They will face unbeaten EHT at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22, in Egg Harbor Township
OCEAN CITY — Sophomore striker Mya Dever scored two goals to lead the Red Raiders to a 3-0 victory over the Mustangs on Oct. 21 in the semifinal round of the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament.
Ocean City High School now is set to travel to Egg Harbor Township to face the Eagles in the final. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23.
Dever notched her first tally to break the nil-nil tie with about 3:30 left in the opening stanza. Junior Savannah Rhubart sent a lofty pass to the edge of the box, where Dever was waiting. Seeing Mainland Regional High School goalkeeper Riley Townsend leave her line, Dever headed the ball over the goalie’s head and into the corner of the net to make it 1-0.
“I got it on the bounce, the goalie came out and I played it over her head,” Dever said.
It didn’t take nearly as long for Ocean City to score its second goal. Less than 8 minutes into the second half, Rhubart took the ball to the right corner and crossed it into the box, where junior Lily Tedesco was waiting to put it past Townsend for a 2-0 lead.
“It just came over, and I just put my stomach out. It just hit it and it just went right in perfectly in the corner,” Tedesco said.
Mainland continued to fight, and sophomore Nola Person had a great chance with just more than 18 minutes remaining that went wide left.
With time winding down, Tedesco sent a diagonal ball from left to right, connecting with Dever who was in alone on net and fired it past Townsend for her 13th goal of the season.
“I dribbled down the field, and there was an open gap diagonal so I passed the ball diagonal right to Mya and she had an amazing goal,” Tedesco said.
“I was just able to get the touch and play it right around their goalie,” Dever said.
Junior Madi Adams made six saves to preserve the shutout for the Raiders.
“We were excited to play. Last time we played Mainland, we were up and we lost. So we had some revenge to get,” head coach Kelly Halliday said. “We wanted to come out and play hard — it’s the CAL tournament. Now it’s trophy season. So I was really proud of our effort today and I think that’s what really helped us win the game.”
Halliday felt that her team played a better game and deserved the win.
“Our possession was great and we played as a team together today. And when that happens, we’re hard to beat,” she said.
Ocean City improved to 12-5, 10-3 in the CAL American Division.
The team has lost every other game dating back to Sept. 24, 2-1 to Egg Harbor Township. Losses came against Mainland and out-of-conference powers Cherry Hill East and Eastern.
Senior Emma Tenaglia, Mainland’s top scorer with 17 on the season and 60 for her career, felt like the Mustangs didn’t play their best.
“We kept fighting ’til the end. We could’ve had a better game, but sometimes you just have bad games,” she said.
Tenaglia credited Ocean City’s defense.
“They play, like, a really good pressure cover. So sometimes it’s a little hard to beat that because you turn and you have a lot of defenders on you. So that was a little tricky to get behind,” she said.
The Mustangs had not lost a game since Sept. 28, going 6-0-1 in that time, including a 4-3 comeback victory over the Raiders Sept. 30 in Linwood.
Head coach Fred Napoli blamed the loss on simple mistakes.
“I think sometimes we had the run of the play, but we just didn’t finish our opportunities. I mean, the girls played hard. Little simple things, and that’s that,” he said.
Napoli is now preparing his players for the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III playoffs.
Mainland is 9-6-1, 8-5 in the Cape-Atlantic League American Division.
Ocean City, the No. 2 seed, and EHT, the No. 1 seed, both earned byes until the semifinal round. EHT beat No. 5 seed Absegami 7-1 to reach the final. The Eagles are unbeaten this season at 15-0. In their prior two matchups, EHT beat Ocean City 4-2 in the season opener Sept. 3 and 2-1 when the teams met again Sept. 24.
– STORY by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
– PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
