The ball flew through the chill autumn air towards the goal. After many long minutes of back-and-forth play, eyes opened wide in the home stands. Westfield players crowded the Linden half of the field. Three quarters already down. It was time for Westfield to put this one away. Blocked. The ball fell into the horde of Linden defenders. Senior Ben Nematadzira managed to wriggle through into an opening. Bouncing on the rebound, the ball was in the perfect place. Connecting with his foot, it soared into the goal. Westfield went up 3-0. It would be the dagger.
The 4-0 win came without much opposition from Linden. “It was an easier opponent than we’ve had in past years on Senior Day,” said head coach Eric Shaw. “It’s important for them to feel comfortable and feel good about themselves on Senior Day, because we expect everybody to take a part during the whole year.” The Blue Devils certainly were comfortable on both sides of the ball for the entirety of the game.
It was just another day in the office, even if it was Senior Day. Senior captain David Savranksy said, “I don’t really think we need any extra motivation. Some games come to mind in particular this year, we haven’t really played up to our potential so especially against teams where we’re the favorites we knew we had to do and came to take care of business.”
Six minutes into the match, junior Austin Williams rose up into the air to put his head on the ball. The cross came into the perfect spot and he made contact. The close-range header made it past the Linden goalkeeper for Westfield’s first goal of the match. Williams felt that staying aggressive early was important to establishing dominance from the beginning. “It was crucial to start that game off quickly because we haven’t gotten a lot of goals this season. So we needed one goal to start us off and starting early let us score four,” he said.
The Blue Devils’ defense stood strong in the first half. Linden’s first shot on goal would come almost 10 minutes after Westfield scored their first. The Tigers had a clean shot on goal; senior Lucas Gunzberg was the last line of defense. Diving to the left, Gunzberg flung his body into position to make the stop. It was the best scoring opportunity Linden would have for the rest of the game.
The next 20 minutes yielded little action. Just as the crowd thought that they would enter halftime calmly, the Blue Devils made another offensive. Williams passed the ball through the Tiger defense and reached junior Henry Iannuzzi, who stood right next to the goal. Ianuzzi booted the ball in for Westfield’s second goal, putting them up 2-0.
“Anytime you can get early opportunities and score goals it kind of knocks the life out of teams,” said Shaw. Linden was beaten down, but not quite out of it yet. “It took us a little bit more time in the second half to really put them away.” Nematadzira’s goal would be what put them ahead for good.
It seemed Westfield’s goal was to knock the life out of Linden, and this was executed in part to a strong defensive showing, led by Savransky. In such a strong offensive showing, the defense stayed engaged to shut down any Linden attempts at a comeback “I think communication is the most important thing for a defense, especially from the goalkeeper, making sure everyone stays accountable, making sure nobody switches off,” said Savransky. “Even if the goalkeeper doesn’t have to make very many saves, it’s important that they keep communicating.”
Luke Tennant replaced Gunzberg in goal for the second half. Both seniors executed a shutout.
The Blue Devil offense held the ball for the majority of the second half. Coach Shaw said that holding possession like this is a large part of their gameplan, but can be dangerous when teams find opportunities on fast breaks. “The only moments that a lot of teams have is in the transition part when we lose it,” said Shaw. “I thought we did that fairly well in terms of breaking those moments up when we lost it, winning it back or not allowing them to get forward as quickly as possible.”
Westfield’s offense pressed on as their defense supported them throughout, a magnificent showing of teamwork and chemistry that they had not seen much of this season. It was great to see from “a team that maybe is a little down mentally [with] some injuries and some bad losses in the last couple of games,” as Shaw said.
The domination continued with yet another goal. With six minutes left in the match, junior Niko Pierce wound back for a beautiful, driving kick on a long-range shot from outside the Linden box. He thread the needle through Tiger defenders into the left side of the goal. 4-0, Westfield. The powerful showing from the junior class in today’s game suggests a bright future for the Blue Devil soccer program.
Though getting the win was great for the seniors, it was not the fact that it was Senior Day that motivated them to put this one away. They were here to prove themselves. Savransky said, “Some games come to mind in particular [where] we haven’t played up to as well as we know we can, so especially against the team that we’re the favorites to beat, we knew we had to do.”
Westfield faces off against Union City away on Saturday at 11:00 a.m.
