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Field Hockey Team Qualifies For State Playoffs

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Field Hockey Team Qualifies For State Playoffs

By Andy Hutchison

The Newtown High School girls’ field hockey team, battling to get into the state playoffs as the season wound down, earned just enough points to extend the campaign. The Nighthawks won their last two games with their playoff-hopeful backs up against the wall.

The Hawks after losing some hard-fought battles, finally got over the hump, ending a seven-game losing streak in convincing fashion, with a 4-0 blanking of Bethel at Treadwell Park on October 23. Kelly O’Sullivan scored twice, and Julia Diluoffo and Caroline Kingsley also hit the back of the cage in the win as the Nighthawks avenged an earlier-season loss to the Wildcats.

Newtown edged Ridgefield 2-1 in overtime in the regular-season finale the next night to clinch a spot in the Class L state tournament.

Just as they have made a late-season push to qualify for the playoffs, the Hawks used a late-game effort to overcome Ridgefield. Erica Thill tied the game late in regulation and Diluoffo put home the winner in extra time, giving the Hawks a memorable Senior Night win in the rain.

A loss — even in overtime — or a tie, both of which would have resulted in a point, would not have been good enough to get into the state bracket. The Nighthawks carried a record of 5-9-0-1 (wins, losses, ties, and overtime losses) for 11 points heading into the finale. They needed two points from a win to earn the minimum 40 percent of the possible 32 points they could have compiled by playing a 16-game schedule. They got the job done.

Coach Amanda Hadgraft has been pleased with her team’s efforts, even toward the end of that rough stretch of losses. Newtown, after keeping with a seven-win New Fairfield squad in a 2-0 defeat on October 16, fought to the finish in a wild 5-3 setback to six-win Pomperaug of Southbury in the pouring rain three days later.

Taylor Reardon, Erica Thill, and Kingsley — on a penalty stroke — all scored in the game against Pomperaug. Goaltender Casey Demers came on off the bench and made six saves to keep the Nighthawks in the game, but it wasn’t enough in the squad’s highest-scoring tilt of the campaign.

Hadgraft wasn’t the least bit upset with her team’s efforts in that loss. “They played like a team. It was the passing, it was going hard to ball, it was the not giving up,” the coach said of what she liked out of her players. Hadgraft said there were a couple of factors that played into the Hawks’ strong performance.

“It seems we always tend to play our best games when it’s raining. We had a game just like this last year and it was one of the best games all season,” she said. “We’ve been looking forward to playing Pomperaug all year, so it’s been the anticipation of playing them and, for some reason, they all get excited when it rains out. So it should rain all next season and we’ll be golden.”

It figures that Newtown took on Bethel in the rain on Tuesday and came out on top. Providing a  damp day for the last game, with Ridgefield, perhaps Mother Nature was trying to assist the Hawks in their playoff quest. It began to sprinkle once the game was underway and the Hawks again put together a strong effort in wet conditions.

Hadgraft remained optimistic about qualifying for the state bracket after the Pomperaug game. Before her team had qualified for the postseason, she was hoping the recent strong play wasn’t too little too late. “Hopefully it won’t be, and maybe we can kind of turn some heads once we get into states,” she said before the win over Bethel.

With any luck, it’ll rain when the Hawks take the field for the start of the playoffs in early November. The Hawks didn’t qualify for the South-West Conference tourney, so they’ll have a week-plus layoff from game action. The state tournament’s qualifying round is scheduled for November 5, followed by first round action two days later. Stay tuned for updates to the schedule (as well as the forecast).

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