NHS Laxmen Defeat Familiar Foes For Championship

By Andy Hutchison

SOUTHBURY — In 2009, Newtown High School’s boys’ lacrosse team was the underdog and went out and upset New Fairfield. This time, the scenario was the opposite, but the favored Nighthawks denied the Rebels a taste of revenge in the South-West Conference title game. Top-seeded Newtown reeled off eight unanswered first-half goals to build a big lead en route to a 12-7 win over No. 3 New Fairfield at Pomperaug High on May 27.

The victory was the first in a lacrosse championship double header win for Newtown as the girls’ followed up with a 17-16 win over Joel Barlow. Both NHS squads were unbeaten in conference play this spring.

Trailing 2-1 in the first quarter, Newtown caught fire and scored eight straight goals to seize a commanding 9-2 lead by the late stages of the second quarter. The Rebels tallied twice in the final minute to close to within 9-4 at the break, and carried over the momentum in the second half to get to within striking distance at 10-7. The Nighthawks wouldn’t let their rivals get any closer.

MVP Colby Summerlin scored the final two goals of the game to cap off a seven-goal outburst. Newtown also got a pair of net-finders and an assist each from Lewis Thompson and Dan Hebert, along with a goal and an assist from Dan Sclafani. Justin Brophy had two assists, and Will Northrop added another helper. Brendan McNamara led the Hawks with nine of the team’s 33 ground ball scoops.

“It’s amazing. It’s the best feeling in the world. This is what we’ve been working for all season long,” Sclafani said.

With Newtown protecting its late game lead, NHS Coach Glenn Adams shouted “I want a minute,” directing his players to possess the ball and play Keep Away to chew time off the clock. The Nighthawks did enough of that down the stretch to milk the clock and hold off the Rebels.

New Fairfield won 13 of the 21 faceoffs, but the Nighthawks did a good job to limit the Rebels’ scoring chances, even holding New Fairfield to just three third-quarter goals despite the ball being deep in Newtown’s territory for almost the entire quarter. NHS settled down and got possession for much of the final quarter and kept their opponents off the scoreboard in the final 12 minutes.

After the Rebels closed to within 10-7 with a goal with just two seconds left in the third, Newtown struck early in the fourth. Sclafani’s shot clanked off the post but Summerlin was there to pick up the rebound and deposit a shot with 10:31 to play. He emerged from behind the net to fire home the last goal midway through the fourth.

As impressive as Summerlin’s seven-goal effort was, Newtown’s ability to mostly thwart New Fairfield’s top scoring weapons was perhaps equally as significant. The Nighthawks held Ryan Mallon, the SWC offensive player of the year, and John Pendergast to just a goal each.

NHS goaltender Brandon Body made 13 saves and got plenty of help from his defenders in a strong effort. Adams pointed to the play of Max Nacewicz, Will Fletcher, Jeremy Schaniel, Jack Kearney, Tom Murphy, Andrew Seabry, and Justin Spath on the defensive end.

“They did a good job. They played pressure defense the entire time,” Brophy said.

“We played a great game defensively. We slowed them down,” Adams added. “Offensively, we shared the ball and we finished when we had the opportunities to finish — and that was it. It was an all-around team effort.”

Adams pointed out that the Nighthawks have been working toward winning the title since about this time a year ago, when Newtown was beaten in the conference tourney semifinals. “It definitely feels great, and it kind of makes that hard work pay off,” the coach said.

Summerlin says many of the team members have been dreaming about this day since their early days of youth lacrosse.

“It feels awesome. We’ve talked about this ever since we all stepped on the field in third grade — this moment. The back of our T-shirt says, ‘There’s only this moment,’ and we came out here and played like it was,” Summerlin said.

The Nighthawks entered into the Class L State Tournament as the No. 1 seed as play gets underway this week.