By Kim J. Harmon

It isn’t over.

No, when Newtown and Lauralton Hall – right now, the two titans of the South-West Conference – battled Monday night through two, 40-minute halves and two, five-minute overtimes all they came to was a 2-2 conclusion.

And as the Nighthawks trundled off the field about 9:30 pm, with downtrodden faces and a few hints of tears lingering in their eyes, there was a pervasive feeling that it wasn’t over, that the ‘Hawks and the Crusaders would settle this once and for all in the SWC playoffs.

The two teams went into the battle with the two best records in the SWC – Lauralton Hall boasting a 12-1-0 mark and Newtown boasting an 11-1-1 record. Both teams seemed were close to winning their respective divisions, but what both teams were really looking for was the unofficial regular-season conference championship.

That is, the best record overall.

And with the tie, that still belongs to the Crusaders.

It was a thrilling contest befitting the two best teams in the conference but what the ‘Hawks had trouble accepting on Monday night was the many lost opportunities amidst a brilliant display of one-touch passing.

Of course, there were those factions who were into blaming the referees for a poorly-called game (both Colleen Davis and Shannon Rouse were taken down in the box and should have led to penalty kick situations), but senior midfielder Kendall Zimmerman wasn’t accepting that idea, either.

“We had chances to win it,” she said. “It was our fault.”

As good as these two teams were getting to the ball and holding off the offenses, several times the ‘Hawks broke through the last line of Lauralton Hall’s defense. That was predicated by beautiful one-touch passes – especially by Rouse and Davis.

But the Crusaders always managed to run down the Nighthawks striker to seal off the threat. Senior forward Jessica Oswald was the recipient of two superb passes, but Oswald is still hampered by a knee injury suffered in the win over Bethel a couple weeks ago and didn’t have the speed to finish either break off.

It was a stalemate.

“We’re better than this,” Zimmerman explained. “I don’t think we played well at all.”

Hall Scores First

Hollie Miller put the Crusaders on the board first, 1-0, with a nice burst through the Newtown defense. As the ball was fading to the right side of the penalty box, Miller and Newtown goaltender Kate Bouteiller converged on it at the same time. Miller reached it first and slipped a shot past Bouteiller for the goal.

But four minutes later, the game was tied.

On a scramble in front of the Lauralton Hall net, after a shot was deflected by a Crusader defender, freshman Chelsea Morin hit the back of the net for her 11th goal of the season to tie the game up at 1-1.

Oswald got the assist.

Early in the second half, Rouse – who played a strong offensive game – had a one-on-one charge on the net and was taken down from behind in the penalty box, but the referees saw no reason to blow the whistle. Still, with 14:17 left to play Rouse had another break through the Hall defense and blasted a shot from the left of the box that glanced off the goaltender’s hands. Davis was able to corral the loose ball near the right post and curled it inside for a goal and a 2-1 Newtown lead.

Three minutes later, the game was tied again.

This time, it was Stacey Zelek who scored after gathering in a Lauralton Hall shot that had clanged off the cross bar.

That’s where it ended, after 11 more minutes of regulation and 10 more minutes of overtime. The ‘Hawks were not prepared to console themselves about anything on Monday night, but if they had wanted to they could take consolation in the fact that Lauralton Hall’s top threat, Rachel Kennedy, did not beat them.

The ‘Hawks finished up the regular season against Pomperaug on Wednesday.

The quarterfinals of the SWC playoffs will be Saturday and the ‘Hawks, who should capture the Colonial Division title, will get a home game.

And it looks as if it could be Bunnell coming to the stadium for a 2pm contest.

Semifinals will be Wednesday at Masuk with games at 4:30 and 7 pm.