Newtown High School's girls' lacrosse team, last year's South-West Conference champion, saw its title hopes end in a 6-4 loss to visiting Joel Barlow of Redding in the tourney semifinals on May 23. The second-seeded Nighthawks will get back at it in the first round of the Class L state tournament, scheduled to begin on Tuesday, May 29. No. 3 Barlow advances to the May 25 championship game to be held at neutral site New Milford, beginning at 4:30 pm.

The semifinal contest, which unfolded on a hot late afternoon on the Blue andamp; Gold Stadium turf, was deadlocked 2-2 at the half. Barlow went up 5-2 before the Nighthawks scored two of the next three goals, capped by Lauren Carrino tally with 4:59 to play.

Barlow got possession off the ensuing draw and managed to chew up the clock the rest of the way by playing stall ball. The Nighthawks came from behind for a wild 11-10 victory in Redding on May 9, but a comeback was not in the cards for the Nighthawks this time around.

"They're always tough. Maura's a great coach; they have some very talented players over there," Barlow Coach Steve Coppock said of Maura Fletcher and the Nighthawks. "It's tough to beat a team two times in a year."

And also tough to hold a high-scoring offense, such as Newtown's - which put up double-digit scoring 11 times coming into the semifinals - to just four net-finders.

"They defended us well. They shut off Alex Futterman, who is a big part of our offense," Fletcher said.

Futterman had an assist. Ali Kelleher scored twice, Lu Hage added a goal, and Keeley Kortze recorded a pair of assists. Emma Magazu and Kelleher had four and three ground ball scoops, respectively.

Barlow was led by Bella Miceli with four net-finders.

"We were hoping for our defense to play a little more high-pressure than they did," Fletcher said.

"I'm pleased with their effort but I'm not pleased with the X's and O's," said Fletcher, describing forced passes and missed catches as being problematic in this contest.

Newtown had no problem rolling through the quarterfinals.

The Hawks are hoping to bounce back from the setback to Barlow when the state playoffs begin.

"The girls want to bounce back. We've got the whole state tournament ahead of us. Hopefully we have three or four more games to play," Fletcher said.