Recently added to Jayvon Young’s Instagram bio, a senior soccer player for Scotch Plains-Fanwood, “i hate dub field.”
This best sums up the weight that comes with the rivalry between the Westfield Blue Devils and the SPF Raiders. A rivalry encapsulated by enthusiasm, battle, hatred, blood and stress, regardless of the sport. Considered one of the most enticing and rich rivalries in the state, these two towns never fail to spark emotion in a contest spanning decades.
William Wertheimer, boys varsity lacrosse coach, was one of the many people to feel the intensity that playing SPF brought. He said, “Before it became Shimme Wexler Field, it was grass. The fans were a lot closer. I remember [SPF fans] grabbing [WHS] players when they were playing. One time, a player named Scotty Muller got grabbed and yanked back which made the game more intense.”
Besides this banter that started years ago, the players feed off the animosity and chaos that this rivalry brings.
Tyshawn Pearson, a 2025 WHS graduate and William Patterson University basketball player, said, “The crowds fed into our success by giving us the energy and adrenaline that we needed. Hearing the fans screaming out their lungs for the smallest plays got us going.”
Aside from the players who feed off the emotion, the fans, just as much, enjoy the games between the two squads as well.
Senior from SPF Jake Todaro, said, “As a fan, I think the rivalry is awesome. I think it’s exactly what sports are meant to be about. If there is no trash-talking or rivalries, then there’s no competition.”
Mike Martucci, another senior from SPF, added, “I think the rivalry is something that is fun for us high school kids. It’s fun to joke around online, make chants and talk trash to my Westfield friends. It gives us something that we’ll remember.”
Regarding the online jokes, social media has acted as a catalyst in that regard and taken the rivalry to another level. With countless students hiding behind pseudonyms and “burner” accounts, it allows those who would normally not spark tension face-to-face make public jabs at each other behind the safety and anonymity of a screen.
Burner accounts have become a central part of the modern rivalry as students turn their eyes to abundant amounts of vulgar comments and posts riddled across social media.
Ben Seward, WHS senior lacrosse captain, said, “I think this year, the online fights between certain burner accounts have been a lot more heated. There’s been a lot more creativity and images being created as technology has rapidly developed and become more accessible, making it seem that much more important to win the game. [SPF] has been using photoshop against our team, mainly [targeting] certain players more than others.”
These accounts have always been around, but never to the extent of this year. Specifically, they took off leading up to and following Westfield’s 1-0 loss in soccer to the Raiders in early October. Westfield senior and boys soccer captain Sam Judka and SPF’s Young were the focal point of this backlash online, advancing this rivalry to more than just the games itself.
However, following the Blue Devils loss, SPF students posted a picture of Judka’s girlfriend, WHS senior Audrey Stack. They cropped her and put her on a poster with Young, before a group of them took a picture in front of the WHS sign in front of the school.
Stack’s response was more of a jab-back. She said, “I personally don’t think it’s bad. I think it’s kind of funny, because even though I was a subject of it, I don’t mind the pictures. I think it’s the weird comments that are a little bit too far because people put comments publicly on the Instagram comments section. It’s slightly weird and kind of violating. But, I think the feud between Westfield and Scotch Plains is just all fun.”
Judka did not speak entirely on the moment, but he did reference the effects social media has on this rivalry. He said, “I think obviously with the rise of social media, a lot more people have become active users on their burner accounts, posting random stuff, finding pictures of people and then using that, to try and get under people’s skin and make jokes, which I find mostly funny.”
He mentioned that most burners are tolerable, but sometimes go a little too far. “When they start bringing the family members and start doing stuff like that, there’s obviously a line that can be crossed,” Judka explained. “For the most part, it doesn’t get crossed, but once in a while, there’s some things that cross the line.”
Martucci added, “I do feel like there is an extra level of [intensity], but I think it’s all jokes. I don’t think rivalries would exist between us without the chants at the games, the Instagram posts, the banter before and after games and the banter between friends from opposing schools.”
With burners and social media, it is not something that can be controlled since everyone is incognito. Judka said, “I do think as much as the administration could try and step in, there’s nothing they can really do. Because, as we all know, we don’t really know who’s behind these burner accounts and there’s so many of them, from WHS and SPF.”
Outside of just Westfield students and athletes, this rivalry isn’t truly experienced until one watches the videos or attends the games themselves.
Transfer from Seton Hall Preparatory School, senior Cooper Gleeson, said, “Even being at a different school, I could still see [the rivalry]. I could see how much it means to everyone. It is a big rivalry in the state.”
Even as tensions tend to peak during the soccer season, over time, this rivalry has progressively shown more moments of spilling over to other sports.
Former WHS football coach and current athletic director Jim DeSarno has witnessed the upscaling of the rivalry across the board. “Football is the most inconsistent out of all the sports because we’re in a different division, so that’s why we haven’t had the consistent rivalry,” Desarno said. “The first two years I was here, [SPF v. WHS] was a big game. The first year, we beat them, and I still have pictures in my house of that game. I didn’t realize how much of a rivalry it was until I came here. I had coached against WHS, and I had coached against SPF at other schools, but I never realized how big the rivalry was until I got here.”
