In the last home game of the season, on October 14, the Newtown High School boys’ soccer team hosted the Stratford Red Devils and the teams finished in a 1-1 tie.

The game was an important one in terms of playoff race for both teams. Heading into the game, Newtown had 14 points in the South-West Conference standings and held the eighth and final playoff spot, and Stratford had 13 points and was two positions behind Newtown (Masuk of Monroe, also with 13 points, held the ninth spot by virtue of defeating second-place Weston).

Newtown and Stratford each earned one point as Newtown looks to fortify its position in the standings and Stratford battles to get into the playoffs. Newtown’s record stands at 4-4-3 in conference play, and Stratford is 3-3-5. Masuk won on October 14 to jump into seventh place and push Newtown into ninth place. Newtown is tied with New Fairfield in the standings but New Fairfield owns a tiebreaker.

This was Senior Night for the Nighthawks. Before the game started, the seniors tossed balls into the stands at Blue & Gold Stadium as part of a way to give back for all of the support they’ve received throughout the season and in their careers.

At the start of the game, neither side could get a grasp on the momentum as possessions were traded throughout most of the first half. Newtown got close to scoring on more than one occasion, but Stratford’s team defense made itself known by closing in on the Nighthawk forwards every time the Hawks had an opening. Eventually, Stratford took advantage on the offensive side and put in a nice goal off of a crossing pass midway through the first half.

“We weren’t very clean. We weren’t very sharp,” Newtown senior defender John Carlson said of the defense. “A couple of dumb mistakes, and we were lucky they only got one.”

Although it gave up the early goal, the defensive unit shut down the rest of the opportunities Stratford had, which ultimately gave Newtown a chance toward the end.

Clay Gattey scored a goal with 9:14 left in the second half. After Gattey got into position off an inbounds play, the ball rolled to an opening and Gattey did the rest.

In the last ten minutes of the game, the urgency Newtown had was evident, before and after Gattey’s goal. The offense pushed up the field, and was aggressive, but Stratford’s stingy defense always stopped the penetration before damage was done.

“Offensively, I think we struggled a little bit,” senior Blake Jarvis said. “We failed to string one or more passes together a couple of times. We had a few chances that we didn’t finish and we could’ve easily put them out of the game, but we just didn’t finish those chances.”

New goalkeeper Zachary Laros played well after only giving up that one early goal on a shot any goalie would have had trouble stopping. Albert Dean, Gattey, and Jarvis seemed to be in the middle of every offensive push, while Carlson and Ryan King made nice defensive stops.

“They did fight hard, but I think we could have gotten a second goal and that’s really what we needed tonight,” Newtown Coach Brian Neumeyer said.

With two more conference games to go, the Hawks hope to solidify a spot in the postseason.

Newtown visits Kolbe Cathedral in Bridgeport on Friday, October 17 for a 3:45 pm game and visits Notre Dame-Fairfield on Monday, October 20 for a 5 pm game.