Coming off winning the South-West Conference title, the postseason and winning ways continued for the Newtown High School girls' lacrosse team in the Class L State Tournament on May 30. Newtown entered as the sixth seed in the state bracket and hosted No. 11 Fairfield Ludlowe in the first round. It was a rematch of a hard-fought 17-13 Newtown win on May 13. This time around, the Nighthawks had to come from behind and hold off a late-game Falcon rally to advance. The Nighthawks won 11-10 and moved on to face No. 3 Wilton on the road in the second round on Thursday, June 1, at 7 pm.

Against Ludlowe, Summer Harrell again found the back of the net often, logging seven goals to go along with four draw controls and three ground balls. Bella Gerace scored three times and added two assists and two grounders. Ava Mitchell had the other Nighthawks tally, and Jules Battaglia, Natalie McLean, and Brooke Bulkley each had an assist.

Ludlowe earned 12 draw controls and the Nighthawks won nine and had to use strong defense and goaltending to overtime the Falcons’ slight edge in that department. Alexa Manfredonia made eight saves, including five in the first half to keep things close as the Falcons built a 6-4 lead through 25 minutes of action.

Harrelll scored the first two goals of the second half to knot things at 6-6, and Gerace gave the Nighthawks a 7-6 edge. The Falcons answered but Newtown countered with a trio of tallies in a span of 3:01 to build a 10-7 advantage with 10:10 to go. Harrell scored twice more to sandwich a goal by Mitchell as the Hawks created a bit of breathing room.

A pair of quick Ludlowe strikes pulled the Falcons back to within one at 10-9 with 7:47 showing on the scoreboard clock. Harrell again came through; she got past defenders and bounced home a shot to make it 11-9 with 6:43 remaining. That proved to be the game-winner.

The Falcons still had plenty of time and took advantage of a player advantage resulting from a yellow card issued against the Hawks. A goal with 3:22 remaining again made this a one-goal nail-biter. A late Nighthawk turnover almost resulted in the Falcons getting the score even, but Manfredonia came up with a clutch save. Newtown got possession and managed to chew the final two-or-so minutes off the clock to ice things. A Ludlowe yellow card with 1:46 left gave the Hawks a player advantage and they passed the ball around with relative ease on the offensive end of the field.

Harrell caused two turnovers and Battaglia forced another, and Battaglia and Socci both finished with a pair of ground ball scoops to help the Hawks fend off the Falcons.

“Defense really gritted it out,” Newtown Coach Maura Fletcher said.

Wilton was an 18-1 winner over No. 14 Norwalk in the opening round.

“We know we have our work cut out for us,” said Fletcher, adding that the Hawks would need everybody to play their best game to stay in it against such a formidable FCIAC team, which gets a regular dose of competition with perennial state powerhouses Darien and New Canaan.

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