OCEAN CITY – Led by a familiar face at head coach, the Ocean City Red Raiders rode an early lead to take down the Mainland Mustangs.
With a feel-like temperature of 95 degrees, the Raiders delivered a 2-0 win over the rival Mustangs Sept. 10. The win was Ocean City head coach Kelly Halliday’s first game against Mainland since she last coached the Raiders in 2019.
Halliday’s resume with the Raiders is long and storied, boasting more than 100 wins and the state championship in 2019, when the team went 24-1-1.
“It has been a great time slotting back in here with a great group of girls to be around,” Halliday said. “Things have been steady so far this year and the win today only helps.”
Before the heat wore down some of the players, star forward Emma Vince found an open zone in front of the net and scored the game’s first goal in the fifth minute. Savannah Rhubart helped get Vince the ball in space.
Vince has scored five goals in the team’s first four games and leads the team in points after a couple of assists earlier in the season.
Mainland settled in after the quick score and the defense specifically pressured and took the ball away from Ocean City constantly. Gabriella Kesic caught up to Vince before she was about to shoot and denied the attempt.
Trying to even the scoreboard at 1-1, Mainland’s possessions on offense were run through one of the top goal scorers in the entire Cape-Atlantic League – Emma Tenaglia. Tenaglia and fellow senior Reilly Nagle had some chances but were ultimately turned away by Ocean City.
Tenaglia has been on the field all four years of her career and is a massive boon to the team to have back for her final season. She scored a total of 43 goals at Mainland, including 21 last season.
“We have a good group of girls and plenty of work to do,” Mainland head coach Fred Napoli said. “We have a lot of young players that need experience. Heading into the rest of the season our focus is getting better at working the ball together and our overall teamwork.”
After playing an even game for most of the first half, the Raiders won a long stalemate at midfield to regain possession and threaten one more score before halftime.
Aurora Brown made a great pass through the Mustang formation that found Katie Wheeler with one defender to beat. The sophomore created space for herself and scored her first goal at Ocean City.
“We just kept our foot on the gas the whole way and never relented,” Halliday said. The early lead helped us play freer on both sides of the field.”
The 2-0 Raider lead at halftime turned out to be the final score after neither team could get a solid possession in the final 40 minutes.
Asked about what she noticed first about the Raider team she inherited, Halliday said, “The togetherness of this team is what has stood out to me so far. It definitely helps when you have pairs of sisters out there who already have that connection.”
One of the rising stars from last season is sophomore Mya Dever, who in her freshman year led the team in goals and points. On the other side of the field is her sister Maddi Dever, whom Halliday described as “cool” having one sister on each half of the field.
The Raiders improved their record to 5-1 after a 5-0 victory over Vineland Saturday and 3-0 win over Absegami Monday. Mya Dever had two goals, and Darrah Ostrander, Mallie Heenan and Hudson Scola had one apiece. Wheeler had two assists and Rhubart and Ostrander had one assist each.
The Mustangs have not played as many games yet and sit at 1-2 on the season.
The Mustangs will get one more shot at Ocean City on their home field later this month on Sept. 30.
Before the rematch, Mainland has an assortment of home games coming up starting on Sept. 16 against Absegami High School and wrapping up on Sept. 18 against Gloucester Tech.
After a packed three-game week, the Raiders only have one game this week. Williamstown High School will play an early 10 a.m. game on Saturday, Sept. 19, in Ocean City.
– STORY by WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel
– PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
