As the final minutes slowly ticked off the clock, a loose ball in front of the Bridgewater-Raritan goalkeeper was buried in the back of the net for the second time of the afternoon, by senior co-captain and team-leading goalscorer Emilie Cadigan. The goal, the third of the half by Westfield, put the finishing touches on a grueling 4-1 victory to send the Blue Devils to their sixth consecutive championship game in the Section 2, Group 4 state tournament bracket.
Coming off a quarterfinals victory last Friday that saw the Blue Devils score seven times in the opening half, Westfield controlled the pace of play through the opening minutes of a physical game. After a free kick by Cadigan missed the net, a shot by senior Ava Jasina hit the crossbar and a series of passes were broken up, the Panthers’ attackers returned the pressure on the Westfield defenders.
“I think we focus a lot on our defense. We prioritize our defense. We praise our defense, because we really do have such a strong defense. We practice that all in the summer, so I think that just helps a lot, especially in our games and locking down against a team like this,” senior co-captain Georgia Morrelli said.
Junior Phoebe Klag stood tall in net, making numerous key saves to keep the game scoreless. The Blue Devils caught a break when Cadigan took a pass from senior Molly McDermott and sprung free on a breakaway before finding the bottom right corner of the net for a 1-0 lead that Westfield took into halftime.
“Kudos to Phoebe Klag, probably the best half of soccer [I have ever seen her play]. All those balls, maybe not great shots, but all those balls that are high, and the wind makes it really hard to catch, and she did, she caught every single one,” head coach Alex Schmidt said.
The Blue Devils carried the momentum from this late goal into the second half. Minutes after she missed the net, sophomore Gabriella Hollins took a shot from the left edge of the penalty box into the opposite side of the net for her ninth of the season. Bridgewater responded with a goal on a scramble in front of the net after a free kick to cut the Westfield lead to 2-1 with under 10 minutes left.
The Blue Devils came back with goals from junior Mia Zbranak and Cadigan in a span of three minutes to put the game out of reach, with the final one coming with 2:30 left. Klag finished the afternoon with seven saves.
“Every single time you score a goal or assist somebody or just part of a flight, it’s very satisfying because, you know, all of the accumulation of your work is just paying off,” Hollins said. “I’m very excited, we had a really good game. We started off a little rough, but I think towards the end of the game we settled in and we had a well-deserved [win].”
Westfield looks to win their sixth straight sectional title when they host Ridge on Friday at 2 p.m. As the 14-seed, the Red Devils defeated Elizabeth 4-1 on Tuesday.
