Trailing 3-0 in the second half of a field hockey team almost surly means a loss given the low-scoring nature of the game to begin with. Newtown High School's squad turned it on in the final 20-plus minutes only to come up a goal short to host Masuk, falling 3-2 despite a valiant comeback effort.The Bee.

Ali Kelleher received a pass from Camryn Griffin and scored on the rush with 23:32 remaining. The Nighthawks, highlighted by a Jordan Stofko chance, kept pushing and piled up the opportunities to pull closer against their South-West Conference foes.

Finally, with 10:05 to play, Camryn Findley capitalized off a penalty corner loose ball scramble, pulling the Hawks to within one.

Isabella Kaiser and Katherine Trammel were in on a good chance in close, but were stymied, and Hana Rosenthal made a nice move to generate a shot on cage as Newtown fought for the equalizer.

Strong play near midfield to stop Masuk's clearing and passing attempts, and keep the pressure on, was led by Katherine Dirga who, at one point, blocked three clears in succession with about five minutes remaining. Also clogging up the midfield and keeping the effect of a seemingly tilted field in Newtown's favor were Rylee Harrell, Olivia Butler, Izzy Kaiser, and Caitlin Reilly.

Masuk could breathe a sigh of relief when the final horn sounded.

"They picked up their intensity and it showed. It was just a little bit too late," said Kathy Davey, assistant coach with the Nighthawks, adding that many of the players have limited varsity experience but are coming along and bring a great attitude to the field. "It's a great group of girls."

"I think we just wanted to work better together and it was still in reach," Butler said of her team's in-game turnaround.

The Nighthawks defeated visiting Weston 2-0 at Treadwell Park on September 22. Stofko opened the scoring and Emma Schmid-Tharnish padded the lead by converting off a nice cross from Kelleher.

Read more about the Hawks in the September 29 print edition of