Alison Kelleher ended overtime with the only cage-finder of the night as Newtown High School's field hockey team came away with a 1-0 victory at nonconference foe Trumbull, on October 24.

An hour of 11 on 11 play was enough to decide each of the 14 games both the visiting Nighthawks and host Trumbull Eagles had played coming into the game.

Newtown prevailed with 3:43 remaining in the ten-minute, seven on seven overtime period as Lauren Zimmerman assisted the game-winner moments after Megan Kelleher intercepted a clearing attempt and sent the ball into the goal area.

The Nighthawks generated several chances throughout the game

"Both teams came out with high intensity tonight," said Newtown Coach Stephanie Kearns, whose team improved to 8-7 overall heading into a Wednesday, October 26 Senior Night clash with Watertown, at Blue & Gold Stadium, beginning at 7 pm.

Newtown goaltender Natalie Shaker made five saves. Trumbull had eight of the game's 13 penalty corners, four of which came in the final five minutes of regulation - including a trio in the same sequence in the final frantic minute-plus of action.

Shaker and the Newtown defense, led by Megan Goyda and Olivia Butler, were up to the task.

Newtown had the only penalty corner in OT as Alison Kelleher and Hana Rosenthal created an opportunity that led to a corner about a minute before the goal was scored.

Kearns was pleased with how her players stepped up with scoring threat Emily Dirga sidelined. Danielle Samson made multiple plays to get the ball into the middle but Trumbull's defense equaled Newtown's stinginess for most of the night.

After the Watertown game, the Nighthawks will begin the postseason with a visit to Joel Barlow of Redding in the South-West Conference tournament's first round. The game date it to be determined.

Newtown is the No. 8 seed and Barlow is the top seed and was unbeaten in conference heading into the final week. Despite this, the Nighthawks have plenty of reason for confidence, having lost only 1-0 to the Falcons in the regular-season meeting between the rivals.

"Barlow's a very strong team," Kearns said. "If our team plays with this amount of confidence and this high level of play they had tonight we have a good chance."