Hearts raced and the crowd fell silent as junior Ashley Yenawine stepped up to the ball. After Scotch-Plains Fanwood defender fouled senior Brooke Morrison, Yenawine knew it was her duty to take the penalty kick. Yenawine said, “The opportunity [to score a penalty kick] came. I was confident, I was really confident taking them in practice and I knew where I was going to go and I put it where I planned.” The crowd erupted in cheers as the ball hit the back of the net.
The intense rivalry between Westfield and SPF was apparent from the opening whistle as the game consisted of aggression and tension. Entering the game, the Blue Devils knew their previous win over SPF, 3-0, would make for a heated game.
Senior co-captain Erin Hazard said, “Coming into this game we were focused on keeping our composure when under pressure…We were focusing a lot on the mental side and focusing on coming out with high intensity to give ourselves an early lead. While we didn’t capitalize on the early lead, we did find a goal and were able to have a lot of defensive stops to keep the lead.”
The Blue Devils held strong possession but were unable to finish on the many opportunities they had, resulting in a 0-0 score at halftime. Head coach Alex Schmidt, “We were pretty positive [at halftime]. I mean it was a good half of soccer. We scored, [the goal] got called back [and] we had a couple opportunities, so when you get in a game like this it can’t be emotions, just kind of have to work on strategy.”
The second half got chippy as SPF defenders turned to aggression to stop Westfields offensive players. The physicality from the Raiders eventually led to Yenawine’s penalty kick.
Yenawine reflected on her “freshman year penalty kick in the county finals” that she “missed.” She said, “That stuck with me in the sense that I was underprepared mentally that game to take that kick, and I changed up my routine to center myself more and get more locked in before the kick, and that definitely helped.”
Westfield’s assertive defense helped ensure junior Sofia Buoscio’s shutout. Hazard said, “It’s super important to not have holes in the defense and coming into this game we were keeping our mind on communication, talking through everything, and making sure we knew where their striker was.”
Adding onto Hazards point, Yenawine said, “I think we defended as a unit today and everyone’s individual mistakes were the team’s mistakes and our accountability really pulls through in games like this.”
The Blue Devils were able to secure the win and not only advance to the Union County Tournament finals, but also have another win over rival SPF. Hazard said, “It feels so good being a senior to come out on top against a team we know we can beat, and it feels good beating them for a second time this season.”
Looking forward to the finals, Schmidt feels they need to “focus on finishing,” and “focus around the goal.”
Westfield will be back in action at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday versus Summit, home for a regular season game; however, these two teams will meet again just four days later on Saturday for the UCT finals at Arthur L. Johnson High School, time to be announced.
