After rolling to easy wins in five of its first six games, Newtown High School's girls' lacrosse team came up just short in back-to-back contests, against host Pomperaug of Southbury (9-8 in overtime on April 19) and visiting Glastonbury (5-4 at Blue & Gold Stadium on April 21).

These were frustrating defeats for the Nighthawks given how close they were to pulling out victories both times.

Newtown overcame a 5-3 halftime deficit to Pomperaug and took the lead, only to see the Panthers force overtime with a late regulation goal before handing the Hawks their first in-conference defeat in two seasons.

Charli Condon, Rylee Harrell, and Alex Futterman each netted two goals, and Hana Rosenthal and Ali Kelleher also hit the back of the net; Keeley Kortze added an assist in the Pomperaug game.

Newtown had strong defensive play from Cassidy Kortze, Keeley Kortze, Kiera Sughrue, Lauren Carrino, and Ali Kelleher, and a handful of saves from goaltender Catie Gregory. Pomperaug dominated the possession game behind strong work in the draw circle.

"Defense played great, turned over the ball a ton of times, kept us in the game," Newtown Coach Maura Fletcher said.

Goals were hard to come by in the Glastonbury game. Glastonbury broke a 3-3 tie in the waning seconds of the opening half and, after withstanding some quality Newtown chances in the opening nine-plus minutes of the second half - including an in-close opportunity from Alex Futterman and another Futterman shot that clanked off the goal post - went up 5-3 with 15:20 left. Newtown answered only 1:17 later when a pass from Condon to Lindsey Merrifield caromed off Merrifield's stick and rolled into the Glastonbury goal.

In this defensive-minded game, and tightly-played second half in particular, that finalized the scoring which also included NHS tallies off the sticks of Condon, Harrell, and Kelleher, along with an assist from Dylan Zahansky.

Glastonbury chewed most of the final seven minutes off the scoreboard clock thanks to strong ball control and a couple of late Newtown turnovers, something that plagued the Hawks throughout the matchup.

"We gave the ball away a lot in transition," said Fletcher, adding that another facet of the game that proved costly was not capitalizing on opportunities. "We outshot them probably three to one."

In the end, Glastonbury goaltender Maura Shirling made 16 saves and Gregory stopped four shots. Cassidy Kortze, Keelye Kortze, Ali Paynter, Sughrue, and Carrino led Newtown's defensive effort.

"This was a tough loss. We just let it get away from us," Fletcher said.

Still, the setbacks to Pomperaug and Glastonbury, although they did not end up the way the way the Hawks would have liked, proved to be better all-around games than the lopsided triumphs from earlier in the campaign.

"I would rather play a game like this, having competition end to end, sideline to sideline, for 50 minutes than to play lesser teams and not get anything from it," Fletcher said.

The Nighthawks had scored 15 or more goals in each of their wins, and outscored those South-West Conference foes a combined 84-18; they also fell 15-3 to nonconference foe Fairfield Warde in the early-game stretch.

Each year, the coach schedules some tough out-of-conference battles, but the gap between the Hawks and some of the SWC has lessened in recent years as evidenced by the Pomperaug game and, in recent season clashes with Joel Barlow of Redding, Weston, and New Fairfield, in particular. Pomperaug, Barlow, and New Fairfield - in fact - each beat the Nighthawks two seasons ago.

"The competition in the SWC is much stronger now than it was in the past. It's not a walk in the park anymore," Fletcher acknowledges.

Newtown stands to be reminded of that once the calendar flips to May, but will have some tough nonconferece tests before then. After visiting SWC rival Bunnell of Stratford on Thursday, April 26, at 7 pm, the Hawks host FCIAC team Ridgefield Saturday, April 28 at 11:30 am, and entertain Southern Connecticut Conference squad Cheshire on Monday, April 30, beginning at 4:30 pm - both games are at Blue & Gold. Ridgefield has had an up and down campaign thanks to playing a difficult schedule featuring tough lineups from both in and out of the FCIAC, and Cheshire's only defeat was an 11-10 edging by FCIAC team Greenwich, whose only setback came to Wilton in 12-11 overtime defeat.

The Hawks will host Weston (2-5 heading into the final week of April), the team it beat in last season's conference title game, on Tuesday, May 1 (Blue & Gold at 7 pm), and will host 5-3 Masuk (on Thursday, May 3 (Treadwell Park at 4 pm).

Two of Newtown's last three regular season tilts are against the best in the conference: Wednesday, May 9, at 7 pm at Joel Barlow (unbeaten in SWC play and 6-1 overall, including a 6-5 setback to Branford) heading into the last week of April, and Monday, May 14, at Blue & Gold, starting at 7 pm, against New Fairfield (only loss was to Pomperaug). The Hawks will also play Stratford at Treadwell on Thursday, May 10, starting at 4 pm.