OCEAN CITY — The Red Raider girls soccer team was the latest victim of the Eagles, who improved to 14-0 with another lopsided victory.
The girls were going up against Egg Harbor Township High School again Monday in the semifinals of the Cape-Atlantic League tournament. EHT is the top seed.
Ocean City High School played host to EHT on Oct. 14 at the Tennessee Avenue complex, falling 5-1. The Eagles won the season’s previous matchup 6-1.
Those two goals by the Raiders amount to a third of the tallies given up this season by the Eagles’ defense and senior goaltender Arianna Nguyen while the offense has scored 80.
That offense comes from many positions — 16 Eagles have scored this season — but mostly from the team’s star strikers senior Brielle VonColln (22 goals, 14 assists) and sophomore Jackie Brownlee (26 goals, 12 assists). Sophomore Evalyn Brown would be leading most teams with her 10 goals, 10 assists.
Each of the three added to her impressive tally as the Eagles went up 5-0 in the first half — VonColln and Brownlee each notched 2 goals and 2 assists, while Brown had one of each, including the opener.
Ocean City head coach Sean Matteo, in his second year with the program, has his team at 7-6-2 overall, 7-4-1 in the Cape-Atlantic League American Division.
“EHT is a very good team this year. I know we beat them tough last year — we’ve had some great matchups — and they’ve gotten better,” Matteo said. “They’re a very quick team — Jackie, Brielle are lethal.”
Egg Harbor Township got right to work, putting pressure on the defense and scoring its first goal just more than 12 minutes into the match.
Brownlee took a hard shot from the right that was knocked away with two hands by sophomore goaltender Madi Adams, but right into the path of Brown who banged it off the bottom of the crossbar and in for a 1-0 lead at 27:50.
Ocean City, which was struggling to get the ball out of its own end at times, was playing dump and chase to some effect, as junior Emma Vince (6 goals, 5 assists) fought through the defense to try to get touches on the ball.
However, when the Raiders failed to maintain possession, the Eagles struck quickly. Less than 4 minutes after the opening goal, VonColln found Brownlee, who was open on the right side and drove straight toward goal, firing into the net for the 2-0 lead at 23:51.
Egg Harbor Township made it 3-0 less than 2 minutes later. Brownlee ran to the left flag, turned the corner and passed to VonColln in front of net for the score at 22:21.
Ocean City continued to struggle but strong play by midfielders Mya Dever and Aurora Brown helped the Raiders gain some possession as the half continued.
However, with 6:27 left in the first stanza, VonColln returned the favor, passing to Brownlee to make it 4-0.
With just more than 5 minutes to play, senior forward Liv Adams poked the ball past a defender and beat her to it before being pulled down and drawing a foul. Ocean City had a free kick from about 25 yards out that Vince fired over the bar.
On the ensuing possession, VonColln moved the ball downfield, where she found Brownlee open for the fifth goal of the game with 3:36 remaining.
The Raiders came out in the second half with a renewed sense of purpose, getting an early shot from Dever and earning multiple throw-ins and corner kicks. Vince forced a save at 36:44 as Ocean City had Egg Harbor Township on its heels.
“We had some more chances, we figured some things out in a second half. I told them when we play a full 80 minutes, we’re going to be a very tough team to beat and we’ve done that a few times, so we’ll see if we can put that together for the postseason,” Matteo said.
About midway through, sophomore Savannah Rhubart was fouled in the box and the referee signaled a penalty kick. Vince stepped up and fired low to the right, scoring the lone goal for the Raiders at 20:22.
Matteo said he was pleased with the play from Vince.
“We’ve been waiting for that; she is an outstanding player,” he said, noting she had a lot of good players around her that helped her raise her level last season. “This year she just had to take on a little bit more of a leadership role and today she stepped up.”
He credited Vince with helping the Raiders win the Cape-Atlantic League tournament final last year 3-1 over the Eagles.
“If we get more of that from her the rest of the season, I think we’re going to be very solid,” Matteo said, noting she was starting to combine with Rhubart in the second half.
Vince said she could feel the change in attitude in the second half.
“I think in the first half, they kinda wanted it more than us and I think there was definitely, like, a switch at halftime,” she said. “Something clicked and we started to want it.”
Egg Harbor Township improved to 14-0 overall, 12-0 in the Cape-Atlantic League American Division under head coach Peter Lambert.
The Eagles avenged the season sweep last year, when they fell 3-0, 3-1 with 6-1, 5-1 victories this year over the Red Raiders. EHT now has racked up 80 goals and 75 assists while allowing just 6 into the net and posting nine shutouts.
Red Raiders beat Blue Devils, then fall to EHT
In the opening round of the CAL tournament Friday, Ocean City beat Hammonton 5-0.
Ocean City got two goals from Gabby Cupit and one each from Jada Dooley, Aurora Brown and Savannah Rhubart. Goalie Madi Adams had four saves in the game.
The girls then lost to EHT 3-0 Monday in the quarterfinals.
O.C. boys beat Middle,
fall to St. Augustine
The Ocean City boys soccer team (10-5) beat Middle Township (10-4) 2-0 in the opening round of the CAL tournament.
Joey Goodman and Luke Terruso scored the goals for the Red Raiders and earned assists on each other’s goals. Goalie Eddie Fuller made three saves.
They lost 2-1 Monday to No. 1 seed St. Augustine.
Prep (13-1-1) in the semifinals Monday afternoon.
– STORY by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
– PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
