Newtown High School’s field hockey team is getting ready for the South-West Conference Tournament and will look to make a title run, one year after being upset as the No. 3 seed, falling in the quarterfinals. The Nighthawks are the top seed in the SWC playoffs which begin Thursday, October 26, when No. 8 Joel Barlow of Redding visits Blue & Gold Stadium in the quarterfinals at 6 pm.

The Nighthawks followed up a 7-0 triumph over Bethel on Senior Night, October 18, with a hard-fought 1-0 overtime win over visiting Immaculate of Danbury in the pouring rain at Treadwell Park on October 20 to cap a stretch of four games in five days necessitated by rainout rescheduling. The Immaculate game had to be played with open days for the teams and time running out before the start of the playoffs.

Immaculate has lost just three times this fall, each time by just one goal. The victory by Newtown came courtesy of Rachael Albrecht slamming home a goal to break up the scoreless battle just 43 seconds into extra time. Summer Harrell made the winning play possible with a nice display of stickwork as she controlled the ball for a 20-yard run before setting up her teammate.

Jenna Lagan made a pair of defensive saves behind goaltender Riley Alesevich to help the Nighthawks post their seventh shutout of the campaign.

“Jenna’s saves were just incredible. She’s really our unsung hero today,” Coach Megan Goyda said.

Dramatics were not needed in the win over Bethel. It was a perfect night for the seniors, each of whom had a hand in the victory. Harrell, a senior captain, led the way with a hat-trick and an assist. Senior captain Annika Bozentko had a goal. Senior captains Jules Battaglia and Alexa Manfredonia assisted on the last two goals of the night.

“It was a great night to celebrate our seniors. To be able to put them in positions that they could contribute offensively was just so fun for everyone — fun for us to watch and fun for them to play. There were plenty of smiles all around and it was just a great night,” Goyda said.

Albrecht also scored, and Mo Murphy, Abby Ihlefeld, Reese Lischuk, and Brooke Bulkley all had assists.

“I know many coaches always say it was a total team effort, but tonight that couldn’t be any more true. Our goalie, Riley Alesevich, only had to make two saves because our defense was so strong shutting down any attempt Bethel made entering our circle,” Goyda added.

Newtown’s final playoff tune-up came on October 24 with a visit to defending conference champ Pomperaug of Southbury, which had lost only once — in overtime to New Milford. The Nighthawks secured the top seed with a 3-0 win. It was scoreless going into the fourth quarter until Ellenoire Schoen started the scoring barrage off a corner give-and-go pass from Murphy. Harrell scored off another Murphy corner insert, and Bulkley was set up by Harrell and Schoen.

"Tonight was a great win for us. I just hope we take this momentum and intensity into the playoffs. If we do, we'll be unstoppable. Both teams played like this was a championship game," Goyda said.

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