With 40 seconds left and down by 2, the Blue Devils had one last opportunity to pull ahead of the Delbarton Green Wave. From far out, senior tri-captain Ben Seward fired one into the back of the net, bringing the game to a final score of 8-7 Delbarton.
Westfield started the game strong, outscoring Delbarton 3-0 in the first quarter. However, even with Westfield’s undeniable domination and high momentum in the first quarter, the Green Wave ultimately came out victorious.
A strong force on offense was junior Kieran Gerne who ended the game with a hat trick. Gerne started the first quarter with two back-to-back goals that helped give Westfield their initial lead. However, in the second quarter, Delbarton held Westfield to zero goals and brought the score to 3-2 Westfield at the end of the half.
Gerne said, “I think we could have cleared the ball a little bit better, we had the energy at the start of the game, and then slowly lost it.”
Westfield had won the first half, but as the third quarter started, the Green Wave scored four goals very quickly which gave them their first lead of the game of 6-4.
“I think we came out really strong,” said head coach William Wertheimer. “[Varner] had a great game.” Junior goalie Tyson Varner ended the game with a total of 16 saves. The Blue Devils’ defense also proved strong, with junior Jack Schwarzenbek leading the team with four ground balls, and seniors Quinn Flor and Luke Spaide tallying three each.
The team effort from Westfield was strong, with seven different Blue Devils combining for goals and assists. Junior Harrison Rekemeier, Hobart and William Smith commit, had three assists, while junior Koby Waldman, a Cornell commit, had one goal and two assists. Sophomore Cooper Rosen also had an impressive showing, tallying two goals.
Even with the positive performances from many on the field, there were still areas that needed to be improved. Varner said, “I feel like we could have been done clearing the ball better. Our offense really needed the ball and we lacked on giving them it.”
Moving forward, Wertheimer said the team will focus on a lot of the same things they have been working on. “Our clears weren’t the best. We’ll still go back to that,” he said. “First time ground balls. The little things are what [we] need to improve on.”
Westfield hopes to make these adjustments before their next game on Friday as they travel to Montclair at 4:30 p.m.
