WOOD RIVER JCT. – Many coaches want to find some fault with their teams to use as a learning tool in practice.

Westerly girls coach David Amato isn’t one of those this year. Not that he wouldn’t use a weakness for motivation. He just can’t find any faults with the Bulldogs. Westerly rose to 11-0 with a 13-4 win over Division I Chariho Saturday as the Bulldogs continue their quest to return to the DII championship game that they lost in overtime in 2025.

“One of the advantages we have is we’re solid all the way through,” Amato said. “Our offense is very hard to defend, and our defense is very hard to penetrate. When teams do penetrate, we have confidence in our goalkeeper.”

Last year, Westerly relied heavily on attacker Casey Macera, the program’s all-time leading scorer who scored 70 goals. Lincoln face-guarded Macera in the final and held her to one goal in a 9-8 Bulldog loss.

This year, Lincoln used the same tactic, but Westerly showed what has been more of a diversified offense to roll to a 14-3 regular season win. Macera still scores often (team-high 45 goals) but the Bulldogs feature other threats in senior midfielder Gianna Falcone and freshmen Ella Seltzer (over 30 goals each) and Macy Antoch and junior midfielder Phoebe Brennan (over 20 apiece).

“We’re passing it around and trusting other girls to get more involved,” Macera said. “It’s great to have such a burden off my back and get some more assists.”

Macera still is capable of offensive breakouts as she scored a season-high seven against Chariho with her signature left-handed hard shots. Brennan added three goals and Falcone had two. In many games, she has been a co-scoring leader with three or four goals or not the leader behind Falcone, who leads Westerly with 26 assists.

“This year if Casey scores three or four, we’re getting contributions from others,” Amato said. “If teams double or face-guard her, we have to rely on other players but we have confidence they can step up. We keep everyone involved. But the biggest thing is we don’t mind sharing the ball.  Nobody cares if they score. It just happens organically.”

Falcone showed her all-around ability, winning a draw and sprinting down the center of the field to score early in the third quarter to give Westerly an 8-2 lead.

Brennan, who leads Westerly’s defense with 38 groundballs, scored two second-half goals. The second started a running clock after a 10-goal lead with nine minutes left.

“My primary job is defense,” Brennan said. “I’m glad I can make more of a contribution on the offensive end.”

Falcone believes team harmony accounts a lot for the undefeated record.

“I would attribute a lot of our success to our chemistry,” Falcone said. “We’re friends on and off the field and have a strong bond. We can talk to each other about anything which allows us to play more cohesively and as a team. This team is really easy to coach.”

Brennan, Jenna Parker, Kaelyn Gabrielle, Riley Cody and Madison Chiaradio are key defenders. Saturday, they held Charihos leading scorer Kayden Jaillet to no goals. Illiano had seven saves.

“It’s great having that group of girls on defense to make it easier on me,” Illiano said. “This year, I see us building . Cumberland (which gave Westerly a battle in a 15-11 loss) looks like our biggest matchup. If we stay strong and stay together we can go all the way.”

Westerly impressed Godbout, who knows what it takes to win in Division II. She led the Chargers to the 2023 title. But the team is in DI now at 2-8 with a relatively young squad.

“In Division I, we’re not exactly going for wins this year,” Chariho coach Brittney Godbout said. “We’re making small goals like focusing on our defense, playing aggressively, denying passing lanes and seeing slides. We did a good job on that. I think Westerly earned every goal they got today.”

Westerly’s main goal is to keep its edge with a great record down the stretch.

“Our main objective is keeping ourselves focused, keeping our energy up,” Amato said. “It’s always been a difficult thing to maintain our edge when we’re having success. We want to continue to do what we learn in practice and hope it translates to the field.”