DeSarno’s experience further extends the idea that most people have never experienced something so competitive and fierce in their high school years, and the emotions that carry through almost every competitive scene between the two schools. Because of this, there is always surveillance over the students.
DeSarno said, “From the office, it’s a nightmare. They are going to bring a lot of fans, we are going to bring a lot of fans. The soccer games, the basketball games, hockey, all the events, you have to worry. Because it is a rivalry, you’re going to get a lot of students there.”
He added, “We’ve got to make sure that we have enough security and enough people there to help organize the kids and keep them in one spot.”
Another sport like football that is beginning to buy into the rivalry is baseball.
In past years, Westfield baseball has lacked the consistent intensity of facing the Raiders in the county tournament that is observed seemingly annually by the boys soccer team. More recently though, similar to football, there has been more sparks of emotions between the two schools within the spring sport.
Jay Cook, varsity baseball coach, commented on some of those moments, stating, “We played them one year in a sectional semifinal and they were the one seed. It was very intense. [Fans] were lined up, something we don’t get in baseball for the regular season games. When we play them in counties and states, you see the crowds show up.”
Because of countless memorable moments, most WHS coaches seem to look forward to playing SPF, given the competition and crowd. Wertheimer said, “When you have your neighbors next to you and you have competed in so many sports, it’s very intense. I like the intensity. When it’s WHS and SPF, you are always going to get a good game.”
WHS Boys Basketball Coach Jim McKeon added, “I like [the rivalry] because of the environment. When we’re doing well, our fans are over the top. If they are doing well, their fans are over the top. It’s great banter. That’s what sports are about.”
This winter, Westfield boys basketball will open their season against the Raiders. “This year, they are in our division so we’ll play them twice,” McKeon said. The kids are excited about it. It gets the most fans and gets juice behind it.”
Within recent years, SPF and WHS have missed each other in some sports, due to the change of division or how the schedule was created that year. This has fueled more animosity between the schools; still, not playing them every year throws some shade.
Cook said, “It’s like when we play Cranford. When they win their Group 3 finals, we’re happy for them. Now being group 4, we are playing [SPF] a lot in the Sectional Final. When it’s Group 4 and Group 4, then it adds a little something.”
Just because the games are some of the most enthusiastic of the year, it doesn’t mean the coaches change their mindsets. Wertheimer said, “We try to treat every game the same.”
McKeon had a similar mindset. He said, “I do not judge our program off [beating] SPF. I tell them it’s just another game. There’s stuff behind it. You should be excited. And you should know them better than anyone else because you have grown up playing them throughout your whole life.”
Even through all the agony and disgust both towns have for one another, there is still a level of respect.
McKeon complimented the school’s competitiveness. “They produce great athletes. They have a lot of two and three sports athletes like we do. I think that whenever we see them, it’s a competitive game. There’s always a little more behind it. Both teams play their best. And then, when you don’t [win], it lingers, especially if you see each other once.”
Seward agreed with McKeon. However, he refuses to let up in his senior season. He said, “Recently, they have been building a little bit of a better program, and we will have to respect them a little more this year because they do have some solid players, especially some underclassmen. But, we do know that we have to defend our legacy. They haven’t beat us in over a decade, so we have to prove that we still own them every year.”
Another instance of some positivity being supplemented by the rivalry is Westfield field hockey. In the past few seasons, they have used their annual regular season game against SPF in a conjoined effort to raise awareness about the devastating effects of driving under the influence in a dedication game to Kylie Williams. Kylie Williams was the daughter of Metuchen High School field hockey coach Joelle Williams and tragically lost her life in a drunk driving collision in early 2024. In response, multiple high school teams including WHS and SPFHS have begun raising money for the non-profit organization, Kylie’s Crew, through participating in dedication games.
Member of the WHS field hockey team and senior Ellie Witten believes that the rivalry made the perfect opportunity for the successful event. “We went into this game knowing what we were playing for, we wanted to leave everything on the field. It is a special game only made better by moments like this year when we won in double-overtime.”
While most have a love-hate relationship with the Raiders, some people are still set on the idea that one town is coherently better than the other.
Pearson said, “SPF believes they are better than us even though we beat them in every known sport. I guess I find it funny how delusional they are in the sense that they can hang with us.”
David Camba, 2025 SPF graduate said, “I enjoyed how hype the games were; seeing SPF and Westfield seasons in soccer was very exciting and it showed who the true soccer town was.”
The question sometimes arises though as to why SPF brings out the fight as opposed to other towns. Because really, Cranford and Clark are next door.
WHS junior Liam Washbourne said, “We battle the most with [SPF] because sometimes they are better than us at sports and other times we are better than them.”
Todaro said, “I think it is Westfield that is our rival because the towns are so close and we share a border. Also, both schools have high-level teams that are around the same level.”
While emotions between the two schools are growing across all sports at a variety of paces, ultimately, it will continue to be most prevalent in soccer. Cook said, “I think some [baseball] players [have SPF circled on their calendars]. It is not at the extent of soccer. Soccer is high-octane. We don’t play the night game and do all that.”
The rivalry is on the horizon, with another Union County Championship coming up. With wins by both soccer squads on Oct. 25, they will meet yet again on Nov. 1. The burner accounts have already been heating up, and the towns are excited for the chance at another battle.
