The goals kept coming — a season-best half dozen of them to be exact — and the wins continue to pile up as well as Newtown High School’s boys’ soccer team put together a dominating performance en route to a 6-0 triumph over visiting Abbott Tech of Danbury at Blue & Gold Stadium on November 3.

This was Newtown’s second-to-last tilt of the campaign and, following Thursday’s scheduled match with a Brookfield team the Nighthawks previously defeated in convincing fashion by a 5-0 tally, it’s on to the South-West Conference North Division postseason tournament. Newtown’s only blemishes, if you will, are 1-1 ties with Bethel and New Fairfield as the Hawks carried a 9-0-2 mark into the season-ender.

Newtown Coach Ryan Lyddy said the staff pushes a high-energy brand of soccer that features solid possession, discipline, working together, and being in the right position during game action or when organizing set plays.

“They’ve kind of put it all together and this is what happens,” Lyddy said of his team heading into the playoffs as the number one seed.

The Hawks bested visiting New Milford 4-1 on October 29. Tanner Trede scored twice, once off an assist from Jake Gonski who also scored, and New Milford allowed an own goal on a bad bounce off a Gonski cross.

Newtown seized a 2-0 lead at the half against Abbott Tech, as Ryan Ruddy scored and assisted Jack Petersen who headed home a free kick send from the left-footed Ruddy. That combo worked again in the second half as Ruddy assisted Petersen on a corner kick from the right side; Petersen went high above the defense on the far side of the goal to capitalize on a perfectly placed cross to make it 3-0 early in the second half. Another Ruddy corner set up Adem Selmani about eight minutes later, making it 4-0 with 26:45 to play.

Gonski smashed a hard shot off a bouncer from outside the 18-yard box, straight on, extending the lead to 5-0 a little more than three minutes later. Cam Whorf capped the scoring when he deposited a shot following a left side cross by Johnny Moxham with 19:16 to go. The visiting Wolverines had trouble getting the ball out of the defensive side of the field thanks to solid possession by the Nighthawks — the starters and substitutes alike.

“Our depth has been a huge part of our success,” said Tyler Grosso, adding that whether it’s the senior starters or sophomores off the bench, the Hawks maintain a high level of play.

Newtown has 15 seniors, and one of them, Petersen, pointed out that all of these final-year players add to the leadership provided by captains including Grosso, Trede, and Ruddy. A bulk of the Newtown team members have played together for several years, Petersen added. That familiarity has made for good teamwork.

“The chemistry’s been really good on and off the field. I think we’re really close,” Trede noted.

Ruddy is optimistic the Hawks can continue to make noise in the postseason. “We’ve just got to play our game. We can play against anyone at any level,” Ruddy said.

Win or lose, having the opportunity to play out a season is a triumph of sorts in this coronavirus-impacted slate.

“We’re just glad we get to come out here and play every day. We’re having a lot of fun,” Petersen said.