NHS Girls’ Lacrosse—

Hawks Drop Pair, Then Rebound In Return To SWC Action

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s girls’ lacrosse team may have suffered back-to-back defeats this past week, but the Nighthawks are hopeful that those two losses will help lead to one (possibly two) big win(s).

Coach Maura Fletcher said before the season started that she expected her team to lose more games this year than it did last year. After all, a tougher schedule was made possible thanks to a split in the South-West Conference into two divisions, freeing up more open dates for tougher out-of-conference games. The coach scheduled six games against challenging out-of-conference teams in hopes of prepping her squad for not only another SWC championship — which would be the team’s eighth in a row — but also a possible run to a Class L state championship. Newtown, despite its SWC dominance, has struggled to get deep in the state bracket throughout the years and Fletcher is hopeful that more tests during the regular season will better prepare her squad for tough state competition.

The Nighthawks, on April 12, fell 13-10 to Cheshire, the second seed in last year’s Class L state tournament, which reached the semifinals. Then, on Monday, the Hawks lost 22-13 to New Canaan, a ten-win team that was seeded eighth in the Class M state tourney in 2011.

Newtown matched its loss total of a year ago and plenty of tough tests remain on the slate. The Hawks have yet to face Wilton, last year’s Class M tourney’s top seed, which won 14 games; as well as Hall of Hartford, which was seeded third in last year’s Class L tourney; Ridgefield, which was seeded 11th in the Class L bracket; and Glastonbury, last year’s Class L runners-up.

“It’s just making us a better team in the long run. They know that they have to work hard,” Fletcher said of her players. “Conference teams are getting so much better now and this is just great for us to get all the competition in.”

The coach expects a tough test from an improved New Fairfield squad, a conference foe NHS will visit on April 27. That’s after games with Wilton out of the FCIAC and Joel Barlow of Redding, which Newtown narrowly defeated twice last spring — including a 17-16 thriller in the conference title contest.

Fletcher believes her team is every bit as good as Cheshire, but that the Rams just beat her team to ground balls and possession off faceoffs. “I think that a loss, sometimes, is a good thing for a team,” said the coach, adding that the Hawks came to practice the next day working harder.

Then came the New Canaan game. Sure the final score was a nine-goal differential, but “it was not indicative of the game at all,” notes Fletcher, pointing out that Newtown trailed just 15-13 with about ten minutes to play.

“They started stalling the ball. We had to break the stall — send double teams out — and it just left us vulnerable and they were able to put a couple of goals on the scoreboard really quick.”

Fletcher said she was proud of her team’s efforts despite the fact the team struggled to keep balls out of its net and on the other end with shooting.

Newtown, which toppled conference rivals New Milford and Brookfield 20-9 and 18-8, respectively to begin the campaign, bounced back from those consecutive defeats to dominate Immaculate of Danbury 19-5 at Blue & Gold Stadium on Tuesday.

Meredith Bridges scored five times, Meaghan Brophy added four goals, and Erin Kenning had three in the rout.

In the defeat to Cheshire, Brophy scored four times and Tressa Scott and Kenning both had two tallies. Against New Canaan, Bridges had five goals, and Scott and Kenning each found the net three times.