Westfield moved into the North 2, Group 4 sectional quarterfinals confident, having won their last handful of games and sitting at a state ranking of 5, according to njathletics..net. Their opponent on this sunny Thursday was Hillsborough who was playing for their season against a team projected to win handedly.
As the game opened up, it seemed it would be a Westfield romping yet again as junior Garrett Ferguson netted an early hat-trick to take a 4-2 lead in the first quarter. Along with some impressive saves from junior netminder Corey Gilford, Westfield looked poised and ready to play.
Hillsborough could sense their season’s end creeping closer, and they frantically battled back with some quick shots to stay close with a 5-2 deficit shortly after halftime. However, from that point on, Westfield completely dominated the field. They wound up outscoring Hillsborough, 5-0.
Westfield’s play wasn’t only efficient, it was flashy. Players executed quick, snappy passes, scored behind-the-back goals and shut down the Raiders’ every advance.
Despite the Blue Devils’ stellar performance, head coach William Wertheimer thinks that they could do to improve moving forward. “We took advantage of shot opportunities one-on-one,” Wertheimer said. “But just one of the things that we’ll start working on is shooting when you get the ball and stick out front, and you know, just dunking it.”
Westfield had a handful of close range goals, but they also missed a few. They seemed to rush their execution, and if the game had been closer, these would have been crucial to the outcome.
Senior captain and star defenseman Jack Paris, a Muhlenburg commit, helped anchor the defense throughout the game with his gritty play. He echoed a similar sentiment to coach Wertheimer, stating, “I think we did very well at the faceoff, and our wing play was very good. Offense ran our plays very effectively and the defense communicated very well. We definitely could have shot better as well as played better one-on-one defense.”
Westfield was supposed to win this game, and they did. Their next challenge comes on June 3 against Bridgewater-Raritan, at 2 p.m. in the sectional semifinal where they will punch their ticket to the sectional final.
