Newtown High School's boys' lacrosse team racked up the goals - a dozen by halftime - en route to a 19-2 triumph over visiting Pomperaug of Southbury at Blue & Gold Stadium, on April 21.

Jared Pearson led the way with seven goals and four assists, and Matt Meyers notched four goals and a pair of assists. Layton Harrell and Mark Hall both hit the back of the net twice. Evan Eggleston had a goal and two assists, and Elliot Gregory added a net-finder and a helper.

Despite doing to the Panthers almost exactly what they had done to Notre Dame-Fairfield in an 18-2 triumph two days earlier, the Nighthawks aren't about to get caught up in celebrating their fourth win of the campaign as there is still more than half the season ahead.

"Our thing is to constantly get better every game," Newtown Coach Scott Bulkley said. "We're still trying to clean up a lot of mistakes - be more efficient offensively."

After all, there have been some challenging games already (the Nighthawks have been beaten and carry a 4-3 overall record into a Tuesday, April 26, matchup with visiting Weston, beginning at 7 pm), and there stands to be some stiff tests the rest of the way. Newtown will face tough South-West Conference rivals New Fairfield and Bethel, and tangle with several nonconference opponents, including Staples of Westport and Simsbury, both of which were unbeaten heading into the final week of April.

Some of the success Newtown has had may be attributed to its faceoff dominance, led by specialist Mark Urso, who won 16 of 21 draws in the win over Pomperaug.

"It's a unique game where you can make it, take it," Bulkley said.

"He works hard," Bulkley said of Urso, adding that Steven Faxlanger and Chad Azzarito are also instrumental in the Hawks getting the ball off the draw because they recognize when to box out opponents or hustle to ground balls if Urso doesn't win possession cleanly.

Much of the time, Urso gathers the ball on his own and sets up the offense.

"I just love doing it," Urso said of taking faceoffs, adding that he practices the art of winning the draw repeatedly every day.

"I can't share my techniques," Urso said with a smile.

The Nighthawks lost a bulk of their players to graduation a year ago, but have hopes of making runs deep into the conference and state tournaments in about a month. The Hawks have won three of their last four, handling Stratford 15-1 and beating a tough Conard squad 12-7, before losing to SWC rival Joel Barlow of Redding 11-6. Barlow, which survived Newtown's late seven-goal comeback to win in overtime in last year's Division I conference championship game, entered into the final week of this month having scored in double digits in each of its six wins. For what it's worth, Newtown held Barlow to its lowest goal total in a win; the Falcons do have a pair of losses - to Wantagh of New York and the aforementioned unscathed Simsbury.

Bulkley likes the progress he's seen but wants his players to continue to make strides as they tune up for the postseason.

"We're progressing, getting better. We're nowhere where we want to be but we're moving in the right direction," the coach said.