Westfield High Weekly Sports Recap

The spring sports season has arrived and the  athletic program looks poised for success in many areas. Here's the first weekly sports recap of the season. 

Westfield High varsity baseball team in full swing

The Westfield High Bulldog varsity baseball team (2-1) won its second game of the young season, 6-5 last week when Matt Pisarcik drove in the winning RBI in extra innings against Dematha. 

“He’s a great leader and just a great, great kid,” said Coach Chuck Welch of his stalwart right fielder. Pisarcik would also make a highlight-reel catch in the top of the eighth to set up an F9-2-3-2 triple play to get Westfield out of a bases-loaded situation with no outs.

Welch said this year’s squad has improved in both talent and experience. That means quite a bit coming from a coach who has taken the team to three straight Concorde Championships the past three years, winning two of them in 2009, ‘10.

“We’ve been blessed to have a great tradition at Westfield,” the twelfth-year coach said. This year “is a very unique mix: we’re either seniors with a lot of varsity experience, or younger with little varsity experience.”

Kyle Corwin, who started on the mound for the Bulldogs, pitched a solid four innings. Corwin looked in mod-season form with the bat as well, going 3 for 4, including two doubles and three RBI.

“Kyle had a big night for us - last night was his first start,” Welch said. 

Senior DH Sean Barry went 2 for 4, with two doubles and Bryan Drager earned his second straight win, striking out six batters in the last three innings.

Westfield plays at home versus McLean on March 28 at 6 p.m.

Boys’ lacrosse improve via experience

Coach Phil Polizzotti’s Bulldogs showed quick improvement over the 2011 season with a 2-1 start in 2012. With just one loss to Battlefield (11-9), an 8-7 win versus Stone Bridge and a 10-5 victory against O’Connell has given the coach and his lacrosse players shining hope for the season.

“I think things are coming along really well,” said Polizzotti. “It will be interesting to see how we respond coming off Friday.”

(Note: Westfield lost to South County on 3/26, 8-7 after leading 6-2 at halftime. Record now 2-2)

While several players have shown an increased level of play over last season, Polizzotti said this year’s squad has won as a team.

“We don’t have a dynamic goal scorer—we want to continue being like that,” he said. “Michael Garcia is doing well. Joey Esposito last year started at attack and went to midfield last year and now we moved him back to attack.”

But the coach said the postseason is what truly matters, regardless of how well the Bulldogs play in the regular season this year.

“They don’t give you a trophy for winning the regular season,” Polizzotti said. “You make your adjustments and work on everything and make preparation for the playoffs.”

With three seniors have returned on defense for Westfield and an experienced goalie in Tucker, who played football as well for the first time this past fall, the Bulldogs fair well at a shot in the district.

Westfield plays at Yorktown on March 30 at 7:15 p.m.

First-year coach brings hope to girls’ lacrosse

Katie Ruch has taken the helm this season for the varsity Bulldogs’ girls’ lacrosse team. And so far, the squad is undefeated at 3-0. Ruch’s girls have blown out two of its three opponents: Loudoun Valley 18-5, and South County 16-4, and squeaked out a victory over Stone Bridge 17-16.

The first-year Bulldog coach said while aware the team made it to the Concorde semifinals and second round in the regional tourney, she is striving to best that performance. She said the leaders on her team will help reach that goal. 

“Ideally, most every team wants to win every game,” said Ruch regarding the regular season. “But you want your players to think on their feet and adjust. Abby Fallon, Katie Manning and Tatum Roessier are good motivators, and some of our quieter leaders lead by example.”

However, the Bulldogs were up by eight goals last Friday versus Stone Bridge and momentarily lost the lead. Ruch said that cannot happen and the team does need improvement in certain areas, obviously as it is still very early in the season. But the coach said she has been impressed with effort shown by everyone, especially the younger athletes who have another year of varsity level play under their belts.

“The freshmen and sophomores have stepped up with experience,” she said.

Ruch also noted that has 3,000 students, which gives the teams in every sport better odds at finding talented players. The coach said the 3-0 start has been a team effort and “the majority of goals have come off of assists,” from Molly O’Sullivan, Manning and Meghan Heick.

When asked if the parity of high-level competition in the Concorde district is good for the sport, Ruch said ‘yes.’ However, she added an interesting point to the mix.

“If you look at the regional level,” she said. “I don’t think the top 16 teams are always represented.” Ruch said many of the best teams in the region hail from the Concorde, therefore many of those squads will not make it to the regional tourney because of being knocked out of the district tournament. Yet she said the region, in general, is filled with high-caliber teams.

