NHS Girls’ Lacrosse Team Tunes Up For Playoffs—

Last-Minute Comeback Sends Hawks To Win Over Glastonbury; Team Preps For Title Defense

By Andy Hutchison

Trailing by goal with time running down, Newtown High School’s girls’ lacrosse team tallied twice in the final minute for a dramatic 12-11 win over Glastonbury at Blue and Gold Stadium on May 14. Emma Kingsley scored the decisive tally with just 33 seconds remaining to lift the Nighthawks to their second one-goal win in eight days.

Meaghan Carney knotted the game at 11 apiece when she found the back of the net with 56 seconds to play. Tressa Scott won the ensuing faceoff and the Nighthawks got the ball to their go-to scorer Kaitlin Brophy. Newtown Coach Maura Fletcher, knowing Glastonbury would closely guard Brophy, called for a play to the ball to Kingsley who did the rest.

The Nighthawks improved to 13-2 overall and Glastonbury had its seven-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 9-4 overall. The Hawks face Glastonbury, a non-South-West Conference foe, every year to provide themselves with a good playoff-like test. They certainly got it.

Newtown established an 8-3 first-half lead and carried an 8-5 advantage into the intermission. Glastonbury came all the way back and eventually built an 11-9 lead. Newtown had trouble maintaining possession at times in a turnover-filled second half, before settling down with the game on the line.

“The same things happened to us against Wilton — we were ahead by five or six goals and I just told them ‘think about that Wilton game. Let’s not let that happen again,’” Fletcher said. The coach added that her team set out to score the first goal of the second half to set the momentum for the final 25 minutes, but failed to do so, prompting a timeout after Glastonbury evened the game at 8-8. Fletcher reminded her girls to not think too much about the sophisticated plays they run but, rather, to focus on catching and keeping control of the ball.

Katie Canavan forced a turnover deep in Glastonbury territory, scooped the ball and got it to Erin Brown, who scored one of her three net-finders, bringing the Nighthawks to within a goal at 11-10 with 9:28 remaining.

“It feels great,” Kingsley said of the win. “We worked really hard. The second half got a little sloppy but we pulled together.”

Newtown goaltender Celeste Cheung made 15 saves, including several in-close stops. “It was really exciting because we were down two at the end,” Cheung said. “I was very nervous.”

“She was great today. Celeste totally kept us in the game. Goalies can be hot and cold and she definitely had a hot day today. So we were thankful for that,” Fletcher said.

Carney, Brophy, and Julia Trudell all scored twice to help offset Glastonbury’s offense, which was led by Taylor Moreau and her team-best five goals.

The Nighthawks, unbeaten in SWC play heading into their final two tilts of the regular season (against Masuk of Monroe on Wednesday after The Bee sports section went to press and against Weston the next day), will begin SWC tournament playoff action on Monday, May 23. The Nighthawks are shooting for their seventh consecutive title.

Fletcher said the team entered into the final week of the campaign needed to work on its clearing patterns and she is hopeful everyone is healthy for the postseason. Newtown had a late-season scrimmage with New York state tourney finalist Fox Lane, and the coach is optimistic that her team will be on its game come playoff time.

The Nighthawks, despite their dominance in the conference tourney in recent years, know they’ll have to work hard to retain the title — especially after being challenged in tight contests with Joel Barlow and New Milford this year.

“It’s definitely getting harder and I know everyone thinks Newtown is the team to beat, so we can’t take it for granted,” Kingsley said.