Newtown High School athletes Annie Fowler, Anna Mattioli, Sarah Hornby, Catie Gregory, and Bridget Nicholson are lacing up the skates for the second varsity season of the Masuk of Monroe-led high school girls' hockey program.

The Panthers, comprising 25 players - a dozen from Masuk along with the handful from Newtown, four from Joel Barlow of Redding, three from Oxford, and one from Bethel - will begin the season on Friday, December 8, when they take on Trumbull-St Joseph, at The Rinks at Shelton, beginning at 5:30 pm.

Coach Andy Townsend's team, which went 5-12-1 in its first varsity campaign after a few seasons at the club level, earned its first varsity win in a wild 12-9 victory over the Trumbull team last December. The team also defeated Guilford and Lauralton Hall of Milford twice each.

"Hopefully we can build off that this year," Nicholson, a sophomore forward, said before her team took on New Canaan in a preseason scrimmage in Shelton, on Sunday, December 3.

Nicholson and Hornby, a senior forward, return from last year. Gregory, a sophomore, is back on the ice having played when she was younger and being away from the game. Fowler, a forward, and Mattioli, a defenseman, are freshman newcomers.

About 40 percent of the roster includes new-to-hockey players, Townsend said.

"We're trying to be competitive in the games we play and keep building the program in the right direction," said Townsend, who also leads the Masuk boys team.

Townsend said the team should be most competitive in two games with Trumbull, and two each with Lauralton Hall and Guilford again, along with contests with Stamford, and Wilton - the latter being a potentially tough one.

While the Panthers may have their hands full against longer-established varsity programs on the schedule, those games can benefit the developing squad.

"It's good for the girls to see what really good hockey looks like - maybe motivate them to get to that level at some point," Townsend said. "I just want them to compete every game and try to get better every game."

One of those tests will come when the team hosts Hamden on Wednesday, December 13, at 5 pm.

The team's goaltenders are Oxford's Emma Reynolds and Bethel's lone representative Kayden Fernandez.

Having a roster of players from five schools makes for an unusual team, but it is a close group, the coach and players say.

"You'd think they are all from the same school the way they get along," Townsend said.

"I think we're going to really work well together as a team," Gregory added.