Date: Fri 08-Sep-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: ENIDJ

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Girls-Soccer-History

Full Text:

Girls' Soccer History

The Newtown High School girls' soccer team was a success from the moment it

hit the field. Beginning as a jayvee program in 1983, the Lady Indians became

an official varsity team in 1984 which, incidentally, was the first year of

girls' soccer in the Western Connecticut Conference.

Under head coaches Bob Sveda, Klaus Ertl, and Pete Fedorov, Newtown proved its

program to be graduation proof as it won a total of six WCC titles in eleven

years. Not only has the team never had a losing season, there has never been a

WCC championship played that didn't include Newtown. In the five years the

team didn't win the WCC, it placed second - four of those times to arch rival

Weston.

l  Patti Hensel was the first true girls' soccer star at NHS as she came over

from the boys' team when the school started the girls' program in 1984.

Ironically, Newtown would lose the first game of its history, 2-1 to Weston

who would develop into its arch rival in years to come.

The Lady Indians first-ever victory was a 3-0 win over New Fairfield.

Hensel, a junior, helped guide the Lady Indians to a 12-4-1 record that season

and scored a pair of goals in the 4-1 victory over Weston which clinched the

first-ever WCC championship. Senior co-captain Laurel Whelan also scored in

the game as did freshman, Laura Oberstadt.

Hensel led the 84 team with 19 goals and was elected All-WCC. Whelan scored

eleven.

l  Playing with a badly injured knee for the majority of the season, Hensel

returned to score 17 goals in leading the 1985 team to a 15-1 record that

resulted in another WCC title. Newtown's only regular season loss came by a

3-2 score to Wilton, but NHS was eliminated in the first round of CIAC's by

Windham who won 2-1. Junior Kristen Burke scored 14 goals for Newtown, while

seniors Kate Stark and Whelan combined for 14 more. Hensel became the first

NHS player to be named All-State.

l  The 1986 season saw a fiery-eyed junior leave the NHS volleyball team to

play soccer for the first time. That junior, Kim Pelletreau, was a natural

from the start setting a school record by scoring 25 goals and helping the

Lady Indians to a perfect 15-0 regular season record and a third-straight WCC

title. Pelletreau was named to the All-WCC team as was senior teammate Burke,

who scored 16 goals. Sophomore left wing Kristy Unkel scored 16 goals for the

high-powered girls' team as well.

Newtown was eliminated again in the first round of the state tournament, 3-2

against West Hartford.

Best In NHS History

Pelletreau continued her dominance over WCC opponents the following year as

she broke her own record by scoring 36 goals in leading Newtown to a 15-1

regular season campaign and subesquent best season in school history. Freshman

sensation Melanie Huss added another 25 goals while Unkel and Oberstadt

combined for 30 more.

With two games left in the regular season and NHS trailing Weston by a game in

the loss column, the Lady Indians won a crucial 2-0 game with the Lady Trojans

as Kristy Unkel scored twice. The win forced a one-game playoff for the WCC

title. In a blustery and cold day at Pomperaug High, Newtown outshot Weston

25-11 but couldn't slip the nutralizer past All-State Weston goalie, Sonja

Keller, and lost 2-1.

The 87 Newtown team was the most dominant offensive force in WCC history,

scoring a conference-record 126 goals while allowing only 19. During the

regular season Newtown was held to fewer than five goals in a game only twice

(both times by Weston). The team scored in double figures five times.

Pelletreau, Oberstadt, and Huss all were named to the All-WCC squad, while

Pelletreau made All-State.

The 1987 team also advanced further into the state tournament than any NHS

girls soccer team before or to follow. The Lady Indians ran all the way to the

state semifinals after beating Ridgefield 3-0 in the quarters. Pelletreau

broke her collarbone in practice the day before the state semis, though, and

Newtown's run ended in a 5-1 loss to Simsbury.

At the conclusion of the season, coach Bob Sveda resigned the position with a

career record of 58-9-1 and three WCC crowns.

l  Sveda passed the torch to varsity assistant and former NHS soccer star

Klaus Ertl in 1988, and Ertl guided the team to a perfect 15-0 season as his

super-sophomore, Huss, scored 38 goals to break Pelletreau's mark. But in the

first year of the newly-formed WCC Championship game, Newtown was matched up

with Wild Division winner, Weston, who it had already beaten twice during the

season. In a bitterly cold championship contest at Pomperaug High School,

Newtown lost 2-0 to Weston, and then fell 5-2 to Ridgefield in the first round

of states.

Huss was named All-WCC and All-State, while Unkel (18 goals) and Jen Reeher

(14) were named All-WCC as well. Newtown outscored its opponents 101-19 during

the season.

