As the scoreboard read 5-0, Westfield’s lead brought out freshman Dominik Kotowicz into goal for his first-ever varsity minutes. Reflecting back on this special moment, Kotowik felt “excited” but also “nervous.” Co-captain Ethan Wade said, “It’s always difficult to be thrown into a varsity environment, but he looked comfortable and I’m proud.”
After last Saturday night’s Union County Championship loss, the Blue Devils turned the page and are looking to move on. Senior Henry Iannuzi explained that despite the loss, the team is still as motivated as ever for the state tournament. He said, “Look onto the next thing, sectionals are more important and we are just going for states.” Additionally, head coach Eric Shaw said, “Before the game we talked about coming out strong after a tough loss in the final, it’s not the easiest. We are just trying to push ourselves along to get ourselves ready for next week’s states so that’s our motivation and to be prepared for next Tuesday.”
After the first half the Blue Devils were only up 1-0 with an uncomfortable lead. In the second half, Westfield was able to spark some momentum with four goals and strong defense. However, Wade said, “We need to work on starting the game strong. You could see we scored 1-0 in the first half and even gave them a few chances, but in the second half it was 4-0 and they didn’t have one chance on net. It’s like two different teams we need to make one.”
Shaw said, “[going into the second half we needed] to stay composed and push the game along and try to get another early goal. At that point [we] still believed that [Piscataway] could compete, which they were. They had some tricky players up top but as a group, we knew we were a little better and deserved a few more goals, which was earned in the second half.”
Coming off a high-intensity Union County Final game, the Blue Devils were looking for a confidence booster and more practice knowing that this game gives them no power points towards the state tournament.
Looking forward, Iannuzi said, “We have to make it cleaner and play more consistently. Sometimes in games we stop playing our style and just kick it up the field, we have to make sure we stay more disciplined.”
The Blue Devils will be back in action on Nov. 1 at Gary Kehler Stadium at 4 p.m. against Old Bridge.
