Late into the second period, senior tri-assistant captain Aidan Wilson, shot from out far, sniping the top corner of the net and getting his 100th point for his career as a Blue Devil. Wilson said, “It feels amazing to hit 100 points, but it’s not just me. It’s the whole team. Everyone around me has helped me along the way in reaching this milestone.”
In similar fashion, senior tri-assistant captain Jackson Chicola also hit his 100th career point. Behind the leadership of these two star players, the Blue Devils beat West Essex 10-1 in the semifinal round of the McInnis sectional tournament.
The first period ended with the Blue Devils leading 2-1. They were having trouble finding their momentum and were not playing the game they wanted to be playing. Head coach Joe Bertucci said, “We were at a disadvantage a little bit out there. Being man-down four times in the first period is not ideal and I don’t agree with a lot of the calls.” Coming out of the break the Blue Devils knew they had to play as a team and find the back of the net. They did just this with seven separate players scoring in the matchup.
The matchup between the Blue Devils and West Essex was scrappy as both teams came into the game with an extremely aggressive mindset, hoping to advance into the McInnis Cup finals. The referees were calling penalties left and right leaving a lot of opportunities for West Essex to score. “After the first period our coach was telling us to stay calm, keep a level head, and he would deal with the referees. We were never worried that we were going to lose this game,” said sophomore Liam Reed.
The Blue Devils exploded in the second period scoring four goals and increasing their lead to 6-1. These goals were just the confidence Westfield needed. The Blue Devils went on to score four more goals in the third period, despite questionable calls being made by the refs.
The team is looking to take this confidence and dominant win into tomorrow night where they will face off against a strong Livingston team at 5 p.m. in the McInnis Cup fina. Junior goalie Troy Conover said, “We’re playing Livingston and we’ve played them a couple of times this season. We know their weaknesses, so we plan to just do our thing with the same goal as always, score.”
