Seton Hall Prep boasts a threatening assemblage of defenders, big and imposing and connected like parts of a machine. That machine’s gears turned crushingly on Saturday. The Pirates rebuffed Westfield at one end and launched repeated efficient salvos at the other.
An American flag waved lazily in the wind behind one goal, its graceful motion mirroring the Pirates’ smooth offensive movement. No. 2 Seton Hall Prep (9-0, 4-0 NJILL Fitch-Pitt) dwarfed No. 9 Westfield (3-3, 2-2 NJILL Fitch-Pitt) on Saturday at the Kelly Athletic Complex in a 15–5 victory.
“It’s always disappointing to lose like that,” Ryan Waldman said. “Obviously we want to trust each other and play with each other, so just staying with good positivity and staying together, going after the next one on Monday.”
Said positivity poured from the Westfield sideline early on Saturday. Danny Hazard won the opening faceoff, streaked downfield and dumped the ball to Waldman. Waldman ripped a shot into the bottom left corner. Six seconds had elapsed. A dream start.
“Our goal, at first, was to go into a long possession after the opening faceoff,” said head coach William Wertheimer, part of a larger plan to slow down the game. “But Danny won a clean one and gave it to Waldo, and then Waldo just stuck it in the back of the corner.”
If it was a dream start, though, Seton Hall Prep abruptly shook Westfield awake. The Pirates scored a minute later and added 3 more goals by quarter’s end.
Another goal arrived some minutes later, Seton Hall’s Matthew Pepe diving forward to score. Almost pleadingly, the Westfield bench shouted for a crease violation. The refs threw a flag instead. A push on Westfield. Negated, though, by the goal.
Things carried on from there, SHP cruising, Westfield attempting to claw back. The Blue Devils generated a couple small sparks. The Pirates always snuffed them out.
“I feel like we played horribly today,” said Quinn Wojcik, Westfield’s goalie. “It started with me, I didn’t have a great game. We didn’t have communication on the back side, let up a bunch of easy goals. That was about it. I think we’re a much better team than the score really showed.”
Wertheimer separately disputed Wojcik’s self-criticism, saying the goalie “played really well.” Wertheimer and Wojcik also labeled Hazard, who went 13-22 on faceoffs, as a bright spot. SHP threw the kitchen sink at Hazard—a couple different long poles, a couple different faceoff guys—but he mostly won the draws. Frustration arose, though, when Seton Hall often scooped up the ensuing ground balls.
Westfield, it seemed, spent most of its time defending, the result of those ground balls and of the disruptive Pirate defense.
On offense, Westfield lacked its full potency as Waldman struggled with an ankle injury. The senior might stand in danger of missing Monday’s 4:45 p.m. tilt at Wall. He sprained his ankle against Columbia two weeks ago and has played sparingly since, taking the field against SHP only after a rest period earlier this week. Early in the second quarter, he sustained a hit while shooting, fell to the turf, stood up hobbling. He came to the bench for a brief examination and resumed playing, even if noticeably affected.
Waldman fielded a question postgame about the damaged ankle. He laughed hollowly.
Wertheimer suggested the ankle issue likely will linger and said the Blue Devils will rest Waldman when they can.
Ankle or not, Waldman said his offense needed to perform some cleanup.
“We just gotta shoot a little better, possess the ball a little better,” he said. “We got some stuff to work on tomorrow.”
Westfield nabbed a couple transition goals Saturday. One of them, midway through the third quarter, lifted hopes for a moment. Wojcik made a save and threw the ball downfield, and, three quick passes later, Cody Lam stood on the doorstep, with the ball, basically unchallenged.
Goal. A second consecutive goal. Roars from the bench. A 6-goal deficit sliced to 4. Hope.
A minute later, SHP’s Pepe scored. The hope washed out to sea.
Pepe scored 5 goals on the day, and Tyler Juhlin scored 3. Five Blue Devils each scored 1 goal, including Colin Coyle, Dylan Wragg and Dan Hanlon.
“It’s never good to lose like that,” Waldman said. “But it’s always a good thing when you come together as a team. At least we lost together.”
The goal for next time, of course, is to win together.
