Boys Soccer Stunned by Oxford 3-2

The Newtown High School boys soccer team mustered all the chances it could in Tuesday's season-opener against Oxford, but it couldn't make them count. The Nighthawks hit the post three times within the first 33 minutes and had several shots narrowly sail wide of the net.

It was an unfamiliar predicament for Newtown, a perennial contender statewide. Midway through the first half, with his team surprisingly trailing 1-0, Newtown head coach Brian Neumeyer tried to instill some patience following another missed scoring opportunity.

"It will come," Neumeyer shouted from the sidelines.

He was right, it did come — it just wasn't enough.

Just 10 seconds after Newtown midfielder Josh Engler headed the ball into the net off a free kick — knotting the score 1-1 with 11:19 left in the first half — Oxford's Kevin Parkin cruised into the box untouched and fired a shot past goalkeeper Ishan Tatake.

Parkin's goal — his second on the afternoon — put the Wolverines in the lead and they held onto it for a shocking 3-2 victory over the Nighthawks at Oxford High School.

"It's a joke," Neumeyer said of Oxford's quick tally.

The loss drew the ire of Neumeyer, who criticized his players' efforts against a team that won just three games last year and finished at the bottom of the South-West Conference.

"That's a huge win for them, and they deserved it. We put our groups together, nine times out of 10, I think (Oxford) wins. Their players have a lot more desire and play with a lot more effort," he said. 

While Neumeyer said his team did everything it needed to do in its preparation for the game, he questioned his team's mentality.

"Mentally I think this group might be a little bit softer than I thought they were. We just might be a soft group. This might be the story all year," he said.

Newtown, which lost seven seniors from last year's team, fell behind 1-0 just 1:07 into the match, as Parkin moved in alone on Tatake and booted the ball into the corner of the net.

The Nighthawks tightened up their defense and entered halftime down just 2-1, but Oxford struck quickly again. Just 3:02 into the second half, the Wolverines extended their lead with a goal off a cross.

Newtown's Andre Capozziello added a goal with 12:17 remaining to trim the deficit to 3-2, but despite ample scoring opportunities, the heavily favored Nighthawks were unable to draw even.

Oxford head coach Charles Egerrari suggested that Oxford might have caught the Nighthawks off-guard.

"I'm saying this as a possibility, Newtown, falling back on their tradition and on their strength and on their past record, they may have said for themselves 'We've got these guys, we've got these guys,'" Egerrari said. "They always knew us that they can bury us and perhaps they got surprised."