Westfield travels to Virginia Beach next for tournament play on March 30 at 5 p.m.

Girls’ soccer team yet to win, but prospects look good

With two ties (Langley, 1-1 and Woodson, 1-1) and 3-1 loss to Freedom, the Westfield Bulldog varsity girls’ soccer squad (0-1-2) has not come out on the winning side, as of yet. But it is extremely early in the 2012 soccer season and Coach Kristi Williams said she feels confident in her girls.

“There’s a lot of talent on the team and we’ve been battling injuries,” said Williams. “We have a nice mix of veterans and some [younger] players.”

With several seniors leaving the soccer team due to graduation last June, Williams said she has “challenged the kids to play their hearts out 40 minutes at a time.”

Williams added that she does not believe the team to be “young” but instead said it “used to be young and is maturing over the first couple weeks of the season now.”

So far, the players have agreed to William’s challenge and shown that heart on the field, including Carley Jenkins who scored against both Woodson and Langley, and freshman Emma Lark who put one past the Freedom keeper in the season opener. Coach Williams said the regular season flies by and “the district games are what matter” and she feels positive her girls will be at their best before the all-important postseason.

“You have a very short period of time to put together the pieces of your puzzle but it will definitely come,” she said. “I don’t care where we are in game three, I care where we are in May.”

Westfield’s four captains; Goalkeeper Shannon Casey, Jenkins, Nichole Bonzano and Grace DeBell have brought the team together as one and created chemistry on and off the field for Westfield. Williams said her favorite quote; “A clean sheet gives us the best opportunity to win” is one she stole but she cannot remember from whom it was said. But she added the metro area is one of the best places to play girls’ soccer.

“The Washington area has always been a hot bed for women’s soccer,” she said. “And it’s only gotten more and more technically precise and that’s partly due to great training they are getting.”

Westfield plays at Lake Braddock tonight (Tuesday, March 27) at 7 p.m.

Boys’ soccer team gets new coach

Coach Neil Rel has taken the reigns of the Westfield High varsity boys’ soccer team (1-3) this season. However, he said this is not the start he would have liked so far in 2012. After a strong 3-2 win versus Freedom on March 13, the Bulldogs have been shut out 3-0 in three straight games versus Woodson, Langley and Mount Vernon. Still, Danny Sosa, Sergio Arzubiaga and Andrew Jenkins came out strong, as all three scored goals last week.

“We lacked a lot of desire in the last two games,” said Rel. “We weren’t putting enough pressure on the ball. We’re very skilled but sometimes we forget the point of the game is to go forward and score goals. We do a good job at midfield, but then we don’t go forward. There needs to be a change (in mentality) and it will come this week.”

The coach said he saw a huge turnout for tryouts this off-season, as 95 boys showed up on the field. Some of the previous players on varsity last year had to be bumped off as Rel said he brought on some excellent new talent for the 2012 season.

“The guys I have here have very high soccer IQs,” Rel said. “They knew exactly what I was looking for.”

Although the Bulldog team is made up of predominantly seniors and juniors, two sophomores made the roster and Rel brought up to more to varsity last week for the Mount Vernon game. The coach said soccer is a “game about rhythm” and he wants his players to focus on the mental aspects of the game.

“You have to win the 50/50 ball, which they have not done,” Rel said. “We were down versus Mount Vernon and at half I told them ‘Mt. Vernon is not going to let up’ and the team responded,” Rel said. “In the second half we definitely dominated the game and hit the post twice. But we have to do that in the beginning.”

The first-year Westfield coach said it was difficult playing away for three games in a row. And he believes his guys can build off of that second half from last week and take advantage of Westfield’s home field turf this week.

“I’m hoping we can come out strong this week and our confidence comes back,” Rel said. “I have no doubt we can come out stronger.”

Rel coached 11 seasons at The Community College of Rhode Island before coming to Northern Virginia. He said he is very happy living here now, and added that soccer is terrific in the DC area.

“I’ve never seen as much soccer as I’ve seen here,” he said. “There are a lot of club teams and a lot of opportunities to play here.”

Westfield plays at home tonight (Tuesday, March 27) against Lake Braddock Secondary at 7 p.m.

Note: Softball, crew and tennis will be featured next week. For scores and results visit the Westfield athletics site. Additional sports scores and pictures may be sent to tsmitty71@gmail.com or mary.stachyra@patch.com