By Kim J. Harmon

MONROE – It could have been discouraging to be down 3-0 so quickly, but Newtown – which had been in that position before and didn’t like it – simply toughened up.

With senior Casey Kirch laying out a couple of thunderous hits, senior Tom Ryan blistering the cage for five goals, and freshman Marc Ingerman leading a young defense the Nighthawks rallied back for a 13-10 win to capture their second consecutive South-West Conference boys’ lacrosse championship.

“We knew we had something to prove,” said Ryan, who is second on the all-time scoring list (behind Kirch) with 146 career goals. “Our defense was real young earlier in the season but they have really come along and tonight they shut Barlow down.”

The thrilling title game in Monroe on Tuesday was a meeting between two of the top six Division I teams in the state of Connecticut – Joel Barlow (#5) and Newtown (#6) – and inside the first three minutes of the first period it was turning into a one-sided affair.

With 9:14 still on the clock, Barlow – which had clobbered Newtown 14-9 during the regular season – was already ahead 3-0.

“I knew we were a better team than that,” said goaltender Chris Body, who turned around from that early victimization to make some spectacular saves. “We were just trying to settle everyone down and in the second half the defense really kicked it up. They played their hearts out.”

It looked as if Barlow might run away with the game, but five minutes into the first period Ryan scored his first goal on a man-up situation and made good use of a Kirch pass to do it. Then with 5:22 left to play, Body made a terrific save and then turned that into a fast break down the field with Jay Romanelli dumping off to John Oliver for the goal.

The deficit had been trimmed to just one, but Barlow – which lost just once all year and that to a top-flight team from New York – scored a pair of quick goals to take a 5-2 lead.

“I think we were a little nervous they had gotten up so quickly,” said Ryan, “but we have always been a second half team. Once we started getting close to them, the emotions started running high.”

Ryan scored his second goal to open the second period and then Kirch, somewhere bouncing off – and then through – three tough defenders scored his first goal to trim the Barlow lead back to one, 5-4. And with 4:10 left to play in the half, Ryan scored his third goal to tie everything up.

The teams traded goals (Newtown scoring off a nifty spin move by Oliver), but Barlow took a one-goal lead into the half on a score with just 87 seconds left to play.

That was not a detrimental goal, though.

Because the ‘Hawks knew.

“We knew if we played our best we would beat them,” said Body, who finished with nine saves. “If we play our best, we can’t be beat.”

Oliver scored the equalizer just 1:07 into the third quarter off a pass from Kirch and then Ryan, only two minutes later, muscled his way into the crease area to score his fourth goal and give Newtown its first lead of the game, 8-7.

Joel Barlow tied the game back up with 6:40 left in the third, but the turning point – the point when the game belonged to the Nighthawks – came 90 seconds later.

The Falcons were attempting to move the ball across midfield under heavy pressure and Kirch – anticipating a long pass to a long stick defenseman – laid down a hit that popped the ball loose. Kirch scooped the ground ball and rushed down the field for a one-on-one tango with the goalie and an easy goal.

Newtown led 9-8 and never looked back.

Romanelli, streaking downfield into the box, grabbed a pass from Kirch and fired off a shot just as he got whacked to put Newtown ahead 10-8 at the close of the third period. At the start of the fourth, defenseman Dan Mallen started a fast break after another thunderous hit, passed off to Ryan, who dumped off to Kirch for the goal.

And with 7:02 left to play, Kirch scored his fourth goal (to go along with his four assists) to put the ‘Hawks ahead 12-8.

Local fans started counting the minutes until their team would be crowned champions, but Joel Barlow showed it still had some life left. With 4:27 left in the game, the Falcons trimmed the team with a hard shot up under the cross bar.

Ryan got that goal back a moment later, but with 2:33 left the Falcons were back in the cage to trim the lead to 13-10.

But that’s all there would be.

And Newtown – which defeated Brookfield in the SWC semi-finals last week – had claimed its second championship in a row. Now the ‘Hawks will move on to the CIAC Division I state tournament and a first-round meeting on Saturday with No. 12 Cheshire.