Newtown High School's boys' lacrosse team edged host Bethel 6-5 in overtime in the regular-season finale, on May 14. The game had been rescheduled from earlier in the season and set up consecutive meetings between the South-West Conference foes, who were scheduled to meet again in the conference quarterfinals, at Blue & Gold Stadium, on Thursday, May 19, at 7 pm.

The Nighthawks, who went 8-8 overall and 4-2 in conference play, earned the fourth seed and Bethel (7-9, 2-4) drew the No. 5 spot in the SWC playoffs.

Matt Meyers scored the game-winning goal, for one of his two tallies, in the season finale. First-year Newtown Coach Scott Bulkley said it was nice for the Newtown to get the overtime loss monkey off its back; the team had lost several consecutive extra period games in regular season action during the past handful of years, including a double OT contest at unbeaten Simsbury this spring, a trio of overtime setbacks last year, one OT loss the year before, and one back in 2010.

In the Bethel game, Layton Harrell had a goal and an assist, Scott Bauer, Elliot Gregory, and Peyton Manning all scored, and Tucker Garrity had two assists. Goaltender David Anderson made five saves.

Despite the win, Bulkley saw plenty of room for improvement as his team compiled more than 30 shots, but didn't capitalize on enough opportunities.

"We need to shoot a little bit better. We had shots - we just couldn't can it," the coach said.

Bulkley also thought his team might have taken Bethel a little bit too lightly - something he said the Hawks certainly wouldn't do in the rematch - in part because they were coming off a tough stretch of nonconference games late in the campaign.

Newtown, after a 20-4 thumping of New Milford on May 5, battled until the end in a 7-5 loss to Glastonbury two days later, had the overtime setback to Simsbury on May 10, then fell 13-5 to Staples of Westport on May 12.

In the Staples contest, Elliot Gregory had a pair of goals, and Tucker Garrity, Manning, and Jacob Meyer all had net-finders. Newtown hung in there against a Staples team that has scored in double digits 12 times this spring.

Bulkley, whose squad is mostly new to varsity, believes the Nighthawks have improved over the course of the season. The coach is looking for the team members to continue to make strides and become more consistent in the playoffs.