Hawks Fall In State Quarterfinals—

Nighthawk Laxmen Avert One Upset, But Not Another

By Andy Hutchison

Seedings can be deceptive. Just ask members of the Newtown High School boys’ lacrosse team.

The top seed in the Class L State Tournament, Newtown had its hands full in a first-round clash with No. 17 Cheshire, overcoming a fourth-quarter deficit to escape with a 13-10 win over the Rams at Blue and Gold Stadium on June 1. That set up a meeting with No. 8 Simsbury, also at Blue and Gold, in the quarterfinals on June 4. The Nighthawks could not avert this upset bid, falling 12-9 in a closely-contested battle.

Simsbury broke a tie with less than a second to play in the third quarter and didn’t relinquish the lead in a back-and-fourth fourth quarter. Newtown was within striking distance, down 9-8 when Lewis Thompson scored with 9:39 to play. But Simsbury scored two goals 11 seconds apart late in the fourth and pulled away to end a memorable Newtown season, which included a run to the South-West Conference championship.

“It’s definitely a tough feeling. We were in it the entire game and Simsbury just came up with those plays they needed at the end of the game, so you’ve got to take your hat off to those guys. They worked hard and they outplayed us at the end of the game when it mattered — in the fourth quarter,” Newtown Coach Glenn Adams said.

Dan Sclafani, Thompson, Colby Summerlin, and Justin Brophy all scored two goals, and Will Northrop also found the net in the Simsbury game. NHS goaltender Brandon Body made ten saves. His counterpart, Parker Burr was peppered with Newtown scoring chances and stopped 18 shots. Simsbury got four goals each from Timothy Bulmer and Trevor Gallagher.

The Nighthawks, in their comeback win over Cheshire, erased an early 5-2 deficit and outscored the Rams 4-0 in the final period to get the win. Sclafani, Brophy, and Summerlin all scored three times and Body made ten saves. Newtown had lost to Cheshire in last year’s state tourney quarterfinals when Cheshire was the No. 2 seed and Newtown was the No. 7 team. Cheshire went on to capture the title a season ago and the Nighthawks set out to have a better postseason showing this spring.

Adams was proud of his team for putting in a solid effort — beginning with offseason training — and culminating with the Hawks achieving one of its two title goals. Newtown aimed to win both conference and state titles, and the players will be able to look back on the season, as a whole, as a success.

“They worked hard all preseason, during the season as well. And they put together a great postseason run here, winning four games in a row, and we just came up a little short,” Adams said of the team’s run to the SWC crown, and first-round state tourney win.

Newtown will lose nine seniors to graduation, leaving big shoes fill next spring.

“I’m definitely going to miss their leadership, so it’s definitely a class I’ll miss,” Adams said.