Newtown High School’s boys’ lacrosse team enters into the new season with its usual aspirations in place and good reason for confidence in putting together a winning campaign.

“Our goals are always the same — we strive to be great community members, students, and lacrosse players on a daily basis. If we are maximizing our potential it should translate into success in all three categories. We expect our group to work hard every day and focus on the things we can control. Our hope is that we are playing our best lacrosse as a team in May and June. We focus on putting the work in now for future success, short term and long term,” Coach Tony Fitti said.

Newtown went 5-6 in South-West Conference play last spring and won their first-round Class L State Tournament game and the prospects for an above .500 slate bode well given all that is in place and given the experience players gained.

“We are returning almost all of our offensive players who have all taken big steps in their development. We played a lot of freshmen and sophomores last year in big roles. The experience our young players had last year, along with upperclassmen talent and leadership should put us in a good offensive position this year,” Fitti said. “The plan is to be balanced; defensively we return some key contributors from last year’s team who are athletic, work extremely hard, and bring a ton of energy every day.”

Captains are junior defender Cole Stockwell, junior midfielder Marcus Gerace, senior midfielder Charlie Massett, and senior defender Brendan Connors.

Other key team members include senior long stick midfielders Asher Williams and Charlie Dunn; senior midfielders Marty Dunn and Gavin Doyle; senior defender Brady Brosius; junior midfielder Luke Stewart; junior defender C.J. Manfredonia; and sophomore attack player Nick Stockwell.

The Nighthawks will test themselves in and out of the SWC.

“We have added a few really strong programs this year in Southington and Stamford. Both programs are well coached and play in tough conferences. We are really excited to test ourselves in a big way this year,” Fitti said. “Trumbull is always another tough opponent; we are pumped to host them for our 15 For Life game on May 3 (at 7 pm). The SWC is a loaded conference with a lot of great teams and well-coached programs. We are excited for the challenges the SWC gives us every night.”

The season begins Saturday, April 5, with a visit to Fairfield Warde at 3 pm. The home opener is Monday, April 7, when Stamford visits Blue & Gold Stadium at 7 pm. The Nighthawks have their first conference game the next night when Bunnell-Stratford visits at 7 o’clock.

“We are on a growth journey as a program. For us to find sustained success we need to continue to build on our culture and take steps forward as players and individuals every day. Our guys have done a great job elevating the culture and accountability, I am excited to see where this team’s growth takes us,” Fitti said. “I am very excited. Year three in our system — we feel with the foundation we have built the last two years we are coming into 2025 with a really good opportunity to celebrate all the work we put in. We look forward to earning the right to celebrate.”

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