It was a sluggish day in New Providence for a Saturday morning matchup between the Pioneers and the Blue Devils. As the game progressed, the rain came down harder and harder with each goal scored. A tense meeting between the two teams quickly turned into a chippy game but ultimately led to a 15-11 Westfield victory.
Coming out of halftime tied at 7-7, Westfield knew what it had to do to finish off the game.
“When the game was tied at the half, I told the team they had a new opportunity to show the other team who Westfield is,” said Westfield head coach Abby Cohn. “I told them to always remember to know what it says on the front of their jersey.”
And the Blue Devils did just that. They came out in control of the second half with strong ball movement that led to open scoring opportunities. Sofia Della Rocco showed out for the Blue Devils on the offensive end where she finished with 6 goals on the day.
“Our offense spread out and they knew I was going to cut, they saw me cutting, and it just worked out,” said Della Rocco.
However, New Providence scored the first goal of the game just under two minutes into the first half. Neither team found the back of the net for five minutes until Alice Manzo tied the score back up. Manzo finished the day with 2 goals and 11 draw controls.
The Blue Devils were dominant around the circle Saturday. “The game is definitely won by ground balls and draw controls,” said assistant coach Kathryn DaSilva. “Once we started dominating the draw, we would go down and we would score.”
Most of the game was pretty back and forth until the closing minutes of the second half where the Blue Devils took a 3-goal lead, but things were not all smooth sailing. Ella McLane took a shot to the head from a New Providence player’s stick in the beginning of the half, causing her to have to come out of the game for several minutes.
“We stayed composed and when New Providence was losing, they didn’t stay composed,” said McLane. “Our coaches always tell us to keep composure because yellow cards can lose games when you’re down.”
Shortly after, an illegal check was called on a Westfield defender, causing a New Providence player to hit the turf, but the Westfield parents were not too fond of this call. The referee was not highly appreciative of the chirps from the Westfield fans and called over New Providence’s athletic director and threatened to kick out all the parents if “another word is said.”
The threat only was present in regard to Westfield fans, despite the same chirps coming from the other side of the field.
Despite the tension, the Blue Devils did not back down and rose above the conflict.
The Blue Devils finished the regular season 8-9 and will begin the North, Group 4 sectional tournament Saturday.
