Editor's Note: The game at Weston, originally scheduled for Saturday, October 3, as listed below, has been rescheduled for Saturday, October 10, with a new start time of 10 am.

It’s often said that there are good ties and bad ties in sports. For Newtown High School’s boys’ soccer team, the 1-1 deadlock with visiting Pomperaug of Southbury, at Treadwell Park on September 29, was perhaps a little of both.

The Nighthawks fell behind 1-0 before halftime before turning on the pressure and piling up scoring chances — especially late in the contest. Finally, with about 15 minutes remaining, the Nighthawks broke through.

James Carney’s cross from the left corner found its way through a little traffic in the 18-yard box to Shane Gattey, who bounced a shot into the lower corner of the net.

Prior to the equalizer, Gattey headed a cross to Brian Araujo, who missed wide. Araujo’s hard work generated a corner kick opportunity soon thereafter, and Gattey’s first send into the box was punched over the cross bar by Pomperaug goalkeeper Chris McFarland. The second corner kick chance was thwarted because of Newtown foul in the box.

Omar Rodriguez and Elliot Bennett also contributed to Newtown’s offensive pressure. Carney repeatedly used his speed to get behind the defense and had a couple of chances miss just wide. After they tied it, the Hawks pushed hard for the go-ahead tally.

In the final five-or-so minutes, the Hawks had their best chance. Carney got deep in the left corner and air-mailed a cross to Jack Lavelle on the far side; Lavelle passed to set up a streaking Gattey, who sent a hard shot toward the top of the net. McFarland leaped to get his hand on the ball and knock it away just before it got in under the crossbar. Pomperaug’s aggressive keeper also grabbed a couple of late game corner kicks to stop Newtown from getting a chance for a shot on goal.

“Our opportunities were definitely there; they definitely increased in the second half,” Carney said. “The goalie did a great job saving some of those.”

Newtown Coach Brian Neumeyer liked how his team responded after being down.

“We played better when we were down a goal than we did when we were zero-zero. Sometimes it takes that to get us motivated to play,” he said. “[McFarland] made some key catches on corner kicks and a big save with five minutes left.”

Although this tie easily could have been a win for Newtown if not for the play of McFarland or, perhaps if the Hawks turned it on sooner, Neumeyer and company aren’t looking at it that way.

“We’re just looking to extract positives from games now,” the coach said. “I think we can take away a lot of positives from today.”

After all, the Nighthawks salvaged a tie after falling behind, a nice rebound from a 1-0 setback at New Milford on September 24. And, although Newtown dominated the second half of play, it wasn’t as if the Hawks weren’t tested in the back.

On the defensive end of the field, Mike Meyer headed the ball out of danger, and James Cochrane, Forrest Weatherby, Chris Rovelli, and Josh Houle were among the Nighthawks to break up Pomperaug chances.

The Hawks carried a 3-2-1 record into an October 1 scheduled visit to Masuk of Monroe — the first of three consecutive road matchups — beginning at 3:15 pm. Newtown, after visiting Weston on Saturday, October 3, at 2:30 pm, and Joel Barlow of Redding on Tuesday, October 6, beginning at 3:45 pm, will host Immaculate of Danbury on Thursday, October 8; the game will be played under the lights at Blue & Gold Stadium, beginning at 7 o’clock.

“We’re at the same level as the teams we’re playing,” said Carney, adding that he expects the Hawks to find a way to score more goals. “It will definitely come.”