Procedural Squash and Stretch - Trying to convert code from ActionScript example

Hi, I found this example of creating procedural squash and stretch in ActionScript. I am trying to replicate a similar effect in unity. The basic idea is to have a sprite (or in my case a quad mesh) squash and stretch based on the velocity of the object. The problem I am having is the ActionScript example uses a transformation matrix and based on my research (and very limited knowledge) using a transformation matrix in unity seems like a bad idea -- or I am just lazy. My results are not quite there yet. I can get my object to squash and stretch but it seems to do so perpendicular to the direction the object is traveling. Also I have a problem with the object flipping orientation. Long story short, my question is how can I fix this, or is there an example of doing something similar in Unity?

 using UnityEngine;
 using System.Collections;
 
 public class SquashPlayer : MonoBehaviour {
 
     public float intensity;
     private Rigidbody2D rb;
     private float velX;
     private float velY;
     private float squash;
     private float xScale;
     private float yScale;
     private float originalScale;
     private Quaternion directionTraveling;
 
     void Start ()
     {
         intensity = 1;
         rb = GetComponent<Rigidbody2D>();
         originalScale = transform.localScale.x;
     }
     
     void FixedUpdate ()
     {
         velX = Mathf.Abs (rb.velocity.x);
         velY = Mathf.Abs (rb.velocity.y);
         squash = ((velY + velX) / intensity);
         yScale = ((squash / -2) + originalScale);
         xScale = (squash + originalScale);
 
         directionTraveling = Quaternion.LookRotation(rb.velocity);
 
         transform.rotation = directionTraveling;
         transform.localScale = new Vector3(xScale ,yScale , 1);
 
     }
 }