NHS Girls’ Lacrosse—

Back In Familiar Territory: The SWC Championship Game

By Andy Hutchison

Some of the players may be different — but the team is the same. Once again, Newtown High School’s girls’ lacrosse team is in the conference championship game, and the favorite to win it all.

Top-seeded Newtown, going for its seventh straight South-West Conference title, earned the right to play in the pinnacle contest after a 20-2 drubbing of No. 8 Immaculate of Danbury in the quarterfinals on May 23 and a 20-5 shellacking of No. 5 Weston in the semifinals on May 25 — both at Blue and Gold Stadium.

Newtown will face No. 3 Joel Barlow of Redding in the championship game on Friday, May 27, at 7:30 pm at Pomperaug High School in Southbury.

Against Weston, the Nighthawks found themselves in a tight battle for the first 18-or-so minutes before seizing control. Leading just 4-3 late in the first half, the Nighthawks reeled off five unanswered goals, including four in the final 6:52 before the break for a 9-3 lead. The momentum carried over into the second half as the Hawks built an 18-3 lead before the visitors finally stopped the bleeding.

Kaitlin Brophy scored six times and Katie Canavan had five tallies to lead the way. Erin Kenning, with three goals, and Emma Kingsley with a pair of net-finders, were the only other multi-goal scorers for Newtown. Erin Brown, Meaghan Brophy, Julia Trudell, and Riley Wurtz also scored for the Hawks.

“I just think that we are lucky that we have depth on the bench — and it was a really hot day — and I was able to sub a lot more players than they were able to. I think that they just got gassed in the second half,” Newtown Coach Maura Fletcher said.

Weston trailed just 4-3 when Kaitlin Brophy netted her third goal of the game with 8:38 to play in the first half. She scored, again, to make it 6-3 with 6:52 to go. Just 14 seconds later, Kaitlin Brophy set up one of Canavan’s tallies for a fast-break goal and a 7-3 cushion. Canavan found the net again and Kenning capped the first-half scoring. The Nighthawks scored three times in the first two minutes of the second half by continuing to get control off the faceoffs. Newtown won 16 of the draws.

The Nighthawks won in similarly easy fashion in the quarterfinal round game. Kaitlin Brophy had a six-goal effort in that win as well, and Brown scored four times for the Hawks.

“It’s a really nice feeling,” Kaitlin Brophy said of getting back to the title game.

Newtown is not looking past Barlow, especially considering the Falcons put a scare into the Nighthawks in Newtown’s 11-10 win, at Barlow, on May 6.

“It should be a good game,” Canavan said. “There’s no such thing as a guaranteed win. We have to come out there like it’s any other game.”

“It’s a different year, it’s a different season — and they’re completely different teams,” Kaitlin Brophy added.

Barlow, a team Newtown has dominated in recent years, certainly was a different looking team this past regular season. The Falcons built a lead on Newtown and saw the Nighthawks come from behind late to keep their winning streak against conference opponents — which goes back to the 2006 season — going.

“We’re going to really have to pay attention to the ball on Friday and, hopefully, get the job done — but it’s not going to be an easy ride,” Fletcher said.