On a wet and stormy afternoon, 18 Blue Devil seniors took the field for pictures with their respective families as their high school lacrosse careers were celebrated. Those 18 seniors, who had their freshman seasons taken away due to COVID-19 and were sectional semifinalists in their sophomore and junior seasons, are hoping to make one last run in the upcoming state tournament.
On Saturday, though, No. 12 Westfield (9-6, 4-3 NJILL Fitch-Pitt) was too much for New Providence (9-8, 5-1 NJILL Kimber), destroying the Pioneers right off the bat and coasting to a 15-3 victory.
Senior Patrick Ryan, who saw a lot of action on Senior Day, made his fourth appearance this year for Westfield. And in his fourth and likely-not-last appearance, Ryan balled out. Ryan scored 4 goals, more than the entire New Providence team combined.
“It was an honor to score 4 goals and be a part of the win with the seniors on the special day,” Ryan said.
Some readers may, already, know the name Patrick Ryan. The reason for that is because Ryan was the infamous Blue Devil mascot at a select few basketball games this winter.
One of Ryan’s goals in the third quarter stood out. Senior Luke Mokrzycki, who came around behind the goal from X, found Ryan cutting over the middle in front of the goal, where he finished off the beautiful assist from Mokrzycki.
“I’ve always been looking forward to Senior Day ever since I played lax for WHS and just seeing being celebrated has always been awesome,” Mokrzycki said. “It really means a lot to me especially since I worked really hard and my parents have always supported me.”
This was Westfield’s sixth victory in its last nine games. If the Blue Devils want to make some noise in the state playoffs, they will need a lot of momentum going into the North, Group 4 sectional tournament, which begins Saturday. The Blue Devils are the projected No. 1 seed based on the laxnumbers.com rankings that will be used to seed the sectional tournament.
Senior Ryan Waldman got the day started for Westfield as he also led the way with 4 goals and 1 assist. Other notable goal-scorers were junior Cody Lam, senior Derek Lam, sophomore Colin Coyle, who tallied 2 goals, and freshman Luke Spaide, who had his first career varsity goal in the fourth quarter.
Like always, Danny Hazard dominated the faceoffs. He did not lose a single faceoff, going 8-8. At times, Hazard’s performance is overlooked since Westfield’s potent offense consists of the stud goal scorers in Waldman and Cody Lam; however, the 73 goals they have combined for this season would not have come without Hazard winning key possession battles at the faceoff position. Junior Josh Caramagno also went 11-12 on faceoffs Saturday.
Despite the difficult conditions at the umbrella-filled Gary Kehler Stadium, the weather most definitely did not faze Westfield in its overpowering victory over New Providence.
