On Wednesday afternoon, the Blue Devils hosted Kent Place, currently ranked third in the state. Heading into the fourth quarter with a woman-up opportunity, head coach Katie DaSilva and her team knew they had to capitalize. Senior tri-captain and Lehigh University commit Gillian Cohen did just that, scoring the only two goals of the fourth quarter, forcing an 8-8 tie and sending the game to overtime. Despite a huge save from freshman goalie Mia Calderon-Brown, the Kent Place attacker was able to slip the rebound past Calderon-Brown, bringing the game’s final score to 9-8 Kent Place.
Within the first minutes of play, senior Maddy Smith tallied the first goal for the Blue Devils, giving them strong offensive momentum early. Kent Place answered 30 seconds later on their offensive end, slipping one past Westfield’s defensive unit. Following a strong defensive possession for the Blue Devils, Smith scored her second goal for the Blue Devils off a powerful eight-meter free position.
Back-and-forth play continued between both teams, allowing five different goal-scorers to capitalize for Westfield, ending the first half in a 6-6 tie.
Despite minimal scoring opportunities for the Blue Devils in the third quarter, the defensive unit was able to limit KPS to two goals in the third quarter. The midfielders maintained strong efforts on both ends of the field, especially in transition. Senior tri-captain and Tufts commit Maeve Wojcik said, “I think our transitions were good today. We fought really hard on the rides and we were able to force a lot of turnovers, which is crucial in such a close game. The midfielders hustling back on defense in transition really helped us today.” As the leader of the defensive unit, Wojcik has helped the team grow immensely within the first few weeks of the season, along with Cohen joining them on the defensive end. “We played as one unit instead of individually across the field. We added Gilli to our defensive unit, so it was hard for all of us to adjust, especially for her because she had never played it before. But, the communication and team-bond we have with each other helped her succeed and play great in a new position.”
Coach DaSilva added, “I come up with a lot of different offenses to go up against different defensive units. Defensively, we always stick to our unit even if people know what it is, because we want their attack to adjust to our defense, not our defense changing for their attack.”
To begin the fourth quarter, Cohen immediately scored her second goal of the game on an eight-meter, closing the KPS lead to one with 12 minutes left in regulation. The next 10 minutes remained scoreless, with countless defensive stops. Coach Dasilva called a timeout down by one goal with five minutes left in regulation. Coming out of the timeout, Cohen scored her third of the game, tying the score 8-8. By the end of regulation, the Blue Devils had caused 20 forced turnovers.
Calderon-Brown stepped up late in the quarter, recording her sixth save with two minutes left in regulation. Neither team was able to capitalize on offense, forcing overtime.
Although Westfield fell short in overtime, every player on the field gave maximum effort until the final whistle. Smith said, “This game is one of those where you lose, it’s tough and it stings. It’s a hard way to lose, but it fuels us to win the next game and play even harder. We did everything we could and that’s all you can ask for, so we are looking for a big win next game.”
Despite the final score, coach DaSilva felt her players did all they could against the talented KPS offense. “Unfortunately we didn’t come out with the win, but I’m really proud of the girls. They should also be proud of themselves, it was a great game.”
The team will look to use this as motivation as they travel to Mendham for their next game on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
