By Kim J. Harmon

There must have been some bad mojo in the air on Monday afternoon up at Fairfield Hills.

After all, the Nighthawks found themselves in a bit of an unusual situation – that is, losing – in the first half of their game with West Haven and, in fact, managed to only hold on to a slim 5-4 lead at halftime.

But coach Sara Patrick, worried perhaps that her team – at that point 5-1 on the season – was taking their opponents a little too lightly held an inspirational (i.e, heated) half-time pep talk that sought to rectify the situation.

And it did.

The ‘Hawks scored six goals in the second half and allowed none (thanks in large part to another superb game in goal from Sarah Dacey), securing an 11-4 victory which raised their record to 6-1 on the season.

Explaining the fast start, coach Patrick admitted, “The competition hasn’t been that strong yet. We have some tough teams coming up on the schedule, though, and Staples (a 12-11 winner over Newtown earlier) will be a good rematch on Friday.”

Except for that 12-11 loss to Staples a couple weeks ago, things have been kind of easy for the ‘Hawks. With Caitlin Collier (who could possibly score her 100th career goal as early as Friday) and Sarah O’Sullivan leading the way, the offense has been on a tear, having scored no less than nine goals in a game all season long.

It was no different this week. The ‘Hawks pounded Canterbury, 15-3, on Saturday before – after a slow start – scoring 11 times in the win over West Haven.

Despite finding themselves down early against West Haven, the ‘Hawks managed to recover in the first half to take the lead – and then opened it up in the second half for the win. O’Sullivan scored three goals and Collier added two, with Erin McDonald, Kate Ryan, Tate Hoeffel, Jen Logan and Sage Huskins all scoring a single goal. Ryan added a pair of assists and Huskins added one.

In the win over Canterbury, Collier led the way with five goals and O’Sullivan and Erin McDonald added three apiece to pace the explosive attack. Katherine Moberg chipped in with a pair of goals while Kate Ryan and Jen Logan added one each.

With 21 goals so far this season, Collier is just five goals shy of the magical 100 – which will in all likelihood come either Friday or Saturday.

It will be a tough week for the ‘Hawks, who will start a long road-trip heading down to Westport on Friday for the 4 pm rematch with Staples and then traveling to Madison on Saturday for a 3:30 pm game with Hand. After coming home Tuesday for a game with Mercy of Middletown, on Thursday the girls will travel down to Darien.