Here is the story by Mike Kinney of NJ.com –
The last thing Summit wanted to see was a red-hot Westfield offense revving up its motor in the opening minutes the way it had been over the last two weeks.
So, the Hilltoppers stole the key.
With its focus almost more on freezing out Westfield’s explosive attack than even gearing up its own, Summit orchestrated a stifling early ride that forced five turnovers to stimulate transition and send the Hilltoppers to a three-goal advantage in the opening quarter.
That early lead, essentially forged by its offense playing defense, seemed important in that opening quarter as a jump start, a little less so by the second period as top-seeded and 10th-ranked Summit raised its lead to four goals, but then critical later on once that dreaded Westfield offense finally got cranking.
The second-seeded and eighth-ranked Blue Devils pulled to within one goal with 2:26 remaining, but was able to generate just one other shot the rest of the way as Summit held on for a 10-9 victory in the Union County Tournament final Saturday night at Johnson in Clark. It was the fifth consecutive title and 15th overall for Summit (7-3).
“We’ve been working on our ride a lot lately. Even this morning we got some reps on our ride in the walk-through,” junior attackman Daniel Flaim said. “We’re a bunch of dogs back there and we’re gonna come for you and take the ball back every time.”
Flaim scored one of his two goals in transition and also picked up two grounds balls off turnovers in that opening quarter to help his club build that 5-2 lead. Westfield (7-4) showed its danger by sinking those two goals – one each by Ryan Waldman and Cody Lam – on only four shots. Summit unloaded 11, scoring three in transition off turnovers, one from Lucas Stocks on a strong dodge, and another from Jake Lowry on an extra-man opportunity.
“We just felt like we had to ride harder, create some turnovers, maybe get some transition. Our attack did a great job,” Summit head coach Jim Davidson said. “We got some early ones, kind of got some momentum and that gave the kids some confidence.”
They needed that after losing three of their previous five games and going up against an opponent averaging 11.6 goals a games, 12.2 over the last four. The Cornell-bound Waldman was the epitome of Westfield’s electrifying scoring ability with four goals and three assists to lead everyone.
“He’s a handful, and (Danny) Hazard also did an unbelievable job for them,” Davidson said of the creative Waldman and Westfield’s senior faceoff man, who won 15 of 22 at the X. “We tried to negate them with the ride.”
Stocks was the tone-setter for Summit’s offense with two goals and two assists for a career-high four points, Flaim had two goals and one assist, and freshman James Grainger and junior Sean McCeney netted two apiece in the win. Lam finished with three goals and one assist for Westfield.
Waldman sank one goal and assisted on two, and John McDonald, Dylan Wragg and Lam each scored once in a 7:14 span during which the Blue Devils pulled to with 9-8 with 6:41 left in the game.
“We felt like we let the defense down a little bit with some bad possessions that they capitalized on,” Stocks said. “We wanted to give them some rest and didn’t. But they came together at the end when we needed them.”
Will Johnson snapped that four-goal splurge by Westfield when when unleashed a left-handed blast from 14 yards out for a 10-8 Summit lead with 5:24 to go. Westfield pulled to within one again three minutes later when Lam connected off a feed from Waldman on an EMO.
Hazard won the ensuing faceoff for Westfield, but had only one shot before junior defenseman Carter Shalcross knocked down a pass in the box and retrieved the ground ball for Summit with 1:02 left. Defenseman Trey Brown would get the ball back for Westfield with 25 seconds to go, but the Blue Devils could not control it and Thomas Kohaut gathered up another big ground ball for the Hilltoppers with 14 seconds to go.
“Coach always preaches to us about getting those GBs. GBs are what won the game for us,” Flaim said. “They (Westfield) were able to use their momentum and score some goals on us, but we kept our heads up, were able to stay positive, and you saw the result of that.”
