By Steve Bigham

Mike Troy’s breakaway goal in sudden-death overtime Tuesday lifted the Newtown High School boys’ soccer team to a thrilling 2-1 victory over upset-minded Joel Barlow in the semifinals of the South-West Conference playoffs.

The 17-0 Nighthawks will now face Brookfield in the championship game Friday at 4:30 pm at Penders Field in Stratford.

Troy’s game-winner came in the closing moments of the first extra session and sent the huge crowd at Blue & Gold Stadium into a frenzy. The junior, defended tightly all night, stole the ball clean from a Barlow defender near midfield, then raced toward the goal for the score. His shot hit pay dirt in the lower left corner of the net.

The goal ended what had been an exciting, physical game with plenty of action on both sides.

“The fact that we had to win it in overtime makes it a little sweeter for us. It’s good stuff,” said Newtown coach Brian Neumeyer, who has now beaten Barlow twice in a row after five consecutive losses.

Troy had given top-seeded Newtown a 1-0 advantage at the 71st minute of the second half on a chip shot that sailed over the head of Barlow goalie Lex Burritt. One observer described the goal as the “lofty looper.”

Troy said, “I saw that the goalie was off his line and I just tried to chip him and snuck it in there.”

It appeared like it might be the game winner, but in the closing minutes, Newtown goaltender Matt Pachniuk was called for a “double touch,” a controversial call that set up Scott Stevens’ equalizing goal off a direct kick at the 78-minute mark, sending the game into overtime.

“They said that I had possession of the ball and then I picked it up again. It’s called a double possession. That’s what they called, but I never had possession of the ball,” said Pachniuk, who was a monster between the pipes, recording five saves.

The one that got by him was just the sixth of the season.

Troy’s overtime goal was his 37th of the season and gave Newtown its first conference final berth since 1993 when it advanced to the WCC finals. It was also sweet revenge for all the heartache the 13-4-0 Falcons have given Newtown over the years. The Redding club – under coach Jim Dolan – had won five consecutive SWC titles.

The start of the overtime session was delayed 15 minutes after officials were unsure of the correct overtime format to use. It was finally agreed that two 10-minute sudden-death periods would be played, followed by penalty kicks. Neither the second extra session nor the penalty kicks were needed. Troy and his mates made sure of that.

The Nighthawks beat Brookfield, 5-2, just a week ago in the final game of the regular season. The third-seeded Bobcats advanced to Friday’s finale with a 2-1 win over second-seeded New Fairfield in Tuesday’s opener also played in Newtown. NHS will be the heavy favorite going in. Last week, the Nighthawks were ranked second in the state by The Hartford Courant.

Newtown advanced to the semis Saturday night with a 3-0 win over eighth-seeded Jonathan Law. In that game, Troy scored a pair of goals and Ryan Tracy added another, all of them coming in the first half. Midfielder Jake Rouse registered two assists and midfielder Ian Walker added one.

In the season finale, Newtown found itself down 1-0 on a Jeff Ormiston goal early on, but Newtown countered with three straight – two by Troy and one by Ryan Tracy. Then, after a Brookfield goal, Tracy (26 goals) added two more for the hat trick.

Newtown has now outscored its opponents, 81-6. Troy and Tracy have combined for 63 goals.

Newtown continues to get huge performances from guys like Colin Armstrong, Derek Miles, Walker, Rouse and Marcus Tracy.