Nighthawks win the CCC Championship, make a run in States

By: Nick Farrelly 

On Saturday, February 25, the Nighthawks girls ice hockey co-op team won their first-ever CCC title. This co-op girls hockey team consists of a number of towns, which includes Berlin, Newington, Avon, Southington, Coventry, RHAM, Lewis Mills, Plainville, Watertown, and of course Wethersfield.

After an excellent regular season, posting a record of 14-4-2, the Nighthawks kept rolling and defeated rival Hall/Conard in the CCC championship at Trinity College. Congrats to the girls on this amazing achievement. 

Wethersfield High School’s own Nicole Partridge was named the MVP of the tournament. I sat down with her to discuss her thoughts on the season, the tournament, as well as being named MVP.

 Partridge said about her MVP, “It felt awesome, I was not expecting it at all. It’s an honor. But it wasn’t just me, everyone on the team contributed in the tournament and played great, and we as a team deserved that win, but the job is not finished.” 

A junior here at Wethersfield High School, Nicole is a captain for Nighthawks, and led the team in points throughout the season, along with fellow WHS student Bella Bonfiglio. Nicole continued her dominant season in the first two rounds of the state tournament, scoring two goals in each of the first two games. 

In the first game of states against Suffield, the Nighthawks went down early, losing 2-0 after the end of the first period. 

“It was a really nerve racking game. I think the nerves of being in such a big game got to us in the beginning, but I had faith in our team. We had a few little locker room speeches. These speeches brought us together, and gave us a good game plan for the next two periods.”

The locker room speeches paid off. The Nighthawks stormed back in the last two periods. RHAM’s Nina Holm scored the first goal for the Nighthawks, and Partridge added on two more, which was enough to propel them to victory.

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In the second round of states, the Nighthawks came in as the underdogs against Simsbury. However, they were not underdogs for very long. Two more goals from Nicole Partridge as well as WHS’s own Sophia Nower silenced the Trojans, as the Nighthawks won 3-1.

“We really just added onto what we did in the last two periods against Suffield. We just played our game, and stuck to what we knew, and that ultimately won us the game,” stated Partridge.

Sadly, the Nighthawk’s great run came to a close this Saturday in Shelton at the hands of #2 seeded Darien. It was a hard fought game all around, but the Nighthawks fell 5-1, as Bella Bonfiglio scored the lone goal for the co-op team. 

Despite the tough way these girls went out, congratulations to them on a historic and amazing season and run in the state tournament. They can only build on what they accomplished this year and will be back even stronger next winter.
From left to right: Bella Bonfiglio, Sophia Nower, Nicole Partridge of Wethersfield High School named All-Conference.
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