The Defensive Era Begins

After only one year as head coach, Ertl stepped aside for Pete Fedorov who had

previously coached the boys' freshman team. With the Western Connecticut

Conference programs quickly progressing, it became Fedorov's responsibility to

keep his team up with the ever-evolving defensive era.

l  Fedorov quickly experienced the tension of the Newtown/Weston rivalry when

he took the helm at the start of the 1989 season and saw his team lose its

only two games to the rival Trojans. In the WCC title game (playing without

Huss?) Newtown took Weston to double OT as Jen Lareau scored three goals, but

the Lady Indians lost a shocker, 4-3.

Huss, who scored 30 goals in the season's first ten games before injuring her

knee, made All-WCC and All-State again, while Reeher (23 goals) was named

All-WCC as well.

l  Offensive production took two steps back when the decade changed over to

the 90's as several WCC teams strengthened their defensive games. Slowed by a

knee brace, Huss, now a senior, had her lowest scoring season still leading

the team with 19 goals, however en route to being named All-WCC for the fourth

time and All-State for an unprecedented third time. Junior Lynn Lattanzio

netted 14 goals for the 1990 team as it went 9-5-1 in its least-productive

regular season campaign.

1990 also saw the first year of the WCC semifinal playoffs where Newtown

defeated Brookfield 2-0 before going on to beat Weston 2-1 in the WCC title

game. Newtown finished the season 12-6-1 having beaten Ledyard 4-0 in the

state tournament before losing 4-2 to nationally-ranked Manchester, who had

been unscored upon all season before Lattanzio scored twice on direct kicks

against a gale-force wind.

l  Lattanzio returned as a senior captain along with Nadine Henchcliffe in

1991 and led the Lady Indians with 15 goals on the way to an All-State season.

Newtown played to a record of 12-1-1 and defeated Immaculate 4-1 in the

semifinals before being shocked by Brookfield 2-1 in the WCC championship.

Brookfield had defeated Weston in the semifinals setting up the first WCC

title game that didn't include a Newtown/Weston matchup.

NHS junior goalie Reagan Harris set a school record by recording 11 shutouts

in goal, including ten in a row allowing an amazing 0.77 goals per game (also

a school record). NHS sophomore Katie Ball was second on the team with 13

goals.

l  The WCC competition, and the defenses, improved even further by the 1992

season which saw the Lady Indians score only 38 goals all year (Katie Ball led

the team with eight). But the Newtown defense had improved also with Harris in

the goal and Kate McCarthy, and freshmen Melissa Eigen and Stephanie Nelson

snuffing off opponent's drives. The Lady Indians were 11-2 during the season

and won their fifth WCC crown by beating defending-champ Brookfield 3-2 in the

finals. Harris, Amy Beer, and Sarah McQuilkin were named All-WCC.

Newtown was hammered 7-1 by Guilford in the CIAC's first round.

l  NHS forwards Ball and McQuilkin led the 1993 team with nine and eight goals

respectively, both going on to earn All-WCC accolades as Newtown went 9-3-1,

chalked up another Briggs Division title, and made it back to the finals after

beating Immaculate on PK's in the semis. The old Newtown/Weston WCC final was

back on tap, and none was more evenly matched. While Weston had enjoyed an

undefeated season, Newtown scrapped for a 1-1 tie behind a goal by sophomore

Stephanie Nelson, and for the first time in WCC history forced a

co-championship. The title was the sixth in ten years for Newtown.

l  In the WCC's final year, Newtown entered into the season with its

strong-point being midfield. The result was several 2-0 and 2-1 victories as

the team piled up a 10-3-1 regular season record. Newtown got two goals from

junior Maria Robertson as they defeated Immaculate 2-1 in overtime of the WCC

semifinals, setting up yet another WCC title tilt with Weston.

Weston boasted perhaps its best team in school history, and had defeated NHS

2-0 during the regular season. Newtown's Steph Nelson was carted off the field

on a stretcher in one of the more physical WCC championship games, and Weston

came away with a 1-0 victory - claiming the final WCC trophy.

In eleven years, Newtown lost only 22 games to WCC teams (14 times to Weston)

and never lost a single game to WCC opponents Bethel, Pomperaug, New Milford,

or New Fairfield going 77-0 against those four schools. Newtown has scored a

total of 790 goals throughout its history and allowed only 193.

Newtown has outscored Bethel 126-1 while winning all 23 of the two teams'

meetings. Against Pomperaug, Newtown has been 16-0 outscoring the Panthers by

a 106-4 margin.

Newtown's all-time record against WCC teams was 123-22-5.

Time to start again.