Fourth quarter. With the clock running down, Morris Knolls had to make a play. Down 8-9, the Golden Eagles had less than 20 seconds to score. They pushed the ball up the field into Westfield’s fearsome defense. With only four seconds until the clock struck zero, they managed to slip a shot into Westfield’s net. 9-9. They forced overtime in the final seconds of regulation.
However, the Blue Devils maintained their composure and stayed strong through the first overtime, which was followed by a goal from sophomore Gilli Cohen in second overtime that gave them the win.
Head coach Katie DaSilva said that their objective going in was to put the pressure on the Golden Eagles: “We knew the game plan. We know this is a team that gets carded out really easy and gets rattled really easy. So we just took our time and just played to our strengths.”
And that they did. The Blue Devils led the entire game, only allowing a tie late in the game with the last-second goal.
“They never took the lead,” said DaSilva. “They really have one main player. That’s it. So if you shut the dominant player down, it’s really not much of a game.”
The first quarter started with Westfield up 3-1 with goals from sophomore Alice Manzo and senior captain Lucy Mineo. Manzo would finish with a hat trick on the day. A last-second goal at the end of the quarter from Morris Knolls brought the score to 3-2.
Manzo said that she was able to find the back of the net so often because “there were a lot of opportunities and it was a team effort with everyone clearing through and really creating these opportunities for other players.”
Westfield began to pull away in the second quarter. Goals from senior Jules Molinelli and Manzo, partnered with only one goal from Morris Knolls, brought the score to 5-3 heading into halftime.
The third quarter was closer than the previous two. Cohen scored two of her four goals in the game in that period while the Golden Eagles answered with three of their own, ending out the quarter with a score of 7-6.
Manzo and Cohen led the team with 7 of the team’s 10 goals. They stepped up in the fourth quarter, the pair scoring a goal each to bring Westfield up 9-6. Then, however, Morris Knolls went on a tear and eventually tied it to go to overtime.
DaSilva was not worried about the overtime situation, saying that her team prepared for it: “We actually practice it a lot at practice. We let our defense get a little aggressive, so they’re kind of used to this so it’s not new to them when they face it in person.”
The stout Devil defense held down the fort in the first overtime, sliding early and efficiently to Morris Knolls’ star player at the top of their offensive set. However, the Devil’s offense could not produce much in the short time they had before the buzzer sounded to end the first overtime.
It did not take long for the Devils to assert their dominance in the second overtime. Immediately after gaining possession, they got the ball to Cohen, who split dodged her defender twice with lightning lateral speed, gaining just enough separation to be able to free up her hands and sling the ball to the top shelf of the goal. The Westfield bench and stands erupted as Cohen was embraced by her teammates.
“It was great,” Cohen said of the final goal. “It was a team effort. We all worked really hard for it, especially the defense to put us in position to be on offense and be able to score there.”
With this victory, the Blue Devils now sit at 3-2 and will face Immaculate Heart at 4:30 p.m. at Immaculate Heart Academy on Tuesday.
