“Every Monday we do something called mindfulness Mondays,” Kelesoglu explained. “We have a mindfulness teacher, we sit down and we practice breathing exercises. I was standing on that line practicing breathing slowly, getting my head in the game, telling my teammates just relax, it’s just like any other shot, and that’s exactly what I was thinking.”
The technique worked as Kelesoglu calmly nailed her penalty kick, which turned out to be the game-winner for top-seeded Westfield, ranked No. 1 in the NJ.com Top 20. The Blue Devils won their third-straight county tournament title 3-1 over second-seeded Scotch Plains-Fanwood at Johnson High School.
“It means so much to me to be a part of this team,” Kelesoglu said. “This is my third year on the team, it’s my last time, I’m a senior, so I’m never going to play Scotch Plains again, I’m never going to experience that rivalry again, I’ll never play in a county final again, so it’s really just amazing to be a part of this one last time come out on top.”
Saturday night’s meeting was the third time that Scotch Plains-Fanwood, ranked No. 9, and Westfield had met this season. The first game ended in a 0-0, double-overtime tie on Sept. 20, and the Blue Devils picked up a 2-0 victory over the Raiders on Oct. 4.
“Really the expectation was just to play our game,” Westfield goalie Sutton Factor said. “We’ve beaten them this season already, we know what we’re capable of and it was just to come out strong and they put up a really good fight. I think that’s the best they’ve played against us all season so it was a fair match I’d say.”
Scotch Plains-Fanwood and Westfield put on a defensive clinic through 100 minutes of regulation on Saturday night, with neither team allowing even a shot on net until about two minutes left in the first half. Westfield ended up taking six shots on net, while the Blue Devils’ defense held the Raiders to a mere two shots.
“I really did not get any shots throughout the game. I’m super proud of my defense, they had it locked down from the get go, we were insanely focused,” Factor said. “So I’m super happy with their performance tonight.”
During penalty kicks, Raiders’ goalie Rebecca Kessler made saves on the first two shots by Ashley Yenawine and Ella Cadigan. Chiara Cosenza, Rebecca Xiong and Kelesoglu all scored. Scotch Plains-Fanwood’s first two shots hit the right post and cross bar, and Juliana Doran scored with the third kick. Factor made a save on Jasmine Gutierrez’s shot, which set up Kelesoglu’s game-winner.
“I just was really trying to stay calm,” Factor said. “In that situation it’s easy to get frantic and not be able to lead the players for where they’re shooting, so my mindset was just to stay composed and I knew I’d be able to make the save in the end.”
The win was the 23rd county title for the Blue Devils, and their 40th-straight victory dating back to 2020. The last time they lost a game was on Oct. 15, 2020, which was a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Governor Livingston. Last season, Westfield went undefeated en route to their first Group 4 title since 1988.
“I genuinely think it’s our relationship on and off the field, we are so close as a team it’s hard to put into words,” Factor said. “All the support that we have for each other definitely translates onto the field and that’s one of the main reasons we’re so successful. Yes we have talent, but it’s truly our bond that makes us as good as we are.”
That’s not to say that Westfield hasn’t struggled at times, even if the stat sheet doesn’t show it. The Blue Devils lost last year’s leading scorer Alyssa Martinez, a Rutgers-commit who finished with 31 goals and eight assists, to a season-ending ACL injury in the first game of the season.
Despite losing a large chunk of its offense and one of the hearts of the team, the Blue Devils were able to rally around each other as multiple players stepped up to fill the void.
“Obviously Alyssa scored like 31 goals last year, so a lot of players have had to step up and so many people have,” Factor said. “I think over half of our team has scored a goal, so just finding ways to finish is how we make up for Alyssa’s loss on the field.”
For Scotch Plains-Fanwood, the loss snapped a 4-0-2 undefeated streak as the Raiders were looking for their first county title since 2018.
“We always come in and try and think of it as a normal game, try not to let the rivalry and the crowd get to our heads,” Kelesoglu said. “So we thought just come and play our game and we’ll win. We came in and came out with a tie in regular play, it happens but it’s the grit at the end of the day.”
