Field hockey team shuts out Passaic Tech

The West Milford High School field hockey team began its 2023 campaign with a pair of dominant victories.

On Wednesday, Sept. 13, Avery Vacca had two goals and an assist to help power the Highlanders to a 6-0 home win over Passaic Tech.

Ang Colucci, Hayley Allwood, Addyson Seidner and Laurel Space each added a goal while Amelia Pilatowski tallied two assists.

Samantha Krautheim turned aside the only shot she faced to earn the shutout.

Two days later, West Milford scored a 4-1 decision at Kittatinny led by Lily Kreutzer, who had two goals. Seidner (one goal, one assist), Allwood (one goal) and Krautheim (13 saves) also keyed the victory.

West Milford (2-0) is scheduled to play host to Lakeland at 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22.

Here is how other West Milford teams fared last week:

Girls volleyball

West Milford evened its season record at 2-2 as it rallied for a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Mahwah on Thursday, Sept. 14 at home.

The Highlanders dropped the first set, 25-18, but bounced back to win the next two, 25-23, 25-21.

Catalysts for the win included Skyler Ribitzki (14 kills, eight digs, two assists, one ace), Caitlyn DeFreese (one kill, one dig), Amanda O’Brien (five digs, two kills), Sarah Rottenberg (four kills, one block, one dig), Hailey Gruenler (17 assists, two aces, nine digs, two kills), Julia Sabyan (two digs), Emma Garcia (six digs, three assists, five aces), Kaitlyn Campbell (five aces, one dig, one kill), Alexa Fritz (six digs, four kills, two aces) and Ally Gruber (one assist).

West Milford is set to play at Indian Hills at 4:15 p.m. Sept. 22 and at Pope John at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 23.

Girls tennis

After three straight losses to start the season, West Milford earned its first victory of the season - a 4-1 decision over Passaic Valley - at home Friday, Sept. 15.

Cassandra Rubinsky (second singles), Melissa Comune (third singles), Kaila Rose and Leah Norton (first doubles), and Lilly Rodek and Emma Carson (second doubles) each won at their respective flights to seal the decision.

The Highlanders (1-3) were slated to play host to Hackensack on Thursday, Sept. 21 before playing at DePaul at 4 p.m. Sept. 22.

Boys soccer

Daniel Sullivan, MacKenzie Landon and Brayden Primavera all scored, Nick Bognar added two assists and Noah Christian also assisted a goal to power West Milford’s 3-0 victory over Paterson Eastside on Sept. 14 in Paterson.

Richie Gomez (one save) and Donovan Ford (two saves) combined to post the shutout.

The Highlanders (2-2) were scheduled to play host to Wayne Hills on Sept. 21 and Hillside at 10 a.m. Sept. 23.

Girls soccer

The Highlanders suffered two losses this past week to fall to 1-2 on the season.

Sara Wardlaw had the lone goal in West Milford’s 3-1 home loss to Lakeland on Tuesday, Sept. 12. The Highlanders also bowed to Mount Olive, 4-1 at home on Sept. 14.

West Milford was scheduled to play at Wayne Hills on Sept. 21 before playing host to Paterson Eastside at 11 a.m. Sept. 23.