Newtown High School's girls' soccer team could have remained unbeaten but a 1-0 setback to nonconference foe and one-loss Daniel Hand of Madison, under the lights at Blue & Gold Stadium on October 14, might not have been the worst thing to happen to the Nighthawks.The Bee webpage on Saturday, October 21, and see the print edition of The Bee to see related story).

After all, Coach Marc Kenney notes, a loss is an eye-opener that there is some work to do as the Nighthawks strive to carry their overall winning ways through the South-West Conference and state tournaments.

"It's helpful to us going forward," Kenney said of playing challenging teams in the regular season.

Trailing 1-0 late in regulation, the Nighthawks had their best chance, and one of few solid opportunities to score. Karen Pirone centered, from the right side, and Sydney Howard's blast hit the cross bar and bounced almost straight down, landing a foot or two outside the goal line.

Emma Curtis, Sarah Houle, and Carly Swierbut also generated some chances but Newtown was held without a goal for the first time this season, and under two goals for only the second time this campaign. This was a tightly played battle with most of the possession locked up in the middle third of the field.

"Hand's a really good team, and they're physicality and speed were problematic for us," Kenney said.

The game with Hand served as a fundraiser for March of Dimes; Kenney and his wife, Kateri, have two sons, both of whom were born prematurely (check back on

Newtown defeated visiting Joel Barlow of Redding, an SWC rival, 2-0 two days earlier. Howard scored, and Pirone was set up by Houle for the other net-finder.

"Barlow sat in a little, putting eight players behind the ball, so it forced us to be patient in the offensive end. We also had to play our forwards with their backs to the goal because we weren't getting breakaways. Overall, I think I was most pleased with our ability to adapt to a new style to get the win against a team who is annually one of the best in the SWC. It is a sign of maturity that I think will help us going forward," Kenney said.

The Nighthawks followed up their setback to Hand with a 2-0 loss to host Immaculate of Danbury, which is unbeaten in conference play, on October 17. The Hawks are slated to host Stratford in the regular-season finale, on Thursday, October 19, starting at 7 pm.

Newtown earned the SWC tourney bracket's second seed and won the SWC Colonial Division Regular Season Championship.