Westfield Falls in Boys Lacrosse Sectional Final

The Westfield High boys lacrosse team suffered a 9-3 loss to top-seeded Ridge Sunday in the North Jersey Group 4 championship game.

"What it came down to today was execution," Westfield coach Patrick Tuohy said. "The kids always play hard and give 110 percent, that is never a question. Today, our execution wasn't there. We weren't crisp, we didn't take advantage of fast break opportunities, we didn't take advantage of ground ball opportunities. We just were not sharp today, and if you come out not sharp against a team like this, you will feel it. We kept at it, the kids never gave up.  That is really all I can ask of them."

Westfield's Jack Flaherty put his team on the scoreboard first, but Ridge responded quickly on a goal by J.T. Palladino. Eric Scott put the Red Devils ahead for good before the end of the first quarter.

Ridge's Eric Scott scored a big goal with less than 10 seconds remaining in the half to extend the Red Devils' lead to 3-1.

"They stuck to the plan," Ridge head coach Ken Marsh said. "We preach that the first and fourth quarters are the most important ones, and we took care of both of those. The first quarter was a little slow, [but] the kids stuck to what we were doing and we were able to win it throughout four quarters of lacrosse. It was fun."

Kevin Quigley and Sean O'Brien continued Ridge's momentum in the third quarter with early goals to make it 5-1.

"Defensively, we thought we matched up well with them," Tuohy said. "The problem is when you get the ball down the other end and it comes back in your face all the time, you can only hold for so long. They are a very talented team and they make really good adjustments. Hopefully the younger guys on our team will take this as a learning lesson for next year. We will be in the weight room next week starting again. Only one team gets to win their last game of the year."