Westfield Confident Going Into State Hockey Final

Westfield High School hockey coach C. B. Matthews had a one word answer ready when asked if he thought his Bombers would be at the Garden Sunday morning playing Marblehead for the Division III state title: "No."

And just in case he didn't get his point across, he repeated the answer four times.

In the road to the championship game, the Bombers upset heavily favored Longmeadow, last year’s champion, after finishing behind them in the Pioneer Valley League during the regular season.

“We’ve got a blue collar team, really,” Matthews said. “We’ve got no superstars. Our main nucleus is sophomores and we had a little luck and few injuries to get where we are.”

When asked who he thought might make the difference in the game Sunday, Matthews said it could be any one of his players.

“It could be anybody that gets it done for us, to tell you the truth, we’ve got two seniors still with us from our championship in 2008,” Matthews said. “We’ve got good production from captain Nick Sabilia and sophomore Sean Spohr, and Colin Arnold has chipped in with seven goals from the blue line.”

The Westfield team will hit the Mass Pike at 8 a.m. on Sunday morning and will be ready to claim another title to go with the ones they won on the ice of the TD Garden in 2003 and 2008.

Coach Matthews and his club held a light practice on Tuesday, recovering from a semifinal game where they knocked out Hudson 3-2. Sunday’s game will be Westfield’s fifth appearance at the TD Garden during Matthews' 22 years behind the bench.

“I know about Marblehead, they’ve got a good program out there, I’ve got relatives in Peabody, so I know a little but about high school hockey out your way,” Matthews said Thursday afternoon. “You never know from night to night who’s going to step forward and get it done for us. Matt Gagnon is a good leader for us on defense as well as co-captain Nate Barnes.”

Matthews has two seniors who saw duty when the Bombers won the title in 2008, defeating Scituate in the championship game 3-2. Header hockey fans can take a little consolation following the the Bombers win over the Skippers - Scituate ended Marblehead’s season in the semifinals in 2008, winning 8-2.

Scituate also knocked the Headers out in 2010, winning 5-2, before falling to Longmeadow in the title game 2-1.

“We’ve got a young team from the goalie on out,” Matthews said. “We’ve been fortunate that we haven’t had many injuries along the way, our goalies (Dan Larochelle, Nick Liberto and Mike Chaderjian) have all played well when called on, and we’ve had a little luck too."

All three Westfield goaltenders, who are scrambling to get valuable playing time in the playoff,s are sophomores and are allowing just over two goals a game.

“We’re not a big goal-scoring team. We work hard on both ends of the ice and this team has really good chemistry,” Matthews said. “The team’s been on an even keel all year and they’ve really supported each other all season.”

Westfield made it to the championship game by beating Ludlow 6-1  and then defeating Longmeadow 2-1 in overtime to take the Division III West title. The Bombers then nipped Hudson 3-2 to set up Sunday’s match with Marblehead.

“You can’t teach at this point, we know what we did to get here and we’ve got to play our best Sunday to beat Marblehead,” Matthews said. “The kids are really excited about coming to Boston to play for the title.”

Westfield finished in second place in the Pioneer Valley League behind Longmeadow with a 15-4-2 record. The Bombers have improved to 18-4-2 with their three tournament wins.

“This is great for the kids, it’s a big thing for all of them, I’ve been there before, but the kids are really excited about this, and I don’t mind going back to the garden either.”

The puck drops at 11:15 a.m. Sunday morning at the TD Garden and the Division III state title will be on the line. Don't forget to check Marblehead Patch for regular updates during the game.