Newtown High School's boys' lacrosse team has had its share of lopsided wins over South-West Conference foes and a pair of closely-contested setbacks to nonconference opponents this spring. The trend of easy triumphs over SWC rivals continued in a 17-5 victory over visiting Pomperaug of Southbury at Blue & Gold Stadium on April 19, but then the Nighthawks turned the page in non-SWC game outcomes, coming out on the winning end of a 13-11 battle with host Simsbury, on April 21.

The Hawks improved to 7-2 heading into Thursday's scheduled visit to Guilford at 7 pm.

In the win over Simsbury, Tucker Garrity had four goals and two assists, Evan Eggleston scored twice and added three helpers, and Layton Harrell added two goals in the win over Simsbury. Jeffrey Garrity and Declan Sughrue each notched a goal and an assist, and Aidan Coleman, Brandon Manka, and Kyle Shirk all scored. Goaltender Jake Dandrea made 16 saves. Tanner Stergue won 15 of 21 faceoffs.

"This was a good team win as we have suffered some injuries to our defensive unit that forced us to play a lot of younger players," said Newtown Coach Scott Bulkley, adding that those lesser-experienced varsity team members, including Dandrea and Shaine Luzietti, stepped up.

Simsbury fell to 2-4 but has had some hard-fought contests, including a 7-5 defeat to SWC power Joel Barlow of Redding.

The Nighthawks took some time to pull away against Pomperaug. They didn't score until midway through the first quarter and led 2-0 after the first 12 minutes. Ahead 4-1 late in the first half, the Hawks began their pull-away as Tucker Garrity scored twice while the Hawks were shorthanded, only 19 seconds apart, then finished his natural hat-trick effort by logging three unanswered goals when he faked a pass from the goal line, got the defender marking him to bite on the move, before whipping home a sharp-angle shot with just one tenth of a second showing on the scoreboard clock.

Tucker Garrity ended up with five goals and four assists, Jeff Garrity had two goals and a pair of assists, Harrell logged two goals and two assists, Manka scored a goal and added an assist, Sughrue had a goal and one assist, Coleman scored twice, Shirk and Patrick Grover both recorded goals, and Eggleston had two assists.

Nothing stands to be easy the rest of the way for the Hawks.

Newtown, after tough nonconference tilts with Guilford (which lost 15-14 to Simsbury) and Glastonbury (which fell 8-7 to Guilford and beat Barlow 10-2), the latter a road contest this Saturday, April 28 at 11 am, will visit Weston on Tuesday, May 1 at 7 pm. Weston came into the final week of April sporting a 7-1 record, with the lone defeat coming to defending SWC champion and unbeaten New Fairfield.

The Hawks will visit Masuk of Monroe on Thursday, May 3, at 4 pm; Masuk's losses have come to SWC powers New Fairfield, Weston, and Barlow.

NHS will host Briarcliff High of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., on Saturday, May 5, starting at 5 pm in the final installment of a trio of challenging Westchester County teams.

Barlow, whose only loss in SWC action has been to Weston in a one-goal contest, will come to Blue & Gold Stadium on Tuesday, May 8, starting at 7 pm. The regular season ends with a Monday, May 14 visit to New Fairfield, at 6 pm.