OBSERVER Photos by Aaron Lundmark Pictured above, Silver Creek’s Malani Eldridge battles for possession of the ball with Westfield/Brocton’s Heather Johnston during Thursday’s game in Westfield.

WESTFIELD — The North Lake Sports Complex is known for being a tough place to play soccer at in Westfield.

On Wednesday, it was a grind for both teams.

In the end, the Silver Creek Black Knights prevailed over the Westfield/Brocton Wolverines after Silver Creek’s Jaylah Cossin buried a shot from just outside the box to give the Black Knights a 1-0 win in CCAA league action.

“It’s always hard to play here,” said Silver Creek head coach Kevin Rice. “I don’t care what kind of team they have — whether it’s good or bad — we are haunted by North Lake, and I don’t know why.”

It was tough out of the gate for both teams as the defense for each team was quicker to the ball on both ends. As Silver Creek controlled possession in the first half, the team speed of Westfield/Brocton would thwart all of their scoring opportunities.

“It’s a much smaller field, much more compact,” said Kevin Rice. “And we struggle to play here due to the lack of space, but the girls played hard.”

The first good chance of the game didn’t come until about the 30th minute when Silver Creek’s Carly Barrett sent a header towards the net but it was stopped by the Wolverine goalkeeper Angel Busch.

Busch stood on her head all game, making stops left and right to keep her team in the contest. It wasn’t until the 38th minute when the first real good chance came from Silver Creek’s Emily Rice, who struck a ball well, but right into the waiting arms of Busch, stopping the Black Knight attack.

“We play a very tight man defense,” said Westfield/Brocton head coach Neil Huber. “We set it up so we can play that deep sweeper and we took advantage of that as we were able to intercept some balls.”

The first half finished very tightly contested by both teams with the defenses playing well in the opening frame. While Silver Creek controlled the pace of play, the Westfield/Brocton defense was all over the Black Knight offense, shutting down most chances before they even got started.

The second half got underway and the Black Knights began to press the offensive zone even harder. Emily Rice struck another ball at the 55th minute that was hauled in by Busch. Silver Creek got chances after that by Kylie Procknal and Chloe Barrett, but just couldn’t find the net.

Both teams were playing banged up in this contest, as Silver Creek is down six starters due to injury while Westfield/Brocton was missing players as well.

“There aren’t many adjustments to make at this point, we have six girls out for the season,” said Kevin Rice. “We just keep trying to do what we do. We just need to try and do it better, and that’s the adjustment.”

“We were down a couple of girls and some girls that were playing hurt,” said Huber. “Overall I think we’re playing good. We could’ve taken advantages of some things today, but our passing just wasn’t on.”

But finally, Jaylah Cossin was able to catch a pass from Olivia Zbytek atop the box and bury it into the top right corner of the net, causing for celebration from the Silver Creek sideline.

Silver Creek would continue to press after that, as Emily Rice would find the post just minutes later, but all attempts after were gobbled up by Busch, who really played fantastic all night.

Busch continued to impress throughout the second half, making 19 saves throughout the contest.

Westfield/Brocton would finally sustain some pressure towards the end as Juli Smith got a good shot off but just wide of the net.

“We’re working on our transition game out into the midfield,” said Huber. “We can work on transitioning out of our zone.”

Even though Busch was fantastic in goal, Silver Creek’s Tessa Karcz started in net for the first time this season, collecting the shutout for the Black Knights while totaling three saves in the contest.

“Hopefully over the next week and a half we’ll get some girls back and healthier,” said Kevin Rice. “We’re just going to try and work together and work to be more consistent. We have to be more consistent in what we’re applying — and when we do it — we’re pretty good.”

Silver Creek (11-3) was able to rebound off of their 3-0 loss to Frewsburg on Monday and collect the win, and will now move on to play Dunkirk under the lights on Tuesday after their Cassadaga Valley game schedule for Friday has been postponed.

Westfield/Brocton (5-7-1) will play at Frewsburg on Friday.

“We just need to keep focusing on what we need to do,” said Huber. “We’re going to have to reemphasize some of our passing skills that we kind of got away from today. These girls still being inexperienced to a point, we’re still in that adjustment period.”