With less than fifteen seconds left in the half, goalie Kaitlynn Czarnecki launched a powerful clear down the field to senior Juliana Molinelli. Molinelli sprinted past the West Orange defenders and delivered a precise pass across the field to sophomore Gilli Cohen. In a flash, Cohen found senior captain Kate Watson, who fired a brilliant shot into the top right corner. This pivotal play ignited the Blue Devils’ confidence, propelling them to an impressive 17-6 victory over West Orange.
Though winning for the whole game, Westfield did not come out with the intensity they needed until towards the end of the first half. “We went in with the mentality that we were going to crush this team, and I think it negatively impacted us,” said junior Erin Hazard. Starting off the game strong, junior Abi Mokrzycki scored Westfield’s first two goals, her second between the West Orange goalie’s legs and assisted by senior captain Lucy Mineo. Mineo used this energy to score the next goal of the game, putting Westfield up 3-0 halfway though the first quarter. West Orange did sneak a goal past Westfield, but the Blue Devils responded with two more, ending the first quarter 5-1.
In the second quarter, West Orange managed to rise above the previous quarter’s performance and work through adversity on the field. “These referees were very inconsistent and really didn’t let us play the style of game that this level requires. So I felt we did a really good job adjusting, and that just teaches them [how to deal with] adversity,” said head coach Kathryn Dasilva. “This weather is another barrier to adversity.” Penalties were consistently called on Westfield’s defense, allowing the Mountaineers to score 2 additional goals, leading to a tight score of 5-3. Anything was possible at this moment. But Westfield’s energy prevailed as they scored another powerful goal, ending the half up 6-3. Despite winning at this point, “the players were really frustrated with how we were doing,” said Mineo. “Our starting performance was not where it should have been, but we really picked it up in the third quarter, and we were able to play more for fun than hard.”
This build-up of intensity was brought into the third quarter as the Blue Devils absolutely dominated. Yet again, the matchup faced penalty after penalty this quarter, allowing for numerous goals. Less than 30 seconds into the quarter, the first penalty shot was made by sophomore Alice Manzo. Just 40 seconds later, Watson scored her second goal of the game, faking out the goalie and aiming for the top left corner of the goal. Just after Mokryzcki’s hat trick goal, she assisted another goal, scored by sophomore Maeve Wojick. During her second penalty shot of the quarter, Manzo scored again, giving her a hat trick. Though West Orange scored twice during this quarter, Mineo’s goal led the Blue Devils to their outstanding fourth quarter.
At this point in the game, the Mountaineers had given up. The Blue Devils passed around them with little effort given by the West Orange defense. Just two minutes into the final quarter, junior Sydney O’Connor scored her first goal of the season on varsity, exciting the team. Later on, Hazard made two goals in less than a minute. With the final goal of the game with 1:45 left on the clock, senior Emily Shabinaw scored to the top right corner of the goal, erupting the crowd into cheers.
The girls are set to play Montclair next week on May 30 for the quarterfinals of the state tournament. This will be their second matchup of the season, the previous game ending in a 16-8 win for the Blue Devils.
