By Kim J. Harmon

NEW FAIRFIELD – It may have been a rematch of the 2002 South-West Conference boys’ lacrosse championship, but in name only.

The battle between Newtown and New Fairfield on Tuesday afternoon may have engendered some memories of that thrilling battle in the SWC championship game last June, but only briefly because it was clear that these were two teams had taken steps in different directions..

John Oliver scored six goals and Casey Kirch – now the all-time leading scorer in school history –added five more to lead Newtown to an 18-4 win. This is the third consecutive blowout for the Nighthawks since suffering a tough, 14-9 loss to Joel Barlow on Friday, April 25.

The ‘Hawks crushed Masuk, 16-5, last Thursday and then hammered Weston, 16-0, last Saturday and with the win over New Fairfield they ran their record to 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the SWC (not to mention 2-0 in Division I).

Even though Kyle Kirch scored very early in the first period to give the Nighthawks a 1-0 lead, the Rebels took advantage of some sloppy play and scored back-to-back goals to take a 2-1 advantage.

But the ‘Hawks – who are averaging more than 15 goals a game – quickly turned things around.

Very quickly.

Just moments after the draw following the Rebels’ second goal, Devon Manfredonia fired a pass down to Casey Kirch, who whipped a ground ball into the cage to tie the score at 2-2. Oliver, Kyle Kirch and Tom Ryan all followed with first period goals to put the ‘Hawks on top, 5-2.

It was Ryan’s goal, perhaps, that really keyed the blowout. The senior attackman intercepted a bad clear just outside the box and quickly fired a shot into an empty cage to close out the period. After that, it was all Newtown.

Oliver scored three of his six goals and Casey Kirch scored two of his five in the second quarter as the ‘Hawks quickly jumped out to an 11-3 lead. They rolled to the finish as Tom Ryan (4), Kyle Kirch (2) and Brendan O’Connor (1) all hit the back of the cage. Casey Kirch dished off five assists, two, while Ryan, Oliver, Ross Coates and Devon Manfredonia had assists.

In the 16-5 win over Masuk, Oliver had a tremendous statistical game with five goals and four assists. Ryan added three goals and two assists while Kyle Kirch had three goals. Casey Kirch and Jay Romanelli had two goals and two assists apiece while O’Connor had a goal and Jeff Bell and Marc Ingerman provided assists.

In the 16-0 win over Weston, Casey Kirch had four goals and four assists and Oliver added four more goals. Bell chipped in with three goals and an assists as Ryan added two goals and two assists. Ted Yemc, Jay Schunter and Mike Soder all had goals while Romanelli, Yemc and O’Connor had assists.

The Nighthawks – ranked seventh in Connecticut, according to Laxpower.com – traveled to Conard (7-1, No. 5 in Connecticut) on Wednesday and Immaculate (1-7) on Thursday and will now host East Lyme (6-0, No. 27) on Saturday.