The Westfield stands, which had once filled the air with ringing cries of “go blue” and “lets go girls” had dropped to near silence, the eyes of spectators darting between the ticking clock and the field. Down 1-0 with mere minutes left in the game, the Blue Devils focused on the offense, hoping to equal the score and send the game to penalty kicks.
There was never a need for penalty kicks. When the clock hit zero, the score remained 1-0. Westfield would leave the pitch now eliminated from the Union County Tournament, while the Oak Knoll Royals would move on to the final round.
The only goal of the game came in the middle of the second half when Oak Knoll sent the ball into the top left corner of the net, just barely past sophomore goalkeeper Sofia Buoscio. This goal was the product of a mis-hit clearance which left the ball in front of an Oak Knoll attacker, opening up a scoring opportunity.
After this goal, the Royals completely altered their defensive scheme. They elected to drop nearly all of their players into the back half of the field, taking all the focus off of the offense and onto stopping the advances of Westfield’s forwards. “It was just hard to break lines of pressure when you’re just constantly like trying to get to the goal and they’re constantly kicking it up and then having to restart and everything like that,” said senior captain Kate Giglio. “It’s just hard to keep momentum going after you’ve been going for 80 minutes.”
This defensive response was not a surprise. Head coach Alex Schmidt said, “We knew they were probably going to sit deep. The last time we played them we won 6-0, but when they sit nine girls behind the ball, you have to be a little more technical. I think we rushed a little at times, so maybe we need to take a little longer on the shots.”
However, there was one opportunity for the Blue Devils to fight their way back into the match despite the new defensive strategy implemented by Oak Knoll. Only a few minutes after Oak Knoll broke the stalemate, Westfield pieced together several passes upfield to allow junior defender Audra Toth to send a high, arcing cross into the dark autumn sky. The ball, a stark white orb illuminated by the stadium lights, seemed to hover before it was met on the ground by senior forward Sofia Gesser. The silence from the Westfield fans was broken by ear-piercing cheers in hopes of a Blue Devil goal.
The girls had done it. Gesser received the cross from Toth and squeaked a shot past the keeper. Players celebrated and fans embraced one another, thrilled with the Blue Devil’s response. Distracted by the prospect of a tie game, they were oblivious to the officials joining together in a huddle.
After discussing the legality of the play, the officials determined that Gesser was in fact offsides, revoking the goal from the stat sheet and killing the momentum of the Blue Devils.
“Once we got the goal called back, we couldn’t find solid possession of the ball. We did pretty well for the most part, but we just didn’t create a lot of scoring chances,” said Schmidt.
The next 15 minutes passed, and the Blue Devils failed to capitalize on any shimmers of opportunity. Every advance was met by a defending Royal, ready to boot the ball away in whichever direction. Throw-ins, free kicks, and corner kicks were all awarded to the Blue Devils purposely by Oak Knoll in order to stall Westfield’s offense.
Westfield was faithful, they never lost hope until the very last second. But, as time ran out, the realization began to set in. This loss would mark the end of a historic unbeaten streak—one which spanned all the way back to 2020 and had lasted for 54 games.
“It’s tough because we’d rather lose a regular season game than counties. It’s 100% tough for these girls, the alumni are here, so nobody wants to be that team that ends the streak.”
“But maybe this fires us up for the state tournament, you know, I’d rather you rather win the big prize than this one, so we’ll just get refocused. But hey, it’s high school sports, you love it most of the time and you hate it other times, it happens,” said Schmidt.
The girls look to rebound from this loss and finish up their season before heading into the North 2, Group 4 sectional tournament. They will play Elizabeth next at Kehler on Wednesday.
