Newtown Girls’ Lacrosse Team Reaches Pinnacle Game — Yet Again

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s girls’ lacrosse team has continued its regular season dominance in the postseason. Newtown won its South-West Conference Tournament’s quarterfinal- and semifinal-round games, handily, to advance to the Friday, May 28, championship game.

Top-seeded Newtown will face New Fairfield, a team they toppled 16-5, at 5 pm in Brookfield as the Hawks go for their sixth straight conference crown.

Newtown defeated Weston 17-8 in the quarterfinals at Blue & Gold Stadium on May 22 and pulled away to knock off Immaculate of Danbury 19-9 in the semifinals in New Fairfield on May 25.

Kaitlin Brophy scored six times and added three assists, Meghan Bridges scored four goals and added two assists, Katie Canavan had three goals and a pair of assists, and Lisa Vendel scored three times in the victory over Weston. Erin Brown also scored and Kaley Kruger added a pair of assists in the triumph.

Against Immaculate, the Nighthawks got six goals from Bridges, five from Brophy and three more from Vendel in another lopsided win.

“A team like ours is tough to beat because I have three, four really big offensive threats and a lot of the teams we play only have one or two threats,” Newtown Coach Maura Fletcher said.

The offense certainly steals the show, but the defense is generally a strong point for the Nighthawks.

Defender Annie Fletcher said that to win another title, the key will be, “Definitely keep up the momentum and the intensity.”

 Newtown won by no less than eight goals to any conference opponent en route to an unbeaten SWC record this spring so there is no reason to think the Hawks won’t retain a stranglehold on the title.

“I think we can make it six times in a row,” Vendel said.

But Newtown is not taking anything for granted. The Hawks recall defeating Joel Barlow of Redding in the regular season and in the conference championship game only to lose to the Falcons in the first round of the state tournament a couple of years ago.

“We went in there so confident that we were going to win it,” Vendel said.

The Nighthawks will take that experience of being upset along with some confidence, and plenty of skills, into the game as they look to keep conference bragging rights in town for at least another year.