Girls Lacrosse Advances To 6th Straight Final

With another winning season nearing its conclusion, the South-West Conference's top-seed is just one win away from a sixth-consecutive conference championship.

Newtown (17-1) denied a late rally by fourth-seed Immaculate (14-4) by scoring eight goals over a 15:33 span in the second half of Tuesday's semifinal game. The scoring surge carried the Nighthawks to a 19-9 victory, setting up a match-up with New Fairfield in Friday night's title game in Brookfield.

"I think we pulled ahead because we just started focusing more offensively on the ball," Newtown coach Maura Fletcher said after the game, which was played in New Fairfield. "We were making some turnovers early on that weren't necessary. Immaculate played a great game."

The Nighthawks dominated the pace of play early, as midfielder Kaitlyn Brophy scored just 20 seconds after the opening face-off to give Newtown a 1-0 lead. Newtown's attack remained relentless, as it added five unanswered goals over the the next 10:06 to build a commanding 6-0 lead.

With the game quickly slipping away, Immaculate's Jen Daley responded with two goals to trim the deficit. The Mustangs fought back to within three goals with 3:50 remaining in the half, but Lisa Vendel and attack Meghan Bridges scored to preserve the lead for Newtown.

Newtown carried a 10-6 lead into halftime, which was reminiscent of its victory at Immaculate on May 17. The Nighthawks led 9-6 after 25 minutes in that meeting, before cruising to a 19-9 win.

In Tuesday's victory, the five-time defending champions followed the same pattern.

Immaculate opened the second half with back-to-back goals to cut the lead to 10-8, forcing Fletcher to call a timeout and regroup.

"They were just fast-breaking us, our defense wasn't talking and we were leaving players open," Fletcher said. "We weren't taking care of the ball defensively."

From then on, Fletcher said the Nighthawks "really focused offensively" and rather than moving into settled offenses, they relied on their fast-break.

The adjustments worked to perfection for Newtown as Bridges followed with two of her game-high six goals to double the lead. The Nighthawks then scored six more goals over the next 11:30 to build an 18-8 lead and effectively shut the door on Immaculate's upset hopes.

"Newtown really picked it up. Their transition, under pressure -- they worked hard," Immaculate coach Janet Fable said.

Brophy added five goals and one assist in the victory, while Vendel scored three times. Vendel now has a team-leading 71 goals on the season.

Looking ahead to the title game, Newtown will look to duplicate its success against New Fairfield. The Rebels upset Brookfield 17-9 in Tuesday's SWC semifinal, denying the Bobcats a fifth-consecutive meeting with Newtown in the final.

The Nighthawks defeated New Fairfield 16-5 back on May 14 and Fletcher said "it's better that we don't have to play Brookfield again."

"There's a lot more pressure playing Brookfield because eventually, no matter how many times you beat a team, there's a point in time when you're going to lose to them. I'm glad it's not them," Fletcher explained.

Asked what it would mean for Newtown to win a sixth-consecutive SWC title, Fletcher replied, "It would be amazing."

The Nighthawks are just 50 minutes away from realizing that feat.