NHS Boys’ Soccer Team Getting Healthy, Strives For Turnaround

By Andy Hutchison

Tuesday night was a big one for the Newtown High School boys’ soccer team. The Nighthawks settled for a 1-1 tie with visiting Joel Barlow, but win, lose, or draw this was going to be good night for the Hawks all things considered. Three of the team’s starters who missed the beginning of the campaign with injuries made their game debuts, triggering hope for a turnaround in what has been an up and down season thus far.

Sure, the Nighthawks have held their own, sporting a 2-3-1 record, but Coach Brian Neumeyer and his players had higher expectations even with the injury bug biting the Hawks — in a big way.

Senior captain Andrew Meisel, who was out with a fractured wrist, made his return a memorable one with the home team’s lone goal.

“It feels pretty good but, obviously, I’d love to win that game,” Meisel said. “We had our chances.”

Senior Andrew Domingos — back from a torn ACL — was happy to be able to participate in a game after missing summer premier play.

“It’s a good feeling coming back,” he said.

Connor Collier, who was asked to shift from his regular forward position to goalkeeper this year, broke his hand on the first day of tryouts. On Tuesday he back at his old field position.

“When I hurt my hand I was pretty upset I couldn’t help them anymore,” Collier said. But getting back into game action was rewarding for the senior. “It feels really good. I thought I was out for the whole season. It feels good to be out there on the field with the guys.”

Senior captain Chris Marks, who sustained broken bones in his leg a year ago, has been with the team throughout the current season but more players are still out of the lineup for various reasons, including injury.

“It’s always good to have almost a full squad back, but it’s still going to take some time for them to fit into the group and acclimate themselves,” Neumeyer said. “We have some work to do. We’re really looking forward to getting the whole group back and making a push in the second half.”

Almost halfway through the 15-game regular season, Newtown needs to find a way to win the close games in order to be a factor in the South-West Conference and state playoffs.

With Collier unable to man the nets, the tandem of senior Steve Musco and sophomore Ishan Tatake have platooned in goal. “They’ve done well,” Neumeyer said.

Newtown began the season with a 3-0 loss to Brookfield, beat Kolbe Cathedral 1-0, and lost to Masuk 3-1 before easily defeating a clearly weaker Immaculate team (6-0 on September 18).

“We had just come off a pretty bad loss. Obviously we have to win that game or it’s going to be a pretty long season,” Meisel said.

After the lopsided win, however, Newtown fell 1-0 to Pomperaug and the Nighthawks were hoping for a winning outcome against Barlow this week.

“We’ve just got to get these close games to go our way,” Collier said.

Newtown’s next game will be Friday at Bethel. The Hawks return home Monday to play Stratford at Treadwell Park (3:45 pm).

“I think we’re only going to get better from here,” junior captain Evan Kennedy said.