As they walked onto the field, the fire in Westfield’s eyes, the determination of their body language and the passion spilling from the field were the first signs of the intense game ahead. Last season, Westfield fell to Oak Knoll in the semifinal round of the Union County Tournament, knocking them out of their run for the county title. Yesterday, they avenged last year’s disappointment, coming out with a 3-0 win on the Royals home field.
Throughout the first half Westfield held strong possession, commanding the field offensively. Junior Ashley Yenawine’s explosiveness delivered two great birthday presents. “It felt so good to score twice on my birthday and was so exciting. My team is so supportive. They’re the best, and they just make it even better.” Head coach Alex Schmidt expressed how “special” this was for Yenawine.
On the other end, the defense proved their fortitude once again with another shutout; however, this game was slightly different as freshman Phoebe Klag played goalkeeper for the game’s entirety. Klag said, “It feels pretty good, I wasn’t expecting to play full games as a freshman, but I’m happy I got the opportunity to do so well.”
Center back Erin Hazard said, “We’re so proud of her. We came into this game being extremely supportive of her. It’s a really tough spot to be in as a freshman, coming in and playing a full game. Our goal coming in was to support her through the highs and lows, and she did an amazing job today. She stayed calm and composed under pressure, and had so many awesome saves. We are so proud of her leaving a game with a shutout.”
Adding to the Blue Devils defensive plays, Hazard said, “We’ve been working on keeping our shape and structure which we did very well today. We focused on pressure and cover, making sure that when someone steps to the ball we have someone behind them in case a mistake happens, and that helped us today.”
Ultimately the Blue Devils left with success, however the first half ended with just a 1-0 lead. Schmidt said, “The grass is really difficult because it is slower so one nothing at halftime we are pretty happy with. We have been here a lot of times when we have been losing at halftime so 1-0 was pretty good for the half.”
With just a 1-0 lead at the start of the second half, the Blue Devils still felt the pressure to fight to the end after their previous game’s outcome. Hazard said, “Going into halftime, it felt very similar to our Elizabeth game. A 1-0 lead is a tough lead to have, so I made sure our defense was calm and composed. I made sure we came out with intensity to make the gap bigger.”
The second half started with Oak Knoll’s need to score which sparked a new aggression. Yet, Westfield stayed collected, preventing any goals from their opponents. The Blue Devils connected offensively which added two more goals to the scoreboard.
Westfield plays again on Monday, as they take on Union Catholic High school at 4 p.m. Moving forward Hazard said, “I am proud of how we bounced back after last game’s loss and I think we accomplished our goal which was working on resetting after mistakes happen so we can recover.”
