For two quarters, it appeared visiting and No. 6 seed New Milford might have a chance to upset No. 3 Newtown High School's boys' lacrosse team in the May 19 South-West Conference Tournament quarterfinals. Newtown broke a late first-half tie and built on its lead early in third to avert defeat, winning 8-3, and advancing to the semifinals and a visit to No. 2 New Fairfield, scheduled for Thursday, May 22 at 6 pm.

The game was tied 2-2 late in the second quarter when Charlie Massett scored for a 3-2 lead just 3:54 before the intermission. In the final minute, Nighthawk goaltender Andrew Faircloth made one of his nine saves, among six in the second quarter alone, keeping the Nighthawks ahead.

Newtown seized control right out of the second-half gate with Nate Pickard striking just 27 seconds into the third. Graham Spencer got possession off the ensuing draw and set up Luke Stewart for a goal less than a minute later. Nick Stockwell added to the lead, and the Hawks doubled their first-half goal total in less than four minutes of second-half game time.

The Green Wave scored late in the third to make it 6-3 but the score stayed that way until two Nighthawk goals 57 seconds apart late in the fourth. Stockwell set up Stewart from behind the net for a quick catch and shoot goal, and Marcus Gerace added a tally with three minutes to go.

"We prepare for games like this. We prepare for tight games and big moments," Newtown Coach Tony Fitti said.

The Newtown coach praised the efforts of New Milford. "They put the pressure on us which we knew would be the case," he added.

Gerace and Stewart both scored twice, Massett and Stockwell both finished with a goal and an assist, and Owen Hannah and Pickard each scored once. Asher Williams led Newtown with seven ground ball scoops and Spencer recorded five ground balls.

The game got a little messy in the final minutes with some pushing and shoving that began to escalate when officials intervened and called a handful of players for unnecessary roughness penalties. Cooler heads prevailed for last two minutes as Newtown ran out the clock. Some of the rough play may have been spillover from a recent clash between the foes; this was the second time the teams played in a week with NHS winning 11-5 at New Milford in the regular season matchup on May 15.

Newtown lost to New Fairfield 11-1 on May 1. Top seed Joel Barlow of Redding and No. 4 Bethel advanced in the other quarterfinal matchups.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.