NHS Girls’ Lacrosse Team Reached Semis For First Time

By Andy Hutchison

TRUMBULL — The Newtown High School girls’ lacrosse team, this spring, advanced to the Division I state semifinals for the first time in school history. The Nighthawks were finally knocked out of state championship contention on Wednesday night in an 18-10 loss to defending champion Darien at Trumbull High School.

Darien jumped out to a fast 9-0 lead before Newtown finally broke through.

Newtown, the tourney’s No. 4 seed, couldn’t pull off the upset against undefeated and top-seeded Darien, but the season was still something to remember for the locals.

The seniors, Stephanie Paproski, Stephanie Soder, Jen O’Connell, Colleen Thornberg, Courtney Gleason, Christina Sanchez, Liz Feltch, and Lisa Isabella saw their high school careers end, but will take some fond memories from high school lacrosse, which for some, included four straight South-West Conference championships.

“This is one of the best teams I’ve ever been on,” Isabella, the team’s goaltender, said.

“We had a lot of fun throughout the season. It helps that we’re all friends,” Paproski said.

“We’ve all been playing together for such a long time and we all know each other very well. We have a nice vibe on the field,” Feltch added.

The Nighthawks showed no mercy in a 20-5 thumping of No. 20 Mercy in the tourney’s first round, at home on Saturday. They succeeded in a rematch with No. 5 East Lyme, a team they had to come from behind to beat by a goal late in the regular season, with a 13-9 win in the quarters.

Sophomore Lisa Vendel led the way with five goals and junior Betsy Vendel, added two goals and dished out six assists. The team’s top scorer and All-America player Colleen Gleason and Jackie Isabella each had a pair of net-finders in the win.

“Getting this far is great,” head coach Maura Fletcher said.

Fletcher noted that assistant coach Mark Feltch had a lot to do with the team’s success. The coaches took over the program four years ago and have seen improvement each spring. Even so, Fletcher didn’t expect for the Nighthawks to get as far as they did in 2008.

 “It was a little surprising to me because we have so many young players.”

Meghan Carney, Kelly O’Connor, and Kaitlin Brophy all started in Monday’s quarterfinal round win over East Lyme, and are three of seven first-year high-schoolers on the team. Sophomores included Lisa Vendel, Sam Dinnan, and Annie Fletcher.

Even with the senior talent this team possessed, the girls relied on a lot of younger players to step up after graduation claimed a bulk of players a year ago.

“It’s amazing. We never thought we’d get this far,” Betsy Vendel said.

The loss of this year’s seniors, including the goaltender and top scorer, no doubt, will leave some big shoes to fill, but after seeing how well the Hawks performed this season, Lisa Vendel is confident.

“I think we’ll still have a good season and be able to win a lot of games,” she said.