Clear blue skies covered the area. Warm rays of sunshine beamed onto the turf and bleachers of Gary Kehler Stadium. Filling up the stands in support of the team, the red hot boys lacrosse team began chants of encouragement: “I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN! I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!” The scoreboard read 7-5. The Blue Devils trailed by just two goals in the closing minutes of the first half against New Jersey’s girls lacrosse powerhouse, Summit.
Westfield started strong. Led by sophomores Gilli Cohen and Alice Manzo along with senior Kaitlynn Czarneki in the cage and senior captain Lucy Mineo on offense, the Blue Devils were holding on.
As the buzzer to begin the second half sounded, Westfield seemed hopeful for a second half comeback with a score of 7-5. As the players took the field, a sense of hope and excitement pervaded the atmosphere.
Thoughts of a few quick goals to take the lead were in everyone’s minds. From there the Blue Devils would only need to play some good defense and hold on for the rest of the game. Easy enough, right? Alas, a Westfield comeback would not be in the cards on this day as nationally-ranked Summit would execute a second half onslaught with a 14-7 score in Summit’s favor at the end of the third, followed by a 19-7 final score.
Head coach Kathryn DaSilva said “It’s the draw control. 19 draws they won, if you don’t get the draws you don’t win the game. First quarter we got the first two draws and we scored the first two goals. Their goalie is weaker which is why they didn’t need to keep tending us but they did because they know that we are dangerous when we have the ball on attack.
Senior captain Sara Rooney reflected on the loss: “We need to do better getting on cutters, we did really well on ball defense, but we were struggling on cuts. I think just getting on cutters will make a huge difference.” The Westfield defense proved strong in the first half, but Summit cracked the code with a seemingly endless wave of cutters resulting in a seemingly endless wave of goals.
Westfield is looking ahead to Randolph on Thursday, May 2. Rooney is confident for the matchup, saying, “Randolph has a really fast girl who is on my club team, I think we match up well and I’m feeling good about this next game.”
