Westfield Ices Dayton

Westfield has been confident all season about their abilities on the ice, and although they lost the regular season title to Summit, the Blue Devils are out to prove that they belong at the top.

Yesterday was a good start thanks to a solid 8-1 decision over Dayton in the quarterfinal round of the Union County Cup.

Matt Wronski had two goals and two assists to lead the Blue Devils to victory.

"This is what we expected," said Westfield head coach Dennis Doherty. "We were a little slow in the first, we picked it up in the second and third especially. We took some penalties, hopefully that doesn't come back and haunt us. Kudos to Dayton, who battled all the way, and kudos to their goaltender. He's had a great career."

Indeed, Dan Dubeau has won the admiration from coaches and players around Union County with his fine performances throughout his final season. He had 47 saves against Westfield, and kept his team in the game throught eh first period when the score was just 2-0.

"It was a pretty good season," said Dubeau. "We tripled our wins from two years ago and last year. Tonight was exciting but disappointing, because we know we can stay with them, we can beat them. The most disappointing part is that I'm a senior and I have to leave."

For Westfield, their balanced scoring attack continues to be impressive. Henry O'Brien scored two goals, Zander Maslow chipped in with a goal and assist and Dylan Moran, Nick Attanasio, and Sam Meyer had one goal apiece in the triumph.

"I felt my performance tonight was good," said Maslow. "As a team we played really well. Teamwork has been the key. We all know each other, we're all friendly and we keep each other positive all the time."

"I thought we played really well," said Westfield's Wronski. "I'm really happy today I scored two goals. We came out very aggressive and played very good defense. We struggled on the power play a little bit so we have to work on that.

Westfield got out to a 2-0 lead after one, with an improving Dayton team forcing the issue with just two lines. The Blue Devils added a goal to make it 3-0 two minutes into the second period, but winger Jake Kozlenko fired one in for the Bulldogs off an assist from Matt Neubaeur to cut the lead to 3-1.

"Our team played very well today, we gave it our all," said Kozlenko. "It was a great season, a new coach, everything is just going up from here. All the seniors stood up, they took charge and led us to a great season."

Westfield would tally five unanswered goals, but that didn't damper Dayton's spirits after closing the season with 9 wins, which is more than the last two seasons combined.

"They're really peaking at the right time," said Dayton head coach Andrew Trimble of Westfield. They're becoming a really strong team. We played with them for two periods. We got down a couple of men. They had some really good opportunities on the power play. They're playing with three lines, we have two lines and that's it."

"The kids are happy," Trimble said.  "To get nine wins this season the kids feel proud of themselves. It's been a good year. We're the smallest school in the conference. We're always going to have limited enrollment, we're never going to have 40 kids on the hockey team, but the freshmen are all developing, the kids are excited about going to camps, the town is doing street hockey camps, we're getting more kids involved with the program, things are going great for us."

Most observers feel the 2010 Union County Cup is up for grabs, including the guys on the benches.

"One of the reasons we put this league together two years ago is because we knew we were all pretty even," Doherty noted. "I think these players have shown it. The first game went to overtime. We weren't overlooking these guys, they played hard. Now we're looking forward to Wednesday."

"Coming into the tournament we were confident," Maslow said. "We would have liked to have been the first seed, but we got the win and now we'll look forward to the next round".

That's when the Blue Devils will take the ice again when they face off against Nick Villaverde and Johnson Regional at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Warinanco.

Villaverde is just three points away from becoming the third leading scorer in state history. And Westfield knows they need to stop him to win the game.

"The matchup against Johnson is pretty simple," said Doherty. "you stop Villaverde and Sal DeMarzo. We had trouble both times we played them. We had leads in both games. I think it's our time on Wednesday."

As for Dayton, there is still a slim chance of an at-large state tournament berth based on their record at the cutoff date.

But if their season does end here, they can start looking ahead to a very bright future.