Newtown's Varsity Field Hockey team won the 2024 SWC finals against rivals, New Milford.
On October 27, Varsity coach Megan Goyda led her team to the finals at Westconn State University. After losing to New Milford on senior night, Newtown pulled out a 2-0 win, both goals scored by Senior Captain, Rachel Albrecht.
“It was mid-September and we were going to grow a lot more, so I wasn’t too worried about that loss,” Albrecht claims in response to their first encounter with New Milford this 2024 season. “It shows that we can do a lot more than we think we can.”
Albrecht was also awarded Tournament MVP after the game.
After having three different coaches within the past four years, and winning two SWC Championships (2021, 2024), Goyda has been the Varsity coach for the past two seasons, and one previous coach being her mother.
“I think it's actually benefited us, we know we have each other to depend on,” Senior captain Moira Murphy says. “I think having such great coaches all these years and them being such different people, we’ve learned new things from each other.”
“She is such a young personality that she connects to us on the field in a different way than previous coaches had, and I think it just benefits us in the sense that she’s one of us,” Murphy explains as to why Goyda has impacted their team in a unique way compared to past coaches.
New Milford knocked Newtown out of the SWC playoffs and were ultimately the winners of the SWC Championships in the 2023 season. This year, New Milfordwas ranked as the first seed in the conference, and Newtown ranked the fourth this season. Newtown is now ranked tenth in States, Class LL.
“Before the season even started we knew we had the skill, talent, and experience in our team,” Goyda claims. “We (coaching staff) said at the beginning of the year, pending injuries, if we don’t at least make it to the finals then we need to reevaluate who we are as coaches.”
The championship game was held at a neutral site at Western Connecticut State University’s field.
“We are a team of speed, so when you look at playing at a neutral site within the SWC, there are few fields we enjoy playing on. Treadwell is one of those fields and New Milford is one of those fields which I think gave us an up when we faced Immaculate in the Semifinals. So when you look at Westconn, their field plays exactly like ours, so that really benefited us. New Milford is a really strong and powerful team, we’re a quick and fast team,” Goyda says when looking at the advantages her team faced playing at Westconn.
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