Newtown High School's girls' lacrosse team was clicking on all cylinders in its South-West Conference Tournament opener. The No 3 Nighthawks were favorites on paper but had lost to their opponents, the Brookfield Bobcats, 8-5 back in April. Whatever doubt there may have been was quickly erased as the host Nighthawks jumped out to an early lead and pulled away for an 18-4 triumph over the No 6 Bobcats at Blue & Gold Stadium in the quarterfinals on May 19.

Newtown earned a visit to No 2 Masuk of Monroe in the semifinals on Thursday, May 21 at 4:45 pm. The Nighthawks defeated visiting Masuk 8-6 in their regular-season meeting on May 14.

In the playoff victory over the Bobcats, draw specialist Elise Ansman set the tone with her one-on-one work. Natalie McLean had six draw controls and racked up eight goals to power Newtown into the next round.

"Full field, really great team play — it started at the draw with Elise," Newtown Coach Stephanie Suhoza said of her team's all around effort.

In addition to McLean's overflowing handful of draw controls, Ansman won three of the draws herself, and Blake Heim-Sherwood and Sara Ruddy both had a pair of draw controls. Nicki Kaplan and Ruddy both had three goals, Heim-Sherwood had two goals and an assist, and Gabby O'Sullivan notched a goal and three assists. Goaltender Emily Sachs made a dozen saves in a strong effort between the posts.

The Nighthawks scored the first two goals and answered Brookfield's first net-finder with two more for a 4-1 advantage. It was 4-2 after one quarter and the Bobcats pulled to within 4-3 before the Hawks seized control for good, reeling off ten straight tallies. Newtown scored seven unanswered to close out the first half with a commanding 11-3 lead.

The goals came in a variety of ways, some in transition solo efforts and others via nice passing plays, including O'Sullivan finding Kaplan and Ruddy with great passes. There were one-timers, fakes, high shots, low shots. McLean also did some of her damage by capitalizing on free position shots after being fouled. McLean could not be contained and was fouled with just one second left in the opening half. She unleashed a high, hard blast immediately following the restart whistle and netted the team's 11th goal just as time expired.

Newtown picked up where it left off with a goal in the opening moments of the third and the Hawks established a double-digit lead and running clock for most of the second half. McLean used some nifty spin moves to elude defenders on her way to a pretty goal late in the third and Newtown carried a 15-4 lead to the fourth.

It is one thing to bounce back and avenge an earlier loss to an opponent. It is quite another to turn the score around so dramatically. Suhoza attributes the vastly different outcome to the fact the first meeting was on April 21, while the Nighthawks were still settling into the season.

"We were finding our own rhythm — it was an early-season loss," Suhoza said.

Newtown headed into its semifinal matchup looking to avoid seeing the Masuk Panthers similarly turn the tables on them. McLean was mostly contained in the goal-scoring department, but netted a goal, had two assists, and got three draw controls to help the Hawks in the May 14 win over Masuk. Ruddy netted a trio of goals, Heim-Sherwood had two, and Peyton Merrifield and Delia Stango also scored. Sachs was outstanding in net, compiling 14 stops.

"Always look forward to it. It's always a great, competitive game — we know it's going to be a battle," Suhoza said of facing the Panthers.

The winner advances to take on either No 1 New Fairfield or No 4 Joel Barlow of Redding in the title game at Western Connecticut State University Tuesday, May 26 at 7 pm.

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