Win Over Weston Brings Girls Lax Closer To Title Defense

After posting its second consecutive undefeated season in the South-West Conference, it finally came time for the Newtown High girls lacrosse team to defend its title.

Or five titles, to be exact.

In Saturday's conference quarterfinal game against Weston, top-seeded Newtown continued its annual dominance, opening up an 11-goal lead at halftime before settling in for a 17-8 victory at the Blue and Gold Stadium.  

Newtown (16-1, 13-0) has now won 21 consecutive games in the conference and is undoubtedly the favorite to win this year's title again.

The Nighthawks outscored its conference opponents 235-74 during the regular season and its closest margin of victory within those games was eight goals.

Their focus now, is on taking home another crown.

"They want to win badly. They love to win," Newtown coach Maura Fletcher said. "They work hard all season and off-season, so it's not that hard to keep them focused. For the most part, every girl that's out here wants to contribute."

The Nighthawks took another step toward their goal as they jumped out to a 5-1 lead against eighth-seeded Weston (8-8-1, 6-6-1) after just five minutes.

Following two goals from midfielder Kaitlyn Brophy, which gave Newtown a 2-0 lead just 1:37 into the first half, Meghan Bridges and Katie Canavan added goals to cushion the fast start. Brophy went on to score a team-high six goals on the afternoon.

Down 4-1 with 20:28 remaining in the first half, Weston finally broke through on the scoreboard with a goal from midfielder Cara Fleming.

But the Nighthawks quickly answered.

Midfielder Lisa Vendel scored her first goal of game and team-leading 63rd on the season just 28 seconds later to extend the Nighthawks' lead. Bridges  followed with another goal to push the advantage on the scoreboard to 6-1.

Bridges scored four times over the first 23 minutes and Newtown took a commanding 14-3 lead into halftime.

"They took care of the ball early on," Fletcher said. "We talked about just because we were playing a team that wasn't as skilled as we were, we still had to take care of the ball."

While Fletcher said the "offensive end of the field looked really good today," she said the team did not meet its "defensive goal."

After Vendel scored her third goal of the afternoon with 20:25 remaining in the second half, Weston followed with four unanswered goals. The Trojans outscored Newtown 5-3 in the second half.

"I just think there was some miscommunication on defense. I don't think they were talking and they weren't really relying on one another today," Fletcher said. "Usually our defense is as steady as can be."

Nonetheless, Newtown cruised to its 12th straight victory and will now prepare for the tournament semifinals, which begin Tuesday in New Fairfield.

Despite the success both this season and in the previous five SWC tournaments, Fletcher said Newtown doesn't feel added pressure to win another title.

"It's a brand new game, it's a brand new year, we just want to get there," she said.