Milford — Championship game losses often produce deep reflection. All the shouldas, couldas and wouldas that might have altered the result.

So at least there was that much Saturday morning for Stonington: no room for lament. The Bears lost to not only the better team, but clearly the best they'd seen during an otherwise memorable season.

And now top-seeded New Fairfield can add its third straight Class S girls' lacrosse state championship banner to its walls. The Rebels, who once led 14-0, earned an 18-5 win on the turf at Jonathan Law High School.

Seven different scorers highlighted the carnage for New Fairfield, a program that dropped from Class M to Class S a few years ago, despite enrollment numbers that exceed Stonington's by nearly 200 students (904-713) according to Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference.

"They don't drop a lot of balls. They are super fast and aggressive," Stonington coach Jeff Medeiros said of New Fairfield. "The speed on that team — they were a lot faster than we were. Everything on the ground, they get every single one. They have more depth and more talent. Our three (Kate Johnson, Hannah Lamb, Emma Sabbadini) are great, but they have everybody. Everybody can do everything. If you read about then, their town, it's lacrosse. The boys are here (in the finals) and the girls are here. We knew this was going to be a tough challenge."

Lamb scored second-seeded Stonington's first goal with 3:02 left in the first half, snapping the run of 14 straight goals to begin the game. The Bears, who trailed 14-1 at halftime, scored four straight times to begin the second half, cutting the deficit to 14-5.

"We did a little something in the second half. We knew they were good. I can't say we came out playing wonderfully. But that team is really good," Medeiros said. "We were happy to be here. At the half were disappointed because it's not what we wanted, but we were better in the second half."

Lamb scored three times for Stonington, while Johnson scored twice.

"It was frustrating to go out like that," Sabbadini said. "The first half, we were obviously not on our game. The second half we cleaned it up. I think we were little intimidated at first and it took us too long to get going. Their goalie (Rachel Mikolay) is absolutely amazing. Pretty sure she's an All-American. Literally insane. And their ball movement was superior. Everything was just so clean."

And so, while the ending came with a thud, the journey was very rewarding.

"It was a good season," Medeiros said. "We were just happy to get here. There was no disappointment coming out of this. We made it to the end and got to go out on our terms."

m.dimauro@theday.com