Do not waste it.
As the sideline quieted, all you could hear was that simple mantra playing on a loop throughout the game.
Do not waste it.
Coming into this quarterfinal game an underdog, Westfield had to step-up.
They did just that, well in the first half at least. The Blue Devils followed the game plan, putting their heart and soul into the game. Senior captain Katie Walsh and junior Emma Blake made some notable plays on the right side, maneuvering the ball over their defenders and connecting passes to one another. Walsh said, “I think we did a great job getting the ball up the sideline and trying to get shots across.”
Sophomores Emma Schwarzenbek and Riley Carr also helped keep the ball on the offensive end in the transition game. When SPF tried to make a break up the middle of the field, there was senior Lindsey Leavitt and senior captain Erin Doherty, retrieving the ball before it could get inside Westfield’s scoring circle. When SPF went up their left side, there was Blake and Walsh there to intercept the pass and send it up to their own offense. The yelling of the players, the reliance on each other, really made Westfield’s ball handling superior in the first two quarters.
Despite the ball handling success, Westfield tried and failed, multiple times, at creating opportunities on the offensive end. Long through balls perfectly executed by Walsh, Doherty and Blake were all left unreceived by the invisible left and right forwards who failed to cover the goal posts on time. The bench was screaming, “Post, post, who’s on post” as numerous opportunities rolled out of bounds making for SPF free hits.
“I think our biggest problem this whole season has been capitalizing. In the whole first half, we had the ball down the other side the whole time. We’re taking the shots but then we have no one on the posts or we just cannot get the right angle to finish it,” said Doherty.
Do not waste it.
Westfield continued to fight against Scotch Plains until the halftime whistle blew. Both teams played composed in the first half with not a single corner being called on either side of the ball. Westfield head coach Corinne Varhley said, “In the first half, I saw a lot of just hard work and grit and just determination all throughout that half.”
But, as those eight halftime minutes passed, the Blue Devils lost something that SPF gained: energy.
Coming into the second half of the game, SPF took it upon themselves to turn their play around and get some points on the board. Sprinting up the middle of Westfield’s circle, the Raider’s player maneuvered past the defenders, dodging, pulling the ball out of reach of Westfield. Veering right in motion with free hands, she pushes the ball to the left side of the cage past senior captain and goalkeeper Maddie Caherly.
Excitement and energy ignited the SPF team.
Westfield was now forced to make a comeback.
The Blue Devil sidelines tried to match their opponents cheers, letting out motivational shrieks of ‘Keep up the energy, c’mon blue.’ Do not waste it.
Westfield kept going, but the Raider’s momentum was hard to break. Less than three minutes later, SPF was back on offense with a corner. After two quick passes, the ball made it to the Raiders at the top of the circle. Dodging a defender approaching her stick, the SPF player pulled the ball onto her backhand, reverse chipping the ball high and out of reach of Caherly.
With the score reading 2-0, the Blue Devils needed a quick turnaround heading into the final quarter. “We knew we just had to be a four-quarter team. We needed to finish on our opportunities, ” said Walsh.
Do not waste it.
The fourth quarter served to be another tireless beating by Scotch Plains. Although Westfield was granted a corner opportunity early in the quarter, it ended in a miscommunication that allowed SPF to regain possession.
Scotch Plains moved swiftly past the Blue Devils, shooting the ball in an attempt to further separate themselves from the competition. With a block by sophomore Emily Kennedy, the ball did not make its way to the goal, but it did result in a corner play. With two great saves, Caherly stayed on her toes to try to stop the ball. However, the rebounds allowed for SPF to take a final shot to make the score 3-0.
The game would end a minute later on that sad note; the Blue Devils lost their chance at a Union County championship title. It had been stripped away with a loss in the quarterfinal round.
They wasted it.
“We did come out strong in the first two quarters,” said Coach Varhley. “It was a defensive game on both sides, no corners. But, that’s got to happen for all 60 minutes.”
When Coach Varhley was asked how she responded to the loss, she said that “it comes to a point where they have to do it on the field. They have to do it intrinsically. I just told them, they have to find a way when the other team scores first, how are you going to answer back? How are you going to dig deep and push and push and push until you put one in the cage?”
Going into their final matchups and the North 2, Group 4 sectional tournament, the girls will look to do just that. Answer back. Dig Deep. Push.
The girls will play at Kehler on Friday against Newton in a regular season game at 4 p.m., hoping to improve from their UCT loss.
