the ball grazed the bottom of the cross bar and made its way into the back of the net with 20:18 remaining in the second half. Martin also put herself in front of a shot, on the goal line, and prevented Masuk from scoring in the second half.

“We’ve spent literally two practices in the last five days really trying to make sure we don’t waste those opportunities,” Newtown Coach Marc Kenney said.

NHS Goalkeeper Kate Pessin and the Hawks got their fifth straight shutout with plenty of defensive help from Martin’s goal-saving block and a first-half stop by defensive standout Ally Modzelewski, who prevented a sure goal with her foot.

Kenney did not hesitate to say this was the biggest win of the year for the now 6-1-4 Nighthawks.

“Masuk is an outstanding team. We were fortunate to be tied at the half,” Kenney said.

The win was especially rewarding given the caliber opponent, and familiarity of the opponent which with Newtown was matched. The Panthers came into the game with a 5-1-3 record. What’s more, the Panthers have long been a tough nemesis for the Hawks and this was the first meeting between the schools since last year’s playoff game.

“Considering that it was a huge game for us, a huge rivalry, a lot of hard work we put into it — in the end it was great to finally pull together and win it because we’ve waited a long time for this,” Martin said.

Newtown’s objective following the win was to enjoy it but not get caught up in it.

“We need to stay focused. I think that obviously the rivalry between Newtown and Masuk is huge. We need to not look past this game,” Kenney said. “We need to keep it in perspective, but I’ll tell you what — to beat them at home, in our place, is a huge win. So I’m ecstatic.”

Newtown played Weston to a scoreless draw in its next game on October 13 and the Hawks still have another four regular season games ahead of them before playoff time.

“As long as we play hard good things are going to happen,” Kenney added.

Good things have been happening for the Hawks for a couple of weeks now. Even when Newtown wins a half a game, it counts in the books as an official win. The Nighthawks, on October 3, played only a half of soccer against Holy Cross before heavy rain postponed the conclusion of the contest. The Nighthawks initially thought they would either have to resume action with the second half or make up the entire game, but Kenney announced this week that, per National Federation of State High School Associations regulations, any game that is stopped due to weather is official after a half of play is completed. So that 1-0 half win became an official win.

Newtown, which endured a lot of turnover in the lineup following the graduation of seven of last year’s starters, has had plenty of new-to-varsity player contributions.

“It’s amazing. It’s so much fun,” freshman Brittany Tolla, one of those key newcomers said being a part of the winning ways at NHS.

Modzelewski, a senior captain, said the team is getting stronger and stronger as the players become more accustomed to working together.

“The more time we spend together the closer we get,” Modzelewski said.

NHS will look to keep rolling Friday, October 16, when the Hawks visit Joel Barlow, the team that handed Masuk its first loss, for a 7 pm kickoff. Newtown’s final home game October 20 when New Fairfield visits Blue & Gold at 7 pm.