After a half full of promising shots that the Blue Devils were unable to capitalize on, junior Ashley Yenawine crossed the ball into the middle to find senior Brooke Morrison for an early goal in the second half. With momentum from Morrison’s goal, Westfield cruised to a 2-0 victory over Ridge in the North 2, Group 4 sectional tournament quarterfinal.
The Blue Devils hit the field with confidence after crushing Phillipsburg 8-0 in the first round of the sectional tournament. However, the same offensive success from that game was nowhere to be found in the first half of this match. While Westfield was able to maintain possession and have many good shots, the Ridge defense continued to come up big, not allowing any shots to be finished.
Head coach Alex Schmidt said, “I think it was really good goaltending. We saw at halftime, sometimes soccer is a really funny game. We dominated in the first half and had three or four really good chances to score. It could’ve been 4-0 at half. It just didn’t happen, but it was just important to have patience.”
Ending the first half 0-0, the Blue Devils entered the second half fired up and ready to finally find the back of the net. It did not take long for Morrison to get things going for Westfield and put the Blue Devils on the scoreboard.
Morrison said, “I think we got a lot of energy after that first goal. We were more calm and played quicker passes for the remainder of the game.”
Only two minutes later, senior co-captain Audra Toth found Yenawine open right in front of the net for an easy goal. It was clear that the Blue Devils had found their rhythm, and there was no turning back.
Yenawine said, “It was really crucial that Audra was communicating with me the whole play. She actually told me to go through and played a great ball and I was there at the end of it, got my head up, and found the back of the net.”
After back-to-back goals, the Blue Devils seemed to dominate the rest of the game. While the team wasn’t able to net anymore goals, the defense continued to stand strong and prevented Ridge from getting a single shot on net.
“The back line was phenomenal,” said Schmidt. “Callie Schmidt, Erin Hazard, Olivia DiGregorio, Andie Janota, and everyone else who played back there. I don’t think the other team had a shot. In terms of that, I think we have a lock down defense, I think it is just getting back to finishing shots.”
With the win today, Westfield advances to the sectional semifinal game against No. 4 seed, Elizabeth, on Nov. 11 at 2 p.m. at Gary Kehler Stadium.
