First time Red Raider girls have beaten Blue Devils in four years
HAMMONTON – The Ocean City High School field hockey team is headed to the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament finals Thursday after upsetting the Hammonton High School Blue Devils 2-1 Tuesday, Oct. 20.
The Red Raider players celebrated after the game more than usual because they had not defeated Hammonton’s team in four years.
At the beginning of this season, it didn’t look like anything changed. On Sept. 9, the Blue Devils beat Ocean City 3-0.
Two weeks later, however, the Red Raiders still couldn’t end that irritating losing streak, but they did manage 3-3 tie.
That losing streak ended Tuesday afternoon on the Blue Devils’ home field.
“We’ve been chipping away the entire season,” Ocean City head coach Carole Williams said. “The first game it was 3-0, the second game 3-3. Today we ended up 2-1. We’ve been making our adjustments and it really paid off today.
“They did an amazing job,” Williams said of her Red Raiders. “It was impressive to watch because Hammonton is a real good team.”In was an inauspicious start. Blue Devil Amanda Childs scored unassisted in the first quarter to go up 1-0.
Red Raider Marley Dwyer changed things.
On a corner play with 3:39 left in the first half, Lyla Clark sent the ball to Dwyer, who was at the top of the circle. Dwyer lofted the ball in an arc above the Hammonton defenders and her teammates – and above Blue Devil goalie Hannah Hines for the tying goal.
“It was it so surreal. It was so much fun,” Dwyer said, “just to be able to do this and on this field. I was so excited. Our team just played insane today. We played for each other. We did not give up at all. And Hammonton’s an amazing team, but I feel like we just played so gritty today, so tough. We left it all out there, and I think that’s what the difference was.”
The third period passed without a score, but with both teams getting their chances.
Halfway through the fourth period, Ocean City was on the attack. With Abigail Herrington waiting, senior co-captain Casey Adamson sent a powerful pass toward the goal from outside the circle. Herrington deflected it past Hines for the winning goal.
“I was just trying the whole entire time to keep my feet towards the cage and get my stick on the right angle so it would just tap in from Casey and go on goal,” an elated Herrington said after the game. “We’ve been working on that corner for a while now and I’ve been waiting to execute it all season and then finally got it. It feels amazing,” she said.
“I just closed my eyes and I hoped that it went in,” an equally elated Adamson said. “Thank gosh, Abby touched it. We talked about the play at halftime about what our next corner was going to be and (senior co-captain) Stevie (Wright) and I have been practicing that.
“I don’t know. I got the ball, I received it, and I just sent it in, and Abby did it. She finished it for us,” Adamson said.
“This feels amazing, and it’s been a long time coming, and it was a total team effort, and I’m so proud of everyone,” she added.
“It’s been since me and Casey’s freshman year, we haven’t been able to like really hammer it to them and beat them, but we really pulled it together today,” Wright said. For her, the difference came down to their thinking.
“I think it’s honestly just the headspace,” Wright said. “I think that we went into the season thinking that we’re going to lose to them because we have in recent years, but I think this game we all really had a positive mindset and went into it optimistic.”
Hammonton’s goalie and Ocean City goalie Devin Dolka were each credited with six saves in the game.
Asked how she helped keep the Blue Devils to one goal after their scored three times in each of the past two games, Dolka pointed to a “whole team effort.”
“Everyone was positive. Everyone kept each other going,” she said.
“We did a lot of communication. A lot of sliding. We marked their best player for almost the whole game.”
Dolka said it didn’t matter who was on defense.
“We had forwards defending. We had mids defending. We had defenders going up with the ball. It was just a really forward movement.”
Hammonton, which was the No. 2 seed in the CAL tournament, is 11-5-1 (5-2-1 in the CAL American) and Ocean City, the No. 3 seed, is now 11-4-2 (4-3-1 CAL American). The Red Raiders will travel to top seed St. Joseph of Hammonton (12-1, 8-0 CAL American) for the final at 3:45 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22.
St. Joseph beat No. 12 seed Cedar Creek 8-0 in the other semifinal. St. Joseph, the defending CAL champ, beat Ocean City in their prior two games this season, but both were close – a come-from-behind 2-1 win at Ocean City Sept. 14, and a 4-3 win Oct. 2.
Coach Williams said the team would immediately begin preparing for the final.
“We’re going to hit the drawing board tomorrow. We’re going to work on our corners. We’re going to work on the things that we need to do to continue playing together,” she said, “and we’re going to go at them really hard on Thursday.”
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
