SPF-Westfield 2-0

When two stingy defensive teams like those of the Scotch Plains Fanwood High School and Westfield High School girls square off, goals are usually at a premium and are gladly accepted no matter how unusual the circumstances. In as bizarre a first half as any in recent memory, the Raiders scored in the first and last minutes of the opening stanza, and made them stand up to improve their record to 3-0-1 with a 2-0 victory Monday at Roosevelt Middle School in Westfield. In yet another odd twist, Scotch Plains’ second goal, which both winning coach Kevin Ewing and losing coach Katie Egan agreed was the back breaker, was scored by a freshman substitute Lana Bencivengo who had just entered the game for the first time and would not play at all in the second half.

Bencivengo outmaneuvered Westfield goalie Tara O’Donahue, who had ventured outside the penalty box to try and snare Allie Hambleton’s long pass and put a well placed left footed shot into the empty net for her second goal of the season. Ewing had inserted
Bencivengo to give senior tri-captain Jessie Sapienza a breather at the end of the first half.
“Lana has a lot of energy. I thought she might give us a spark,” said Ewing.

“I didn’t know how much time was left when I came in,” said Bencivengo, a superbly conditioned athlete who trained all summer with the cross-country team and has a twin brother Greg who is one of the top five runners for coach Jeff Koegel. Despite O’Donahue being closer to the ball, Bencivengo never gave up on the play.

“I never stop running. When I saw I had a chance for the ball I thought to myself, it’s there I just have to hit it.”

“That was a very big play in the game,” added Egan. “With our trouble finishing plays and scoring goals, two goals down against a good team like Scotch Plains is a lot to make up.”

Still, the Blue Devils played a strong second half and led by sophomore Erin McCarthy
put good offensive pressure on Raider goalie Lauren Mains who had to battle a strong sun. “We just can’t seem to finish anything. It’s almost like a Westfield curse ” said Egan, now 1-2-1 in her first year with the state’s number one team Ridge, looming next on the schedule.

The Raiders took advantage of a revamped Blue Devil defense to score in the game’s first minute on a Hambleton header off a Kelly Rigano corner kick. It was the second time in the last three games the Raiders had converted a corner kick in the game’s opening minutes. Unlike the last time, a disappointing 1-1 tie at Cranford, the Raiders
kept the pressure up for the entire 90 minutes.

“ It was good overall game. We played hard for the entire game. Our defense was very solid ,” said Ewing. “I think the Cranford game was a good learning experience for us. We have to keep our intensity and not let down.”

Ewing was effusive in his praise of defenders Allie Zazzali, and Lauren Perrotta, who played their usual solid games in front of Mains.
“We came into this game knowing they wanted badly to beat us to make up for last year ,” said Perrotta, a senior tri-captain. “The second goal was really big because it helped
give us some breathing room.”

Last October the teams had battled 100 minutes through two overtimes to a scoreless tie after Scotch Plains had won the earlier game 2-1. The schedule gets extremely challenging for the Raiders, who battled 10th ranked East Brunswick Wednesday and play cross-town rival Union Catholic on Monday. Also looming is matches with unbeatens Kearny and Bridgewater Raritan, number 10 in the state.

The Blue Devils were playing their first full game without standout junior defender Allison Bridgman, who tore her Anterior Cruciate Ligament and is out for the season.
“It was an incredible setback losing Allison for the season. She was a big part of our team and we’re still trying to replace her. ,” said Egan.