Oh So Close — Girls’ Lacrosse Team Edged By Greenwich In Semis

By Andy Hutchison

STRATFORD — A spirited comeback attempt wasn’t enough. Newtown High School’s girls’ lacrosse team overcame a six-goal deficit to take a late-game lead, but ended up two goals short of reaching the Class L State Tournament championship game, falling 11-10 to Greenwich at the rain-soaked Bunnell High field on June 6.

The second-seeded Nighthawks overcame a late first half 8-2 deficit to go on an 8-1 run for a short-lived 10-9 lead, only to see the third-seeded Cardinals answer with two goals 1:18 apart in the waning minutes of the semifinal clash. The Cards then played stall ball, holding possession for the final three-plus minutes en route to a berth in the June 9 title game. Newtown’s players remained upbeat following the tough-to-swallow defeat.

“It was really exciting,” said Newtown sophomore Meaghan Brophy, adding that she was glad the season ended in such a competitive contest.

“They played amazing. I’m so pleased with them,” said Newtown Coach Maura Fletcher, adding that the loss was a tough one. “Disappointing — yeah, for sure, especially because we were right there. We were right in it, we had it.”

Newtown, after taking an early lead, couldn’t stop Greenwich for the bulk of play in the opening half. With the Cards leading 7-2 with 8:49 remaining in the first, a lightning bolt, accompanied by a loud rumble of thunder, halted play for a half hour. The Cardinals had possession of the ball at the time Mother Nature stopped things. When play resumed, under an on-and-off heavy rain, and some sun showers, it took Greenwich only 17 seconds to score again. But that break seemed to serve as a momentum changer. The Nighthawks pulled to within 8-4 before halftime and continued to chip away at the GHS lead, pulling to within 8-6 before the Cards finally found the net nearly 11 minutes into the second half.

The Nighthawks reeled off the next four goals capped by a Meredith Bridges net-finder set up by Erin Kenning with 5:55 to play. Just 1:11 later, Greenwich’s Caroline Brennan tied the score. Brennan netted the game-winner with 3:26 left. The Cards got possession off the ensuing faceoff and passed the ball around to eat up the clock. “Their stall at the end was really strong,” Brophy noted.

With Greenwich losing hold of a seemingly insurmountable lead it looked as if the Nighthawks were going to steal this one.

Kenning opened the second-half scoring barrage just 47 seconds in to make it an 8-5 game. Bridges later hit the post, but the scoring chance led to a score. Julia Trudell got the ball and set up Brophy to make it 8-6 with 20:46 to play.

The Nighthawks had a few chances to carve deeper into the deficit but were stopped by Greenwich goaltender Hannah Jeffrey. Newtown’s strong defense, and netminding by Celeste Cheung, held Greenwich at eight goals until Brennan scored one of her four goals on a free position shot for a 9-6 lead.

Newtown’s Cassie Ekstrom came up with a midfield interception which led to Bridges scoring off a feed from Tressa Scott to pull NHS back to within two with 10:31 to play. Only 42 seconds later, Trudell assisted one of Kenning’s three goals to make it 9-8. Newtown netted its third goal in a matter of less than a minute and a half when Scott took a pass from Bridges and scored on a low shot to knot the score at 9-9 with 9:03 remaining.

A big part about what enabled the Hawks to score so many goals so quickly was the team’s ability to get control off the ball off of draws. Brophy did a nice job of pulling the ball away from her faceoff counterpart, and Ekstrom and Scott came up with the ball time and time again. Fletcher also noted that a change in strategy, in which she held back some attack players to give GHS less players available to swarm the ball, and open up more field space, allowed Newtown to generate more scoring chances.

Brophy had three goals, Bridges scored twice, and Scott and Trudell both found the back of the net. For Greenwich, Sophie Waine scored three times. Greenwich’s top sniper, Claire Feeney, was limited to a pair of goals thanks to the strong defensive work of Kaitlin Vos Winkel whose job is to shadow the opposing team’s top scoring threat game in and game out. “She does a great job. You give Kaitlin a job and she does it,” Fletcher said.

Vos Winkel says she loves playing defense and points out that she has to look to her defenders for help to know where the ball is since she is focused on marking that player. “It’s not just me doing it — it’s the whole team,” she said.

The Nighthawks had a memorable year in which they won their eighth straight South-West Conference title. The team stands to retain a bulk of its starting players with a roster loaded with underclassmen.