By Kim J. Harmon

SIMSBURY – If this season, which saw Newtown truly begin to carve a niche for itself on the landscape of field hockey, had to end then at least it ended in one of the most epic battles the CIAC Class L state tournament has ever seen.

Newtown (#16) and Simsbury (#1) battled through a pair of 30-minute regulation halves, four 10-minute overtimes, and one round of penalty strokes before Simsbury was finally declared the winner by a 1-0 count.

“It was a wonderful game,” said second-year coach Kathleen Davey. “It was an exciting game, it really was. Taking the No. 1 team to five overtimes . . . how can you be mad?”

The ‘Hawks reached the first-round of the Class L state tournament with a 1-0 win over Windsor in the qualifying round on Monday and although the ‘Hawks will tell you they did not play well at all, they were confident – in their hearts – they would play better.

“We definitely have to play much better,” said co-captain Abby Reynolds moments after the 1-0 win. “But we have played well against good teams. That’s our thing.”

And since Simsbury (a team laden with 15 seniors) was one of the best, then the ‘Hawks saved one of their best games for it.

“Jess Omasta, Heather Morgan and Abby Reynolds played so well,” said coach Davey. “Everyone did. We dominated in that fourth overtime, but we just couldn’t finish in the circle.”

After the two 30-minute regulation halves offered no solution to this game, it moved on to the first 10-minute overtime which was played with 11 players per side. Then it moved on to three consecutive 10-minute overtimes, which were played with seven players per side (to promote a more wide open attack).

And after all of that still failed to achieve a result, the game moved on to penalty strokes.

Kristen McGrath, Reynolds, Omasta and Lauren Bass all had stroke opportunities but Simsbury goalie Katie Noe was able to turn them all away. Erin Angell and Noe, on the other hand, were able to get their strokes into the cage, past Morgan, to give Simsbury an epic victory.

Sure, it was a loss, but for coach Davey – who has a team heavily laden with sophomores – she saw it also as a tremendous learning experience.

“These kids got a taste of it and they were loving it,” said coach Davey, who thanked her good fortune for having a young coach like Kim Sinusas and her husband, Russ, along to lead this team to very respectable 7-8-3 record.

In The Qualifier

It was a win. At that point, it was all that matters.

Sure, no one was quite ecstatic about the performance on Monday at the stadium, but the Nighthawks made their return to the CIAC Class L state tournament a positive one with a 1-0 victory over Windsor in the qualifying round.

Yes, the 1-0 win over No. 17-ranked Windsor might not have been the Nighthawks’ finest moment, but for their first-ever CIAC state tournament home game it worked okay.

“We had our moments,” said Reynolds, “But we’ve had much better games. We have a tendency to play down to our competition.”

Windsor went into the qualifying round ranked one spot lower than Newtown in Class L with a 6-7-2 record. This year, the ‘Hawks have only had a little trouble with teams less competitive than they (like a 0-0 tie with Joel Barlow and a 0-0 tie with Weston), and this qualifying round game didn’t make them all that nervous.

“We couldn’t think about their record,” said Reynolds. “We had to go out with a clear mind . . . go out and play with confidence and intensity.”

With 24:04 left in the first half, the ‘Hawks scored the game’s only goal with some nifty action in front of the cage. Kristen McGrath, off a free hit, pushed a ball into the strike circle where Elissa Boushell managed to deflect it towards Mary Bell, who put the ball by Windsor goalie Kiara Mojica for the 1-0 Newtown lead.