In the brutal winds of a frigid November afternoon, junior Andrew Johnson sends a ball in from the left corner in Ridge’s half. The ball travels right to senior Lucas Grygiel’s feet, he takes a step and shoots decisively into the bottom right corner, bringing the score to 3-0 and securing the sectional semifinal victory for the Blue Devils.
The Blue Devils went into the matchup against Ridge with a record of 10-9-2, but their 4-1 victory over the Red Devils brought them to 11 wins. The middle of the season was tough for Westfield as they had two four-game losing streaks, but they picked themselves up for the sectional run and have persevered through their last three matchups.
The team has set completely new expectations, and their energy has reflected just that. “When we were on our losing streak in the middle of the season, everyone was down and there wasn’t a lot of energy in the whole group. But since counties, the energy’s been up and we’ve been winning a lot more,” said senior goalkeeper Simon Gunzberg. “It’s really just a mindset.”
Gunzberg tallied five saves throughout the game, including clutch ones in the last ten minutes of the first half on Ridge’s free kicks. The dominance of Gunzberg and the defense, including juniors Reean Dias and Jakub Kotowicz, reflected the Blue Devils’ resilient defensive side throughout the game.
Sophomore Beckett Johnson began the team’s offensive streak late in the first half, giving them the traction they needed to finish the job. “We needed to set the tone,” said Johnson. “We had energy from the start, and carried it through the whole game and we just netted goal after goal. Everyone was getting involved.”
This goal contributed to their offensive dominance, ultimately scoring three more: Another from senior Joaquin Wilkes with a minute left in the first half, Grygiel’s goal early in the second half and senior co-captain Alex Rokhsar’s game-sealing goal with mere minutes left in the match.
“We knew [Ridge] had some quality on top, so the first thing was trying to contain them, trying to make things hard for them,” said head coach Eric Shaw. “It was important for us to take advantage of the first half. We could have got one or two more in the first half, but in the end, we went into halftime two nil and that helped us tremendously going into the second half mentally.”
The Blue Devils will play away at Scotch Plains-Fanwood this weekend at a to-be-determined time for their third matchup this season, hoping to continue their winning streak and keep their newfound momentum going.
