Whether or not there are other viable South-West Conference title contenders — and Newtown High School’s girls’ lacrosse team is not about to overlook the competition — the Nighthawks are in fact the team to beat at this time.

These Hawks, after all, have not yet lost a game in SWC play this spring. What’s more, they have posted wins over their biggest rivals, all with winning records — some of them in convincing fashion.

“For sure. Everybody else has been beaten by someone,” said Newtown High Coach Maura Fletcher, whose team followed up an 18-8 win over last year’s conference runners-up, Weston, with a pair of lopsided victories, over Bethel and Brookfield, then an 11-8 win at defending champion New Fairfield on April 27.

Heading into those wins over Weston and New Fairfield, last year’s conference finalists were the squads everybody else has been looking to overcome.

“Weston and New Fairfield are the teams to beat right now so to have those wins under our belt is definitely good,” said Bella Gerace, who has been a high scorer to lead the Hawks.

Gerace scored four times to go along with an assist, five draw controls and four ground ball scoops, plus an interception and forced turnover against New Fairfield. Summer Harrell had three goals, Brooke Bulkley two goals, and Jules Battaglia a goal and pair of assists. Allie Bradley had five draw controls against the Rebels. Newtown jumped out to an early lead and hung on. Goaltender Alexa Manfredonia made eight saves.

The next game was a nonconference test when Conard of West Hartford came to Blue & Gold Stadium on a wet April 29 afternoon. Newtown won 13-6 and, in the process, improved to 8-0 overall and handed Conard only its second loss of the campaign.

Conard hung around early in this game. After Newtown surrendered its second goal, Ava Mitchell responded seconds later, right off the ensuing Nighthawk draw win. The teams traded goals the rest of the way in the opening half and it was 7-4 Nighthawks heading into the break.

Harrell scored less than two minutes into the second half for an 8-4 lead. After Conard gain got to within three, Gerace weaved through the defense and put home a shot for a 9-5 advantage with 19:48 to play. Newtown reeled off four unanswered tallies, in a span of 4:05, to put the game away. Gerace scored her third off a pass from Harrell, then Harrell dodged a defender and went top corner with her shot, and Harrell put in her fourth goal of the game off a nice setup by Battaglia, stretching the lead to 12-5 with 14:43 to play.

Conard managed only two second-half goals, and Battaglia answered the last one with her third of the day to cap the scoring. Mitchell finished with a pair of net-finders and Bulkley had a goal and an assist. Harrell added two assists. Gerace and Harrell both had four ground balls, and Bradley had a trio of ball scoops, two draw wins, and a pair of forced turnovers. Harrell won five draws to lead the Hawks. Manfredonia made a handful of saves.

“This is a great out of conference win for us. Competitive games like this just gives us more confidence,” Fletcher said.

The Nighthawks know what they can do against SWC foes and have registered a couple of notable wins against unfamiliar lineups, also besting Cheshire in a 12-11 nail-biter earlier this spring.

“It’s always good to get an out of conference win. It shows we can beat some of the top teams in other conferences, too,” Gerace said.

A known strong point for the Hawks, entering the season, was its offense. Their O has certainly lived up to its billing with double-digit offensive outbursts in each of the first eight games.

The defense, which has a bit less experience following graduation of many of last year’s starters, is coming around. The Hawks held Conard to its lowest goal total of the slate. Newtown switched from a zone D to man-to-man coverage late in the first half and limited Conard to just two goals in the final nearly 30 minutes of game action.

Newtown got back to SWC play with a home tilt against always-tough Joel Barlow of Redding on May 2. NHS built a lead and hung on for a 13-11 victory. Harrell led the way with five goals and three assists, Bulkley had three goals and an assist, Gerace had two goals and two assists, Natalie McLean logged a goal and a pair of assists, Mitchell scored twice, and Battaglia added a couple of assists. Gerace and Harrell both had six draw controls, and Bulkley had three draw controls.

Fletcher noted that Barlow plays a tough backer defense and that her offense moved the ball well and exposed the seams of the Barlow D. Newtown’s coach said the Hawk defense had a tough day. “We got caught doing some ball-watching and crashing late. Despite some deficiencies on defense we still dominated the game,” the coach added.

Fletcher and company have great reason for optimism, but are not getting overly confident. There have been some upsets in the conference this year, Fletcher noted, and it appears that once the playoffs roll around it would take an upset to end Newtown’s title hopes.

Following A May 3 clash with nonconference opponent St Joseph of Trumbull, the Hawks have another non-SWC matchup when they head to Glastonbury Saturday, May 6 for a 6:45 game under the lights. Newtown still has games to play against conference foes Bunnell-Stratford, Notre Dame-Fairfield, and Pomperaug of Southbury, plus a game against nonconference team Fairfield Ludlowe. The Tuesday, May 9, visit from Pomperaug (6:45 pm at Blue & Gold) stands to be Newtown’s final possible test from within the conference; the Panthers are 4-3 in conference play and lost to Masuk of Monroe and Barlow each by a goal, but also edged New Fairfield 9-8 in overtime.

A key to Newtown’s success is camaraderie.

“They really play well together — that’s the key,” Fletcher said. “They genuinely enjoy playing together.”

And the way things are going, these Nighthawks stand a good chance of playing together longer than the rest of the SWC pack. When all is said and done, the Hawks are looking to get back the title game which they reached in 2021 only to fall to Joel Barlow, and to be the last SWC team standing for the first time since 2017 when Newtown defeated Weston for the trophy.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.