By Steve Bigham

NEW MILFORD – An enigmatic season for the Nighthawks came to an end Wednesday when they dropped a 1-0 decision at New Milford in the second round of the CIAC Class L state tournament.

Dion Daniels’ goal midway through the first half proved to be the difference in the game and sent fifth-seeded New Milford on to the quarterfinals where it will face fourth-seeded Newington Friday night.

The loss marked the Nighthawks’ earliest state tournament exit under Coach Brian Neumeyer, who took the team to the finals and semifinals in his two previous seasons at the helm. This year, however, a much younger Newtown team lacked the kind of scoring punch that helped those previous teams achieve their success. Despite losing only four games all season, Newtown was shut out seven times this year, with three of those games ending in scoreless ties.

“It’s been our Achilles Heel all season and it came back to haunt us,” said Neumeyer, who watched his team’s late-game attack come up short.

The loss came one week after Newtown (11-4-4) fell to Joel Barlow in the South-West Conference semifinals. Newtown, seeded 12th, opened state tournament play Monday night with a 2-0 win over Hartford’s Weaver High.

New Milford, which finished as the SWCs third best team, marked Newtown tightly in the first half, resulting in few scoring opportunities for the locals. Daniels’ goal came at the 26:51-minute mark during a scramble in front of the Newtown goal.

In the second half, thanks to guys like Jake Rouse, Newtown outplayed the Green Wave, creating a handful of scoring opportunities. But, as assistant coach Al Taubert pointed out, Newtown only began to play “desperate” in the final minutes.

“We needed to play with that intensity much earlier on,” he said.

For the game, Newtown out shot the Green Wave, 13-7, including a second half which saw the locals outshoot their hosts, 8-0.

“I felt we outplayed them in the second half, but you’ve got to score to win,” said Neumeyer, who himself would admit that that statement sounded like a broken record this season. The third-year coached looked dejected as he walked off the field Wednesday. He and his squad had hoped for better results.

Injuries and some internal “stuff” put added strain on a group that needed all its ducks in a row in order to take the next big step. Nevertheless, no one expected 11 wins from this year’s team, especially after losing 13 seniors from a year ago. Newtown will sorely miss the services of seniors Rob Weiss and Andrew Smith, but the rest of the team remains intact.

Sophomore Derek Miles’ blast from 30 yards out with three minutes remaining may have been Newtown’s best chance to score, but his shot missed wide left. Rob Weiss had a late-game scoring opportunity, as did Mike Troy and Brendan Cavanaugh.

On Monday, Newtown secured a 2-0 victory over 21st-seed Weaver at home thanks to a first-half goal by freshman David Kugeilsky, who was seeing his first extended action of the season, at the 23-minute mark. Ryan Tracy was credited with the assist. Tracy added a goal at the 68th minute on a penalty kick. The Tracy penalty kick was set up by a midfield header from Weiss that surprised the Weaver defenders, forcing them to taker Tracy down in the box.

Pachniuk registered his ninth shutout of the year with nine saves in goal, including a couple that seemed to defy physics.