Rivals Newtown and Masuk Battle to 2-2 Draw

As the final seconds ticked down for the Newtown High boys soccer team against longstanding rival Masuk Tuesday night, both teams had already provided the fans surrounding rain-soaked Tilson Field with breathtaking and high-intensity moments.

All that was missing was a winner.

With Newtown trailing 2-1 with 11 minutes in the second half, Nighthawks midfielder Hank Helgren received a perfectly placed cross from teammate Ryan Dunnigan in the box and blasted a shot past Masuk goalkeeper Mathew Pils. Helgren's goal solidified Newtown's second second-half comeback of the night, which proved to be the final tally by either side in a 2-2 draw.

The Nighthawks, who had their three-game winning streak end, moved to 4-2-2 overall while Masuk again let a potential victory slip away late and is now 1-3-4.

The Panthers led 1-0 at halftime but Newtown forward Andre Capozziello — fresh off a three-goal performance in a win Saturday against Holy Cross — scored the equalizer just six minutes into the second half off an assist from Dunnigan.

Despite battling from behind twice over the final 40 minutes, the Nighthawks weren't content walking away with just one point.

"We feel like we should've gotten three points out of this," Newtown goalkeeper Ishan Tatake said. "We showed some character battling back twice to tie it up. We still should've won the game I thought."

If it weren't for Masuk forward Rob Nilan, who scored two goals with his head on the evening, the Nighthawks might have been able to do that.

Nilan opened the scoring 16 minutes into the first half when, on teammate Eric Dolon's free kick from 40 yards out, he out-jumped a pair of defenders and headed the ball past a diving Tatake and into the back of the net.

Less than one minute after Capozziello knotted the score for Newtown, Nilan put the Panthers ahead again 2-1. Midfielder Josh Mondo drilled a shot which bounced off the crossbar and Nilan alertly tracked down the rebound and knocked it home.

The quick tally lifted Masuk's spirits and in the end, deflated the Nighthawks' hopes of escaping the tense South-West Conference battle with three points.

"That killed us, letting in a quick counter goal there," Newtown coach Brian Neumeyer said. "That killed us. We needed to hold them off for a little bit longer than that."

Despite earning one point, the Panthers, who have also tied Stratford, Pomperaug and Bethel this year, were a "little frustrated" with the result, Masuk coach Brian Humpal explained.

"It kind of feels like a loss. When you give up a late (goal) like that," Humpal said, "you feel like you were going to walk out with a win."

Because of Masuk's inability this season to turn those close-calls into wins, the players have been pressing late in matches, Humpal noted.

"We're not real confident right now so we're not finishing games off. We're getting a lead and we're getting tense," he said. "We're playing not to lose instead of trying to continue to play to win."