By Mike Kinney of NJ.com
As a grammar schooler just beginning his lacrosse journey, Corey Gilford would sit in the stands with his pals watching the Union County final season after season and he’d yearn for the day he might help steer Westfield to a victory in that game.
“I’ve been dreaming about this. I was sitting in the bleachers since I was like six, seven-years old, seeing them lose to Summit. We were all watching from the stands and I’d dream of winning this game,” Gilford said.
This dream came true with Gilford’s eyes wide open and and his instincts as awake as an edgy cat, and he was consistently just an inch or two away from seeing that dream fall short yet again.
The senior goalie turned away eight shots in the first half to keep 10th-ranked and second-seeded Westfield to within two goals, and then his offense picked up on his gutsy lead in the second half to rally the Blue Devils to a 6-5 victory over fourth-ranked and top-seeded Summit in the Union County Tournament final Saturday night at Johnson.
While Gilford lived out that particular dream with some splendid play between the pipes, junior Ben Seward realized a defenseman’s dream not once, but twice with transition goals that got Westfield (12-4) on the board in the second quarter, and opened a 4-3 lead with 3:12 to go in the third.
“Nothing better than that,” Seward said. “The first one, I was just running down and I knew right when I got the ball I’m looking to score. That’s every pole’s dream,” Seward said. “Second time I thought, let’s do it again. Got the ball and just went down and shot it.”
That’s a dream squared,
Seward wound up anchoring the defense along with Jack Clark, Drew Pravlik and Jack Schwarzenbek, and also pacing the offense with those two goals to send Westfield to its first UCT crown since 2017 while snapping a six-year championship reign for Summit (11-3).
Gilford finished with 12 saves, his final one with 1:03 remaining and the Blue Devils ahead, 6-4.
But Westfield turned over the ball with 41 seconds to go, and the Hilltoppers capitalized 13 seconds later when Cooper Smoragiewicz scored off a pass from Jack Freeman to pull to within one.
Summit won the ensuing faceoff, but was unable to unleash a clean shot in an attempt to tie the game.
Once Seward gave Westfield the 4-3 lead with his hard bouncer from 15 yards out, Westfield slowed its pace and sought out only high-percentage opportunities.
Senior Billy Gerne provided that with a 14-yard laser for a 5-3 lead with five seconds to go in the third quarter. At that point, slow became more of a crawl.
“We were trying to play a long possession game going into it. And once we got that two-goal lead, we really just went into it. We just went into our X offense and just tried to hold it back there and only take smart shots,” head coach Boomer Wertheimer said.
“That’s what Summit does,” Gilford said. “They love holding the ball, getting the ball around and they don’t like to go to cage. They’re almost stalling. So, we did what they did.”
In its April 2 NJILL Fitch/Pitt clash with Westfield, Summit built a six-goal lead in the first half and won, 11-6. In last year’s UCT final, Summit was ahead, 4-1, at the half and eked out a 6-5 victory. The Hilltoppers edged Westfield, 7-5, in last year’s Kirst Cup final, but actually rallied from a one-goal deficit at the half to win.
Junior goalie Robbie Kievit, who was the hero of the 2024 UCT final, closed with seven saves Saturday, four in the first half to help Summit to that 3-1 lead.
Senior Will Iavovelli scored his first of two goals with 7:09 to go in the first quarter, followed by junior James Grainger with 3:31 left for a 2-0 lead.
Summit made it 3-0 on Quinn Hynes’ unassisted goal with 10:42 left in the half, and Seward broke through for Westfield with 1:30 to go after Clark scooped up a ground ball off a turnover behind the Westfield goal.
“Once I scored that goal, I knew we were winning this game. No doubt about it,” Seward said.
Ferguson launched Westfield’s third-quarter comeback by converting a feed from Colin Coyle 2:58 into the period, and Luke Angelo, Seward and Gerne followed for the 5-3 lead.