By Kim J. Harmon

The Newtown and Bethel High School field hockey teams spent the first 60 minutes of the 2001 season battling through a scoreless tie. When the two schools renewed the rivalry on Tuesday at Blue & Gold Stadium, they spent another 60 minutes on the field and once again came to no resolution.

The 0-0 tie dropped the struggling Nighthawks to 1-5-3 on the season and with a pretty tough schedule on the horizon (Haddam-Killingworth, Masuk, Pomperaug and Shepaug are all waiting in the wings), the Nighthawks’ hopes of returning to the CIAC Class L state tournament seem to be fading.

The first half of the rematch with Bethel was largely a battle played out in the midfield. Although there were several penalty corner opportunities, there were few legitimate scoring chances for either team.

But with about a minute left in the half, Newtown had its best shot at the cage. Ellie Champagne – who was hitting the ball well all night – punched a ball to Mary Bell, who pushed it up to Morgan Pacheco. Pacheco then made a nice little move at the sidelines to shake her defender and carried the ball down near the strike circle. The drive on the cage was killed, however, when Pacheco’s centering pass into the circle was too high.

Later, Heather Morgan was forced to make a couple of close saves to preserve the scoreless tie.

In the second half, things seemed to pick up a little bit on the offensive end. With 15:44 left to play, Newtown dropped the ball into the circle and what followed as a furious scramble that came very close to caging a goal for the ‘Hawks.

And moments later, Bethel hit a hard smash that rifled by the right post of the cage. A few minutes after that, the Lady Wildcats attacked the other side of the cage and nearly snuck one inside the left post.

With four minutes to play, Newtown did get a ball into the cage but the shot came from beyond the circle and since there was no one inside the circle to touch it, it didn’t count.

The ‘Hawks outshot the Lady Bobcats, 11-10. Morgan made four saves on the night.

The ‘Hawks needed a win badly after dropping a 3-1 decision to Brookfield last Thursday. In that one, the Lady Bobcats out-shot the Hawks, 11-3, and won the game on goals by Amy Dudley, Jessica Beasley and Alex Arconti.

Morgan made six strong saves in the first half. She kept the ‘Hawks close – as did a goal by Pacheco – but the Lady Bobcats put the game away early in the second half. Second string goaltender Courtney Brown, subbing in for Morgan, made a brilliant stop on a penalty shot in the second half, but just a few seconds later – thanks, in large part, to a penalty – she was beaten on a hard hit from the top of the circle.

Brown finished with three saves.

The ‘Hawks hosted Weston on Thuesday (after press time) and will host Haddam-Killingworth on Saturday at 2:30 pm. A visit to New Milford will follow on Tuesday and a home game with Masuk will follow that on Thursday, October 18.