By BRIAN TORTELLA
Correspondent
On X @tortreports
NORTH CALDWELL — Most players dream of hoisting that prestigious NJSIAA state championship trophy at least once during their high school career.
The majority of them, however, never get to make that dream come true.
For West Essex’s Sophia Sisco, what may be a dream for many is an annual tradition.
The senior helped punch West Essex’s ticket back to the state final as the top-seeded Knights won their eighth consecutive North Jersey Group 2 championship, defeating third-seeded West Morris, 3-0, in the sectional final on Wednesday evening.
The No. 2 state-ranked Knights will take on No. 16 Point Pleasant Boro, a 2-1 winner over Haddonfield in the South Jersey tournament final, in the state championship on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Bordentown Regional high school.
For years West Essex, one of the top field hockey programs in the state — and country — has been trekking down to South Jersey to take on teams like Kingsway Regional and Camden Catholic to prepare for the state playoffs, and vice versa. Those teams get to gear up for tournament runs by playing the best, and the philosophy has paid off — both Kingsway and Camden Catholic will be playing for state championships on Saturday at Bordentown High.
“Being in the state final all four years and winning all four years, I think it’s a determination factor,” Sisco, who’s aiming for her fourth state title, said. “To just keep going and get a state title all four years in a row, that’s our main goal. Ava (Russo) and I have been working toward it— we made varsity as freshmen and this has been our goal working all four years. To just execute it on Saturday is the thing that we want to do the most.”
Sisco scored an insurance goal to put the Knights up by three late in regulation, but her deadly dagger came prior on an assist. She zoomed a shot into the box with 9:33 left in the third quarter that was finished by Tessa Delvescovo — giving her Knights a huge momentum advantage.
“(Sophia) is one heck of a kid,” coach Jill Cosse said. “She and Adie (Minnella), when they were warming up before the game, they were already in that zone. If you’re an athlete and you can get in that zone a couple times in your career, unless you’re in professional sports, that’s something to find and search for to get in that place. She and Adie before the game were feeling so comfortable with what they were doing. Sophia just worked. She worked her tail off the whole time.”
West Essex graduated five of its 11 starters from 2023, which accounted for 47 of the team’s 125 goals (38 percent), but that didn’t stop the Knights from reloading and cruising to their 41st sectional title in program history.
“When we lost those five seniors who were starters last year out of our eleven, I don’t know if anyone would’ve expected West Essex to be doing what they did this year,” coach Cosse said. “I give so much credit to these kids, because they could’ve easily said ‘we don’t have what it’s going to take’. They’re a gifted group of kids, they really are. On this field today, this was a 11-man team. It was so fun to coach.”
Delvescovo, a freshman, has done an exceptional job filling some of that void, bringing her season goal total to 14 after her lone score.
“The seniors have been working a lot for us,” Delvescovo said. “It was time for the freshmen to step up and work for them.”
“She’s such a role model,” she continued, referring to Sisco. “She’s been working hard all season, and I wanted to step up for her in this game, since it was her last home game.”
West Essex had 22 shots on goal compared to just two for West Morris, and the Knights had a whopping 32-2 advantage on corners attempted. Sophomore Julia Conforti scored the first goal for West Essex.
“We have a lot of lethal weapons at the top of the circle,” Cosse added. “I thought we needed to perform better coming in on posts and something right in front of the cage. That will be the next goal. We have the next two days to figure that out.
“They’re such elite athletes at this place. All the teams that are going to be at the state finals, I consider all those kids elite. You should be able to have a conversation with them, and they should be able to clean up what they’re doing.”
A Division 1 Boston College commit, Sisco has a lot to look forward to at the collegiate level — but first, she’ll look to end her high school career the same way she started it: hoisting that trophy into the air at Bordentown on a November Saturday.
“We are ranked really high this year,” she said. “To keep that up and to prove to everyone that we are one of the best teams in the state is huge. We have to keep up the intensity in every practice and every game.”
Next up: keeping that intensity for three more days.
Click this link to watch the ‘Sideline Snippets’ series, where correspondent Brian Tortella hands a Go-Pro video camera stick to players after the game and they talk about the victory:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCVo28RtZAO/?igsh=emo1ZG5jaDJ3aW1t
Contact Brian Tortella: btortreportssj@gmail.com.
