On Monday, Oak Knoll faced off against the Blue Devils and they successfully defeated Westfield with a dominant show of offense.
Off the opening draw, the Blue Devils controlled the start of the game, with sophomore Alice Manzo making a great play, dodging a defender and scoring the first goal of the game less than two minutes in. After stopping an Oak Knoll free position shot, the Westfield defense started the game strong, but after a great play from the Oak Knoll attackers, the game was level at one.
From there, the Royals took control. After a great save by Westfield senior goalie Kaitlynn Czarnecki, Oak Knoll found the back of the net again with 3:05 left in the first quarter. A sharp angle shot put them ahead 3-1 a minute later and another tally with 1:24 left gave the Royals a 4-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Westfield, only tallying 6 goals, had many struggles throughout the game. “There were a lot of self-inflicted wounds today. We would [win] the draw, and we would just turn it over. Our goalie would make a great save, and we’d turn it back over,” said head coach Katie DaSilva.
Two and half minutes into the second quarter, senior captain Kate Watson scored on a bounce shot after receiving a pass from Manzo to cut the Oak Knoll lead down to two goals. However, Oak Knoll resumed the show of their offensive prowess, scoring two goals in less than two minutes, and another goal with 2:57 left to take a five goal lead. The Blue Devils finished the half with a goal from junior Abi Mokrzycki with two minutes to play, and the first half ended with a 7-3 Oak Knoll lead. Manzo said, “We came out strong. By the end, we were giving up shots that we shouldn’t have.”
The second half began, and Oak Knoll blew the game wide open. Not even five minutes into the third quarter, Oak Knoll had tallied three more goals and took a seven goal lead over the Blue Devils. Westfield tallied their fourth goal off a bounce shot from Manzo, her second goal of the game. The two sides exchanged goals in the remainder of the quarter, and the fourth quarter began with a 12-5 score. The final quarter went by fast, as Oak Knoll controlled the rest of the game, and only four goals in total brought the game to a 15-6 final, a commanding win for Oak Knoll.
The Blue Devils visit Mountain Lakes for their next game, on Wednesday, April 10 hoping to flip the script on their first few games of the season.
