Freshman Victoria Corcoran lays a perfect pass to sophomore Catherine Oliveira who finishes a shot, locking in a 5-0 win over New Providence. The Blue Devils first round of the Union County Tournament consisted of Oliveira’s first goal, a shutout from both goalies, Sofia Buoscio and Phoebe Klag, and strong possession.
Head coach Alex Schmidt said, “This was a good game in terms of possession. I think we maintained our shape. I thought we were disciplined defending and the next game is the semi-finals.”
Similarly to Schmidt, sophomore Emilie Cadigan said, “Connecting passes, moving the ball, making sure we move quickly and through balls worked really well today.”
Westfield beat New Providence 6-0 and 4-1 in the 2023-24 season. However, heading into the game, Westfield knew they needed to put 100 percent of their efforts into winning. Schmidt said, “No matter what our record is or where our ranking is, we are 0-0 in the county tournament, so it was important to start quickly.”
Cadigan proved her urgency to win as her offensive plays contributed to the win with both an assist and a goal. She said, “It felt good to score. I always like to get a goal.” Cadigan was not the only player who put goals on the scoreboard. Co-captain Audra Toth added two more goals and said, “We did a good job propping the ball and just moving around them. We had a lot of people involved in good plays and we really used the width which was our goal coming into the game, so that made us successful.”
Toth now has a total of 15 goals this season and said, “I feel like I made a positive contribution today. I think the wingers had a successful game and put in a lot of hard work, so I just got on the end of their crosses.”
Going into the half, the score read 2-0 and the Blue Devils knew they needed more goals to secure the win. However, New Providence came out hungry, with two shots on goal that were saved by Klag. The offense was not the only contributor to the win. Toth said, “Our defense looked really solid. We just need to keep communicating and moving fluidly back there.”
Additionally, Cadigan said, “I think we played really well against this team and making sure we shut them out when we can and not letting them get back to score.”
In regards to the next tournament game, Toth said, “Offensively we need to take better shots and more quality shots from far out because we are kind of looking for the perfect moment and sometimes we just have to score some ugly goals because they aren’t always going to be pretty.”
The Blue Devils will be back in action against rivals Scotch Plains Fanwood at 2:30 p.m. at ALJ. SPF will seek revenge after previously losing to Westfield 3-0 earlier in the season.
