After reeling off three straight wins — two at the end of the regular season to qualify for Class L state playoffs, and a state bracket qualifying round contest — Newtown High School’s field hockey team’s season came to an end in a 3-0 loss at New Milford in the first round on November 5.

New Milford, the third seed in the bracket, scored on a penalty stroke with 14:12 left in the first half and established a 2-0 lead by halftime. Newtown didn’t muster a shot on goal until Emily Campbell made a nice effort to put one on the cage with just under 13 minutes remaining in regulation.

Newtown was outshot 14-3 and goaltender Casey Demers made 11 saves.

“I think that today, our team just wasn’t there in the first half of the game,” said Newtown Coach Stephanie Paproski, whose team hung in there in a 2-1 loss to the eventual South-West Conference champion Green Wave during a regular-season clash.

“New Milford did play a great game. We just didn’t play to their level today,” Paproski said.

Newtown nearly missed the playoffs this season but overcame a tough stretch of games — losses in five straight — to get into the state playoff picture with a 7-9 overall record. Newtown earned a pair of one-goal wins, beating Brien McMahon of Norwalk and Bethel, down the stretch to get into the playoffs.

Newtown, with wins over Brookfield, Immaculate of Danbury, and Watertown, had a three-game winning streak early on this fall.

“We had a rough patch in the middle of the season,” said captain Brooke Hadgraft, noting that the team bounced back. “We all have fun. It’s a big family.”