By Kim J. Harmon

SOUTHBURY – They had been there twice before, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be a little bit nervous.

But nervous or not, the Newtown High School girls’ lacrosse team captured its third consecutive South-West Conference championship with a convincing 14-10 win over Brookfield last week at Pomperaug High School in Southbury.

And be it Lisa or Betsy, it was a Vendel that did the most damage as the sisters combined for eight goals and two assists.

“I was nervous all day,” said Lisa, a freshman, who scored 21 goals on the year. “I was really looking for other people, like Rachel Maley, to pass to. But I felt good and felt like we would really take I again this year.”

Junior Courtney Gleason – who has had a couple of six-goal efforts on the season – continued to dominate on the attack and added three goals and three assists.

“I’ve had butterflies in my stomach since first period yesterday,” said Gleason, who had a breakout season and scored 56 goals on the year to give her 85 for her career. “We knew they were really good and would come out strong (today) and we knew they had it in them.”

Even senior Moira Collier, who started in all three SWC championship games, had a case of sweaty palms.

“I don’t usually get nervous before games,” said Collier, who added a solo goal, “but this one I felt the butterflies. But (last night) the coaches had us visualize three things in our heads and that really helped us focus.”

If the girls were nervous, though, they didn’t show it on the field as they took a 5-2 lead with less than nine minutes gone in the first half. Lisa Vendel scored the first two goals for the Nighthawks, both unassisted, inside the first three minutes and six seconds of play. Collier, Gleason and Betsy Vendel also scored in the early run to stake the locals to that lead.

But the Lady Bobcats scored back-to-back goals in an 18-second span to close the gap to just one goal. And even with goals from Jen Greenwood and Gleason, the two squads were separated by just one goal by the close of the half.

The ‘Cats scored the final goal of the half, with just 18 seconds left on the clock.

Less than three minutes into the second half, the ‘Cats scored the equalizer on a re-start in front of the cage. But the goal seemed to do little more than spur the ‘Hawks to scored three consecutive goals – two from Lisa Vendel sandwiching a solo from her sister, Betsy.

After the ‘Cats stopped the bleeding with 13:43 left to play, the ‘Hawks notched another three goals – Rachel Maley, Betsy Vendel and Gleason helping Newtown extend its lead to 13-8. The Maley goal, with 11:58 left, was a sample of the kind of defense the ‘Hawks can play as Lisa Vendel made a nice steal in the offensive half, passed to her sister, who then passed to Maley for the tally.

Gleason assisted on the Vendel goal before, with 9:43 left to play, using her almost-patented move of rolling out from behind the cage for a quick right-handed shot.

The ‘Cats scored a pair to narrow the gape to 13-10 with 2:29 left, but the ‘Hawks – while trying to carve some time off the clock – finished things off with a goal from Betsy Vendel with just 40.9 left to play.

Soon after, the ‘Hawks were celebrating their third consecutive conference championship and second in a row captured at the expense of Brookfield.

“I feel like it gets better every time,” said Collier.

What a finish.

Swift Exit

As high as the girls were last Wednesday, that’s how low they were following a last-second, 8-7 loss to SWC nemesis Joel Barlow in the first round of the CIAC Division I state tournament.

Gleason scored four goals and assisted on another while Maley, Greenwood and Lisa Vendel scored a goal apiece. Maley, Betsy Vendel and Erica Vacaro all registered assists as the ‘Hawks closed out the season at 16-3

NOTE: The accolades continue for the Lady Nighthawks as Erica Vacaro (SWC championship game MVP), Jen Greenwood, Libby Feltch and Moira Collier were all named Academic All-Americans with Vacaro earning a spot on the All-State first team and Rachel Maley earning a spot on the All-State second team.