Nonconference Clashes Serve As Playoff Tune-ups

By Andy Hutchison

The defending South-West Conference champion girls’ and boys’ lacrosse teams from Newtown High benefited from losses this year — in more ways than one. The conference split into two divisions, putting both Nighthawk squads up against the other top teams in the conference in the Division I bracket.

The loss of the D-II teams opened up dates for a few more nonconference tilts for the Nighthawks to test themselves against tough competition and, the coaches hoped, prepare their teams for the tough opponents that await in the conference and state playoffs. That resulted in losses, for the girls’ and boys’ teams, to out-of-conference foes. The girls fell to Cheshire and New Canaan early in the season, and the boys dropped games to Glastonbury and Staples of Westport. Those setbacks accounted for four of the collective five defeats between the Nighthawk squads as they headed into their final two games to close out the regular campaign this week. The girls, perfect within the conference dating back to 2006, remain that way and the boys suffered their lone SWC setback to Joel Barlow of Redding.

But not all was lost in any of those setbacks in the sense that the NHS teams gained a little something — being battle-tested — as they embark on what Maura Fletcher, coach of the girls, and Glenn Adams, coach of the boys, hope are repeat SWC performances and runs deep into the state bracket.

They have also both won some of their out-of-conference battles. Among the boys’ wins were hard-fought victories over St Joseph of Trumbull and East Lyme. The girls, meanwhile, beat Wilton, Hall Of Hartford, Ridgefield and, most recently, Glastonbury, winning four of their six out-of-SWC games, all against top-ten state teams.

“It does not only feed confidence to my team but continues to prove that Newtown has a strong presence in the state come time to look at All State athletes,” Fletcher said.

The boys’ team lost hold of a precarious 5-4 lead early in the second half, and ultimately lost the game, 8-5 to Staples under bright sunny skies at Blue & Gold Stadium on May 12. The Nighthawks got two goals apiece from Brendan McNamara and Justin Brophy, and one off the stick of Cory Fisher in the defeat.

“It’s definitely a good matchup for us. Obviously it’s one of our last big matchups before we hit the playoffs,” said Adams, whose team was 12-3 overall (7-1 in the conference) heading into Wednesday’s scheduled season finale against Stratford.

Adams, however, believes his team beat itself in the Staples contest. “We just didn’t value the ball when it came down to it. We had too many unforced errors. We just threw the ball away on defense, offense. And when you give a team like that too many opportunities you’re just not going to come out on top,” Adams said.

The boys were coming off a 15-1 win over Immaculate of Danbury on May 9. McNamara had five goals. Tom Bauer scored three times, and Brophy and Trey Trudell each had a couple of net-finders in the win.

The girls’ squad, coming off a 19-6 thumping of Stratford on May 10, went on the road and edged Glastonbury 10-8 on May 12.

In the win over Stratford, NHS got four goals from Meredith Bridges and three each from Alexa Powell and Caroline Kingsley.

Against Glastonbury, Newtown trailed 6-4 at halftime but outscored its opponents 6-2 after the break to pull out the win. Tressa Scott, Erin Kenning, Julia Trudell, and Meaghan Brophy all scored twice and goaltender Celeste Cheung made 15 saves. Cassie Ekstrom stood out defensively as she had four of the team’s five interceptions and ten of the team’s 16 takeaways to earn the game ball.

The boys and girls both have quarterfinal-round byes in the SWC playoffs, and will play semifinal contests on May 23 for the right to play in the championships. No matter which schools make it, both title games will be held at Blue & Gold Stadium — the girls at 5 pm and the boys at 7 — on Friday, May 25.