Seven In A Row — Nighthawk Girls Hang On, Beat Barlow 17-16 For Another SWC Title

By Andy Hutchison

SOUTHBURY — Newtown High School’s girls’ lacrosse team sweated out a hard-fought 17-16 win over Joel Barlow of Redding to capture the South-West Conference championship under the lights at Pomperaug High on May 27.

It was the team’s seventh straight SWC title, and capped off a Nighthawk sweep in the pinnacle game.

The NHS boys’ squad, just before the girls took the field, won its second conference crown in three years with a 12-7 win over New Fairfield. Both Newtown teams were unbeaten in SWC play, earned the top seeds in their brackets, and fought past the conference tourney’s No. 3 seeds in the final round.

Most Valuable Player Kaitlin Brophy scored six goals, all in the first half, to lead the Nighthawks. Teammate Meghan Carney scored early on and assisted the second, third, and fourth net-finders of the night and finished the game with five tallies of her own.

Newtown, which had edged Barlow 11-10 during the regular season, jumped out to leads of 7-1 and 8-2, and matched its goal total from the May 6 meeting by halftime. The Falcons hung around and trailed just 11-8 at the intermission in a fast-paced game on the artificial surface field. The teams played a more defensive-minded game on a cool night on Barlow’s slower natural grass surface earlier in the month.

In the second half of the championship battle, Newtown scored three quick goals, culminating with one of Tressa Scott’s two tallies, for a 14-8 cushion. Newtown led 16-9 and 17-11 before the Falcons reeled off five unanswered goals, the last coming with 54 seconds to play, to make things nerve-wracking until the final horn.

Newtown’s Kaitlyn VosWinkel came up with two key defensive plays — a ball knockdown and an interception — in the final minute, to preserve the lead. Newtown goaltender Celeste Cheung made 11 saves. Barlow got five goals from Lexi Churchill and four apiece off the sticks of Clare McLaughlin and River Kynoch. The Nighthawks got a goal and an assist from both Erin Brown and Katie Canavan, and goals from Erin Kenning and VosWinkel.

Newtown got strong defensive play from several team members, including Kelly O’Connor and Cassie Ekstrom, who had three and two interceptions, respectively. Emma Kinglsey, VosWinkel, and Brophy all had three takeaways. Newtown gained possession off of 18 draws, led by seven controls by Kingsley.

Newtown Coach Maura Fletcher thought the game was all but in the bag after Newtown seemed to take control early in the second half. “Barlow just came back like gangbusters and a scored a couple quick ones, doubled the ball. They fought like crazy out there. I have a pretty deep bench and I thought by the second half they’d be really tired because they don’t have a big bench. But boy those girls fought really hard — it was a great game,” Fletcher said.

The Nighthawks had their first goal waived when Canavan’s net-finder was pulled back because of a crease violation just 20 seconds into the contest. But it didn’t phase the Nighthawks, who proceeded to score just 23 seconds later when Carney found the net. Carney, from behind the net, set up Brophy for the next two scores, and Newtown was on its way to establishing a 4-0 lead before Barlow fired a shot on goal. The Falcons scored on their first shot, when Kynoch scored, with 17:28 to play in the opening 25-minute half. Canavan set up Brophy for an answer goal just 12 seconds later. Nice passwork, finished off by a Brown setup for Scott, resulted in a 6-1 cushion with 16:50 to play. Carney used patience, worked her way in front and whipped home a shot for a commanding 7-1 lead just 37 seconds later. The teams traded goals before Barlow made a run with four of the last five goals of the half.

Newtown built a 14-8 second-half cushion before the Falcons scored again, then things got a lot more interesting than the Hawks would have preferred. Fletcher was pleased with her team for pulling through, and the coach and players were as relieved as they were ecstatic following the final horn.

“It was so exciting. We were getting nervous there for a minute,” Brophy said. It just happened to be the last, edge-of-your-seat, minute. “They’re such a good team. They’re so fast — they don’t give up.”

“Definitely relieving,” said O’Connor, whose Nighthawks haven’t lost to a conference foe since the 2006 season. “Relieving and exciting. I feel like it’s expected of us, and we held.”

The Hawks are the top seed in the Class L State Tournament which gets underway this week.