This past week’s game action speaks a lot to what the season has been like on the whole for Newtown High School’s girls’ soccer team. The Nighthawks are coming off 1-1 ties with visiting Masuk of Monroe on October 3 and host Notre Dame-Fairfield on October 7. Through nine games, the Nighthawks have five deadlocks in South-West Conference play and are within a point or two of four teams in the standings that have more wins, in part because of the three draws they have had in SWC play. Wins are worth three points, and ties are good for one point.

Newtown carries a record of 3-1-5 overall and 3-1-3 into a Friday, October 11 tilt with visiting New Fairfield. There is a jumble of teams vying for a top spot and early-round home games in the playoffs. After Masuk at 6-0-1 in league play (7-1-1 overall), which has 19 points, comes Pomperaug of Southbury (the only team to defeat Newtown thus far, and a team NHS tied in another meeting) with 16 points. There are six teams separated by one or two points, and the Nighthawks have 12.

“The teams are good in the SWC,” Newtown Coach Marc Kenney said.

In terms of the standings, none are better than the Masuk Panthers. The draw with the Panthers was a good one for the Nighthawks, not only given Masuk’s record but how the game went. Karsen Pirone answered a goal by Masuk’s Kacey Lawrence in an evenly-played, back-and-forth battle.

“This was a great game in terms of our intensity, in terms of playing an opponent that’s going to be just as intense and just as physical as we are,” Kenney said. “This is a good tie.”

“I think it was a fair result tonight. We obviously wanted to win, but at the same time, Newtown is a good program,” Masuk Coach Jason Golesky added.

Newtown’s Ally McCarthy was given the unenviable assignment of marking Lawrence, one of the top players around, and did a stellar job, Kenney noted. Kenney likes the team’s defensive effort on the whole and would like to see his team improve in the offensive third of the field.

“We’ve been working really hard toward keeping the energy level up,” player Sydney Howard said. “I’m really proud of my team for fighting back against a team that’s as good as us.”

Howard went on to score Newtown’s only goal in the tie with Notre Dame, which has 14 points and a slight edge over much of that cluster of six teams.