Nighthawk Girls’ Lacrosse Team Tests Darien But Fall In State Tourney

By Andy Hutchison

For 45-plus minutes of game action on Monday, Newtown High School’s girls’ lacrosse team stayed in a nail-biting battle with Darien in Division I State Tournament quarterfinal round action at Treadwell Park. The visiting Blue Wave pulled away in the final handful of minutes for a 19-12 win, putting an end to another strong NHS season.

The Nighthawks, the top seed in the tourney, were on-paper favorites against No. 8 Darien, but the seedings were deceptive given that two of Darien’s three losses came to out-of-state teams and the Wave is ranked No. 1 among 75 Connecticut schools in the LaxPower rankings. Newtown is seventh in the rankings.

“I was so proud of their effort,” Newtown Coach Maura Fletcher said. “We really had nothing to lose today. I told the girls, ‘Just lay it all out on the line today.’”

The game was a tight one from the start, with Darien repeatedly taking one- and two-goal leads only to see Newtown come back to tie the score four times before creating an 8-8 deadlock at halftime. The Nighthawks finally took their first lead, 9-8, 2:29 into the second half, on one of Lisa Vendel’s four goals and the game continued to be a see-saw affair.

With Darien leading 13-11, Newtown’s Katie Canavan scored with 7:38 remaining to bring her team back to within one and the score remained 13-12 until Darien scored with 4:45 to play. The Nighthawks started double-teaming Darien’s ball-carriers but were unable to force timely turnovers down the stretch and the Wave took advantage of players being left open and executed with five late goals.

“They had to really, really perform to beat us,” Fletcher said.

Newtown fell behind 1-0 less than a minute into the game but responded less than ten seconds following the ensuing faceoff when Meghan Carney set up Erin Brown to knot the score — that set the tone for a goal-filled first half. The Nighthawks fell behind 6-4, but tight one-on-one coverage by Newtown, led by pressure from Meghan Bridges in front of the Darien goal, led to a ten-second violation on the Wave, giving possession to Newtown. The Nighthawks took advantage when Kaitlin Brophy found the net to trim Darien’s lead to 6-5.

The Wave again built a two-goal advantage before a pair of late Newtown tallies, capped by Vendel’s goal with 16 seconds left in the half, evened the score at eight apiece.

Brophy and Bridges both scored twice for the Hawks. The loss was only the second of the season for this team, which rolled to its sixth straight South-West Conference title. Newtown’s only other setback came to Wilton, like Darien an FCIAC team.

Fletcher said she was pleased with how well her team played against a Wave team which, for the last decade, has regularly gone at least this deep into tourney play.

“They really gave their all today,” Fletcher said of her players.

The Nighthawks had advanced into the quarterfinals with a 16-11 win over No. 17 Suffield at Treadwell on June 3. Vendel had eight goals to lead the charge. Emma Kingsley and Canavan both scored twice.

Following the setback to Darien, Vendel, Bridges, Kristen Hudock, Annie Fletcher, Steph Suhoza, Kaley Kruger, and Sam Dinnan are the seniors who walked off the high school field where they have had so much success throughout the years, one last time.