Newtown High School’s girls’ lacrosse team had a lot of turnover since its 2019 season, the last time the team was together before coronavirus wiped out the 2020 slate, but even despite having a fairly young and very small program — with no junior varsity team — the Nighthawks have had one heck of a season.

The top seed in the South-West Conference tournament, the Nighthawks defeated No. 8 Brookfield 13-1 in the May 19 quarterfinals at Blue & Gold Stadium. Gia Corso had four goals, and Elena Sughrue and Shea Murphy each had two goals and an assist. Bella Gerace, Izzy Butler, Jules Battaglia, Ellie Meyer, and Gabby Soltis also scored. Butler and Emily Hammond both had assists.

Newtown proceeded to top No. 4 Masuk of Monroe 9-7 in the May 25 semifinals, also at home. NHS fell behind 4-1 before reeling off six unanswered goals to close out the first half with a 7-4 lead. The Nighthawks had beaten Masuk 10-8 in the regular slate, overcoming a 7-4 Masuk halftime advantage in that one.

In the playoff contest with Masuk, Butler had a hat-trick, Battaglia scored twice, and Gerace, Sughrue, Corso, and Summer Harrell also hit the net. The Hawks got assists from both Bella and Julia Gerace, as well as Butler and Harrell. Goaltender Alexa Manfredonia made nine saves.

With the win, the Nighthawks earned a spot in the Thursday, May 27, championship game against No. 2 Joel Barlow of Redding at neutral site New Milford High, beginning at 7:30 pm. The Nighthawks edged Barlow 6-5 in the regular season.

With only 24 girls on the roster, there were not a enough for a JV team. About half the roster comprises freshmen and sophomores., and the juniors did not have the benefit of a sophomore campaign.

“Undeniably, this has been a challenging year with the numbers. It has been especially hard for underclassmen — freshman in particular, and sophs who didn’t get a season last year, all of whom are very good players and would be playing an entire JV game. They aren’t getting near that amount of time on the field. Even in less competitive games they get good playing time, but not a full 50 minutes,” Coach Maura Fletcher said.

“What I hope they realize is, even though they aren’t on a JV field, they are getting to practice every single day with competitive varsity-level players. That is invaluable. They are getting as much attention from the entire coaching staff — three seasoned coaches — whereas normally they would be practicing alone with one coach. We have seen such improvement from these kids over the course of the season,” Fletcher added.

During this somewhat rebuilding season, the Hawks made it to their first conference title game since winning it all in 2017.

Injuries have impacted the Nighthawks. Junior Erin Phaneuf was sidelined late in the regular slate and players have stepped up to help fill that big void. With such a small roster to begin with, the Nighthawks have held some scrimmages during the season to help make them stronger.

“We have scheduled multiple scrimmages outside of conference towns for two reasons. One, it makes us better. Two, we don’t have the numbers to work full field. We would need 24 players, and with a roster of 24 we always have had people out with injuries and, early in the season, with COVID-related issues — namely contact tracing. After the first few weeks, there were so many getting contact traced, they all decided to go remote. We also have a lopsided number of positional players, so we would have people in places where they are uncomfortable,” Fletcher added.

“Our practices have been adjusted for small sided drills. We have obviously figured out how to do it to get the most out of our athletes. They challenge each other. The upperclassmen are so incredibly patient with the newer/emerging players,” Newtown’s coach said.

The Nighthawks are led by senior captains Julia Gerace, Murphy, Emma Magazu, and Olivia Buchler. Their leadership coupled with the emergence of the underclassmen and lesser-experienced players has made this quite a season for the Hawks.

Fletcher said nonverbal communication by players on offense has sparked the scoring, and solid defense led by Magazu, Buchler, Shannon Kelleher, Allie Bradley, and Murphy has helped keep the Nighthawks on top in almost every game. The team lost only to New Fairfield (a 9-8 decision) and avenged that defeat with a 10-9 overtime victory.

“They’ve really pulled together. Younger kids are contributing a lot,” Fletcher said. “It’s unfortunate for them that there is no JV team, but they’re practicing with varsity players every single day,” Fletcher said.

That bodes well for not only this postseason but future seasons as well.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.