With 25 seconds left in the second quarter, senior captain Michael Marshall accelerated down the field. Just four minutes prior, junior Garrett Ferguson narrowed down Montclair’s lead to 3-2 for his first goal of the game, bringing back the Blue Devil energy that waned while trailing two goals behind. Marshall, approaching the goal, quickly passed the ball to senior captain Cody Lam. For his second goal of the game, Lam whipped the ball into the back of the net from Marshall’s seamless assist to tie the game at the half.
Throughout the entirety of the game, the Blue Devil energy persisted. With the lead constantly flipping back and forth between each team, there was never a time for either team to settle down. For an overcast and gloomy Wednesday night, coaches, players, parents and students joined together to create an exhilarating game. And despite Montclair’s best efforts, the Blue Devils persevered to win the game, 10-8.
“We started off slow but we found our way back into it, getting our mojo,” said Lam.
Although the matchup was quite competitive, there was a lack in excitement in the first quarter until Lam scored the game’s first goal with under four minutes left to give Westfield a 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later, Montclair quickly responded to Lam’s goal, scoring to tie the game up, 1-1, heading into the second quarter.
Early into the second quarter, Montclair had taken their first lead of the game, 2-1, and shortly after, scored another goal to increase the lead to 3-1. However, this lead was short-lived as the goals by Ferguson and Lam second quarter brought the score back to a tie.
After the halftime break, Montclair quickly scored in the third quarter to take back the lead, but not long after, Lam scored his third goal of the game for a hat trick to take the game to its third tied score.
Throughout the third, a pattern persisted where Montclair edged a lead and Westfield played a game of catch up to tie up the score. Both teams remained on their toes the entire game, never letting their guards down. Montclair has always been a competitive matchup for Westfield. Senior captain Danny McGann said, “It’s a conference game. We always know they’re gonna come out. But we had to trust our system and not let them get ahead of us.”
Ultimately, Montclair had never gotten too far ahead of the Blue Devils, but they posed a challenge to Westfield in the last two seconds of the third quarter, taking a lead, 7-6.
Despite this challenge, Westfield came into the final quarter stronger than ever before. “We needed to change our offense. We inverted them, bringing the short sticks behind and they went to a zone and took advantage from there,” said head coach William Wertheimer. With this strategy, Ferguson scored early in the quarter with a flawless behind the back shot, tying the score once again.
To no surprise, Montclair responded back to Westfield’s goal about 30 seconds later in an act that what would frustrate the Westfield fans, players and coaches. They took the lead once again, 8-7.
Westfield remained composed and did not fall to the pressure, keeping the ball on Montclair’s defensive side for the remainder of the quarter. Montclair began giving Westfield’s offense a rough time, whacking players with their defenseman’s sticks, creating hits one could hear from the audience.
Then, something shifted in Westfields game. A specific play changed the rest of the course of this game for the Blue Devils: McGann scored the goal that would make the score 8-8, the final tie of the game.
With about five minutes remaining, Westfield gave everything they had. By making smart passes, communicating and supporting one another, a goal was produced from junior Billy Gerne with 48 seconds left of the game, granting the lead to the Blue Devils, 9-8. The team built off this momentum and with 15 seconds left in the game, Lam scored yet another goal to cap off the final score, 10-8.
Westfield tries to have the same mentality for every game. “Just play, go out there. Don’t treat the game any bigger than it is and just play,” said Wertheimer. The team plans to keep this mentality as they face another difficult team, Seton Hall Prep, this Friday at Kehler.
