Newtown Girls Soccer Posts First Season Loss

Any teams aiming for the South-West Conference title need to beat the Masuk girls soccer team. Masuk has been a perennial powerhouse and showed its winning form on Tuesday afternoon in the rain in a 4-0 home victory over Newtown.

"It's very satisfying," said Panthers coach Eleanor Brainard. "We have a long way to go. We were playing without a few starters earlier in the year and it's good to get them back. A lot of kids stepped up today."

Masuk raised its record to 3-1-2. Newtown suffered its first loss of the year and dropped to 4-1-3.

"It's significant because it proves we can beat good teams and it's a confidence-builder," said Brianard. "They see this is the level they have to play at in order to win these type of games."

Although the Nighthawks outshot the Panthers, 9-6, they felt their hosts outplayed them and deserved the victory.

"(Masuk players) were outstanding and took it to us," said Newtown coach Mark Kenney. "We were outworked. Masuk decided it wanted to win, we decided we only wanted to show up and felt maybe we can, maybe we can't win. We can't do that, especially against a great team like Masuk."

Nighthawks sophomore Brittany Tolla took a few shots but Panther senior tri-captain goalie Emily Antanucci (nine saves) was there to stop her. Antanucci caught one of her shots from point-blank range in the second half.

Getting to the net wasn't easy for Tolla because junior Jill Scholler guarded her like a blanket.

"I stayed with her and I knew where she was at all times," Scholler said. "Whenever she got the ball, I followed her and made sure she didn't do any damage."            

Scholler anchored Masuk's defense, which kept the ball away from Antanucci for the most part. Complementing her on defense were seniors Ali Muro and Amy Klopp.

"We were all composed and the defense was solid," said Scholler. "We all wanted it so badly."

The Panthers took a 1-0 lead late in the first half when senior tri-captain Marissa Maiolo scored on a free kick.

 Masuk later had a chance to make it 5-0 but Newtown senior quad-captain midfielder Sarah Attanasio kicked it out of the net. Senior quad-captain Lauren Meyer also played well for the Nighthawks.

"We just didn't play as hard as we could have," said Meyer. "The conditions weren't great but that wasn't an excuse."

Newtown hopes to get back on the winning track on Thursday when it travels to Weston.

"One loss is no big deal and it's not the end of the world," said Kenney. "We just have to play harder."

Meyer said, "We just have to focus. We've had opportunities and we need to put the ball in the back of the net."