Wednesday, September 23, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Lindsy Williams scored a goal and assisted on another for Westwood, which improved to 4-0 heading into its Thursday showdown with River Dell.

WESTWOOD -- The plan had already been put in place. To prepare for its early season showdown against River Dell on Thursday night for first place in the BCSL-American Division, the undefeated Westwood girls soccer team is going to stay at school and do a little team building before it gets on the bus. There will be a study hall session so homework is out of the way and the team will stay together to focus on the task at hand. But it would not have been such an important event had Westwood let its guard down against Ridgefield Park on Tuesday afternoon.

That wasn’t a problem for Westwood (4-0) as it got a goal from Kaila Faison nine minutes into the game to open the scoring and then took the lead for good 16 minutes in when Lindsy Williams sliced through the penalty area to corral a goal kick. Williams put the ball in the left side of the net and Westwood was well on its way to a 7-1 and its date against River Dell, the defending BCSL-American Division champion.

Along with Rutherford, Westwood is hoping to prove that the gap between themselves and the Golden Hawks has narrowed to the point that the league title is now truly up for grabs.

Carly Lynn scored her second goal of the season for Ridgefield Park.

“The girls are confident, but we all know that River Dell is always tough and no matter what, even if you are at the top of your game, they are going to challenge you on every level,” said Westwood head coach Gina Vintalore. “Do I think we have a shot at beating them? Absolutely. I thought we had a shot at beating them last year too, and we didn’t. But I think there is a different mental intensity that our girls have this year, they believe in themselves a little more and we are a little deeper. Those things might help us.”

It certainly helped on Tuesday as, after Carly Lynn tied the score for Ridgefield Park by splitting two defenders and scoring on the Scarlets’ first shot of the game in the 15th minute, Westwood controlled play the rest of the way.

Williams’ goal gave Westwood the lead for good and the Cardinals scored three more times before the half to put the game away. Westwood, a solid program and a steady state tournament qualifier with a chance to take the next step this season, is what Ridgefield Park is hoping to become. The Scarlets’ program has been around for eight years, still comparatively young, and it has some building blocks in place, including freshman goal keeper Kellie Lane, who made 17 saves against Westwood.

Lindsey Coughenhour scored Westwood's fourth goal.

Lane made her best save in the seventh minute on Westwood’s first real scoring opportunity when she turned away a blast by Lindsey Coughenhour at point-blank range.

“We are work in progress. We play great in spurts, but our lack of experience catches up with us at times. Westwood is a very good team and they are going to take advantage of the opportunities that we give them,” said Ridgefield Park head coach Jimmy Callan. “Carly [Lynn] hit a great goal for us and she has that type of talent in her, we just need to have the offense work with the defense a little more and gel with the midfield. That is the name of the game.”

Williams’ set up Westwood’s third goal as she got in deep and pushed the ball over to Amanda Mucci, who sliced one inside the far post from a tough angle in the 20th minute. Five minutes later, Kaila Fasano sent in Coughenhour with a diagonal pass and Coughenhour made it 4-1 in the 25th minute. Westwood’s final goal of the first half came off a pretty combination as Williams’ cross from the corner was played along by Julia Senkavich to Fasano, who finished 13 minutes before the intermission. Fasano finished off a hat trick in the second half and Senkavich also scored in the second half for Westwood.

Kellie Lane, a freshman, made 17 saves for Ridgefield Park.

One Cardinal who did not see much action was goal keeper Senkavich, who was credited with four saves. But her workload figures to increase on Thursday against River Dell, which knocked off Tenafly, 2-1, on Tuesday.

“We have been working hard as a team and the key is not to notice your surroundings. Whether we are playing Ridgefield Park or River Dell, it shouldn’t matter to us and we just have to play our game no matter who it is against,” said Stephanie Senkavich, a second team all-league keeper last season who already has three shutouts in four games so far this year. “We have been playing strong defense this season and we have to do the same thing against River Dell. We have to keep the ball out, send it up the field and look to hit players moving up the field.”

While Westwood is off to see how it stacks up against River Dell, Ridgefield Park can now move on to the portion of its schedule where it hopes to make some headway. The Scarlets’ season started with games against the BCSL-American’s upper crust as, after being rained out of its opener against River Dell, Ridgefield Park had Tenafly, Rutherford and Westwood on the league schedule and an independent against Bergenfield.

With games against Dumont, Cliffside Park and Englewood coming up, nothing is guaranteed, but the Scarlets have a chance to build some confidence against like competition.

“These tough games that we have already played can help us this season and we’ll see if there is a benefit in the next week or two,” said Callan. “It’s been a learning experience, but we are growing as a team and as a program."

FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.