Newtown Laxmen Fall In SWC Final, Look Ahead To States

By Andy Hutchison

REDDING – Newtown High School’s boys’ lacrosse team lost to New Fairfield in the South-West Conference championship game under the lights at Joel Barlow High School on Wednesday night. The tourney’s No. 2 seed, Newtown, couldn’t pull off the upset of top-seeded New Fairfield, which celebrated a 15-4 win on a clear but cool, mid-to-upper-40 degree night.

Despite the outcome, just getting to the conference’s pinnacle game was an achievement that can’t be overlooked from the Nighthawks’ perspective.

“If you would have asked me at the beginning of the season if I’d take being in the conference championship game I would have said yes in a heartbeat,” NHS coach Brian Micena said.

It’s not that he didn’t believe the Nighthawks could be good, but after an injury-filled season in which the Hawks went just 5-11, this year’s turnaround, which included a 13-3 regular campaign before winning a pair of SWC playoff games to advance to the final, was impressive.

“I’m so proud of where they’ve come from and where they are,” Micena said.

Things looked good for the Nighthawks early in the championship game. NHS goaltender Max Beitel made a save just seconds into the game and the Nighthawks proceeded to score in the first minute and twice in the first two minutes to grab an early 2-0 advantage. Kevin Canavan scored 51 seconds into the contest and set up Will Mahony for a 2-0 edge just 1:41 into the game. The New Fairfield Rebels answered 16 seconds later and the score remained 2-1 Nighthawks for almost the rest of the opening quarter. Newtown’s Ben Mahony made a slick spin move to elude a defender before whipping home a high shot for a 3-1 lead with just 28.7 seconds left in the quarter.

Newtown’s 3-1 lead slowly disappeared as Rebels fought back to tie the game by the mid-point of the second quarter. The momentum quickly shifted dramatically as the Rebels reeled off seven second quarter goals for an 8-3 halftime lead.

Newtown’s Christian Beitel scored in the fourth quarter to snap a long scoreless drought but it was too little too late for the underdogs. New Fairfield (unbeaten and now 19-0 overall) dominated after overcoming Newtown’s fast start. The Rebels did a better job getting to loose balls and putting pressure on the NHS players, much like Newtown did to them in the opening quarter.

“I think if we were able to possess the ball a little bit more we would have been in better shape,” Micena said.

Sean Macey led the Rebels with six goals and tourney MVP CJ Costadile registered four tallies as the Rebels finished the game with a decisive 44-25 shots advantage. Max Beitel made several good saves early in the game but the Rebels just kept attacking. New Fairfield, the SWC’s Patriot Division champions, had beaten NHS, the Colonial Division champs, 18-6 in the regular season.

After the game, the Nighthawks accepted their runner-up trophy. Newtown High shared SWC Sportsmanship Award accolades with Bethel High and earned a plaque which was accepted by Micena at midfield.

NHS now turns its attention to the Class LL State Tournament which will get underway Saturday with a 1 pm home tilt against Norwalk. Newtown is the state tourney’s No. 4 seed and Norwalk (8-8), which plays in the FCIAC, is the No. 13 team.  The Hawks beat Norwalk 17-5 late in the season and should have plenty of confidence as they look to bounce back from the SWC defeat.

“We’ve got to go in feeling confident, especially after a night like (Wednesday),” Micena said. “We play better when we’re loose.”

With a win in Saturday’s first-round clash, the Hawks will likely tangle with No. 5 Fairfield Prep out of the Southern Connecticut Conference in the quarterfinal round on Tuesday, June 3. Prep (12-4) would first have to get past No. 12 Cheshire (8-8). NHS may have a slightly better record and, thus, a better seeding than Prep, but the Hawks know all too well how tough that matchup would be. Newtown fell 18-6 at Prep back on April 5 – in the second game of the campaign. Micena knows it would be a tough game but hold confidence in his upstart squad.

“We’ve come a long way since then,” he said.

Now the question is, how far will the Nighthawks go?