After the difficult 3-0 loss against Trinity Hall in their season opener, the Blue Devils came back even stronger, knocking down Cranford 10-3 on Dec. 5, followed by a 10-1 win over Randolph on Tuesday. Right off the puck drop, the team’s offense immediately pressed the Rams’ defense, getting multiple shots on the goal. Just a couple of minutes into the first period, the Blue Devils scored.
Head coach Matthew Gualtieri said, “We wanted to build off our last game against Cranford. It’s always a big rivalry game and they’re always looking to beat us, so we wanted to make sure that we fight and put our best foot forward against them and we continued that today.”
For the majority of the first period, Randolph struggled to gain possession of the puck. The Blue Devils piled on goal after goal, making it 7-1 at the end of the first period.
Just five minutes into the second period, the team added three more goals to the scoreboard with senior Lauren Delaney recording her fourth of the game. Delaney said, “[My line] played together last game, so it’s honestly just getting used to each other; playing hard no matter how the other team plays and not playing down to their level.”
The Blue Devils drew a couple of penalties in the second and third period, but it did not have an impact on the final outcome as Westfield’s defense did not allow the Rams to capitalize on the power plays.
The goal for the team going into this game was “to have a fast pace, communicate and make a lot of passes,” said senior co-captain Sarina Sherman. After scoring the 10th goal just a few minutes into the second, the Blue Devils laid off on their shots on goal.
Gualtieri said, “We didn’t want to end the game because one more goal would have ended the game early. We wanted to try to fulfill the 45 minutes.” With the mercy rule, one more goal for the Blue Devils would have gotten them to a 10-goal lead, ending the game early.
“We just wanted to work on our passing and communication [for the rest of the game],” Delaney said. Westfield continued to keep the Rams out of their zone, despite the Blue Devils’ lack of offensive rule.
The Blue Devils are looking to continue this dominant attitude for the remainder of the season. “We’re being aggressive in the offensive zone. We’re moving the puck a lot better and we have a lot of depth this year,” said Gualtieri. “Our goal is to wear the other team down and we did a good job of that today.”
The team moves to a 2-1 record and is back in action on Dec. 12 away against Trinity Hall at 7:30 p.m.
