Down 5-2, O.C. boys storm back to beat Shawnee 9-6 for first sectional title
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY — The Ocean City High School boys lacrosse program won its first sectional title Monday when the Red Raiders defeated Shawnee 9-6 at Carey Stadium in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III championship game.
Senior Jake Schneider scored 4 goals, including one following a fancy spin move, to lead the attack. Freshman Pat Grimley added a pair.
“I was feeling the bouncer today, made two of them. Go to your left and shoot it, bounce, top right,” Schneider said following the game and post-victory celebration.
The Red Raiders opened the scoring just 48 seconds into the game on a nice solo effort by Schneider after Dylan Dwyer won the initial faceoff.
Ocean City dominated possession early but Shawnee finally broke through with an equalizer from sophomore Ethan Krauss, who charged from behind the net and scored with 2:52 remaining in the quarter.
As the opening stanza wound down, Grimley put the Red Raiders back on top with 1:07 remaining, making it 2-1.
The second quarter began quietly but ended with a bang. It was nearly 6 minutes before the next goal, this one for Shawnee’s Tyler Korchak to tie the game 2-2 with 7:06 left in the half.
Ocean City got a scare a couple of minutes later when senior Brady Rauner went to the ground, appearing to be injured. He left the field but later returned to play with a new jersey and bandages across his nose.
Both defenses played strong for long periods in the second quarter, limiting scoring chances and shots, but Ocean City’s was the first to give ground.
Shawnee broke the stalemate with three goals in quick succession to take a 5-3 lead over the top-seeded Red Raiders.
The Renegades took their first lead of the game when Korchak scored his second with 2:46 remaining to make it 3-2. That was followed just 12 seconds later by a goal from Nate Sears to make it 4-2. Finally, with just 1:04 remaining, Korchak netted the hat trick to put Shawnee up 5-2.
Ocean City coach Joe LaTorre said he was not surprised that Shawnee took the lead and held it.
“Shawnee is a perennial power in lacrosse,” he said, noting the Renegades have swapped the crown with Moorestown for many years.
“That team knows how it is to compete at this level. When they went on that run I knew we just had to dig in and fight through the adversity,” LaTorre said.
But the Red Raiders showed they had the hearts of champions. Dwyer won the ensuing faceoff and Schneider scooped it up and headed toward goal, firing into the back of the net for his second of the game to cut the lead to 5-3.
The quick goal to end the first half completely shifted the momentum to the home squad.
“A two-goal deficit compared to a 3 with 24 minutes, night and day different,” LaTorre said. “Lacrosse is a game of runs. In certain games we’ve been down 5-0 and then we’ve fought back and won. We’ve been there before and know how to react to the adversity and it showed today in the second half.”
After the break, Ocean City scored 5 goals in a row to retake the lead and stretch it to 9-5.
Less than 2 minutes into the third quarter, the Raiders halved the lead with a goal from Jack Davis at 10:06. Schneider followed that up with his hat trick, spinning away from a hard check and firing past goalie Jimmy Potter to even the game at 5-5 with 9:03 left in the third quarter.
“I didn’t even mean to do that,” Schneider said after the game. “The kid hit me and I just spun and shot it.”
Nick Volpe, who barely missed the goal in the first quarter, finally put one away with 6:16 left in the third, taking the lead back for good at 6-5 on a solo effort.
Schneider added his fourth goal with 4:01 remaining in the quarter to give the Red Raiders a 7-5 lead.
Grimley netted his second of the game with 2:54 left in the third to put Ocean City up 8-5, but Shawnee was not giving up. Raider goalie Gavin Jackson was forced to make a quick save on a shot with 2:23 left, while another shot clanged off the post at 1:41.
The damage had been done in a strong third quarter for the Red Raiders, who netted 5 goals to Shawnee’s 0.
LaTorre attributed getting back into the game to faceoff play by Dwyer, who won 7 of 18 and “stood on his head in the second half,” as well as the wing play of JP Patella and Rauner and the defense of Jake Inserra and Dan Reeves.
The fourth quarter was all about playing keep-away, with the Renegades coaches yelling “he’s stalling” for much of the 12 minutes.
Rauner showed it was not he who was stalling when he fired one past the goalie with 6:19 remaining to give Ocean City a 9-5 lead.
Shawnee put one more ball in the net with 6.3 seconds remaining but it was too late. The Red Raiders had gotten revenge for a loss in the semifinal round in 2019.
“It feels like nothing I’ve ever felt in my life. It’s the best feeling I’ve ever felt,” Schneider said. “This makes up for everything we missed out on junior year.”
“I’m so proud of these guys. I knew we would get to this point at some point in the program’s history,” LaTorre said, noting it’s his ninth year at the helm. “Every senior class from 2013 on has built this foundation so that these guys could compete for a championship and it shows. Every year seniors have laid their hearts on the line. We’ve fallen in the quarterfinals, the first round, the semifinals. And every year the seniors say the same thing: ‘Learn from what we did this year and don’t let it happen again.’ The last time we were out on this field against Shawnee they beat us 7-6 to end the 2019 season. This year we did not let it happen again.”
Ocean City improved to 13-6 and will face North Jersey sectional champion Chatham this week for the state Group III title. Chatham, the No. 2 seed in North Jersey, upset No. 1 seed Northern Highlands 13-6 on Monday.
The winner will compete in the Tournament of Champions.
No. 2 seed Shawnee finished the season at 11-7.
