OCHS teammate Hope Slimmer sets OCHS assists record
OCEAN CITY — Red Raider girls soccer star Summer Reimet scored 6 goals on 10 shots in an 8-1 win over the Pirates on Tuesday, Oct. 5, setting new school single-season and career records.
Later in the week, teammate Hope Slimmer broke her sister’s all-time assists record.
Defending NJSIAA Group III champion Ocean City is now 11-0 after sweeping the season series with Cedar Creek, which fell to 4-5, in a Cape-Atlantic League National Division game at Tennessee Avenue, and then beating Williamstown and Our Lady of Mercy Academy.
Reimet, a 5-foot, 10-inch senior, is headed to Monmouth University in West Long Branch, where she will be playing for the 30th-ranked NCAA Division I Hawks. But Reimet won’t be waiting for the fall.
According to her mother, Kathy, the 17-year-old was invited to join the team in January, when she also will start taking classes toward her major in graphic design. Reimet has enough credits to finish high school in December.
The senior didn’t waste any time during the game, either, hitting the post on her first shot and tying the record on her second less than 5 minutes into the game when she fired the ball past Cedar Creek goalkeeper Gianna Thoms at 35:06 to make it 1-0.
Reimet’s speed and ball control were too much for the Pirate defenders, as she pillaged her way through the attacking zone, scoring the record-setter at 26:26.
“Being able to break my own record is awesome,” Reimet said after the game. “I have to thank my teammates for helping because they have supported me since my first game my freshman year.”
During the post-game celebration, head coach Lisa Cuneo said Reimet “deserves every minute of this moment.”
“Successful programs are built on moments like this. If you don’t have record-breakers in your program, you’re an average team,” Cuneo said, noting the team has other goals this season.
“Hopefully for her it’s a relief and we can focus on trophy-chasing,” she said.
The game quickly turned into a rout as the besieged defense quickly gave up another goal to Reimet, who made it 3-0 at 25:14.
Sophomore McKenna Chisholm made it 4-0 a little more than a minute later, hitting the back of the net at 24:06.
Reimet finished the onslaught of 5 goals in 12 minutes with her fourth of the game at 22:29.
A little more than 10 minutes into the second half, Reimet scored her fifth, her record-tying 35th of the season, to make it 6-0 with 29:17 to go in the game.
Cedar Creek got its best chance of the afternoon at 25:22, when leading scorer Corinne Morgan fired a shot that was denied by Red Raider goalkeeper Tori Vliet, who quickly targeted Reimet as she booted the deep ball back into play, sending her in on a breakaway for the record-setting 36th goal of the season. Vliet also scored her second-ever assist, having gotten the first back in September against Mainland Regional.
“It honestly feels so awesome. I never thought I would be able to do it once so it’s awesome to be able to do it twice,” Vliet said.
Morgan would get her goal a little more than three-quarters through the game when a defensive lapse allowed her space to fire up and over the head of Vliet. It was her 50th career goal, according to coach Sarah Leathers.
“It was a good shot, there wasn’t much I could do,” Vliet said. “I got a finger on it but it was a very good shot.”
Aimee Altieri finished the scoring at 1:51, making the final 8-1 Ocean City.
Senior Hope Slimmer had 3 assists to give her 27 for the season and 64 for her career, one short of her sister, Faith Slimmer, who scored 100 goals and 65 assists during her time at Ocean City. Younger sister Joy Slimmer added 2 assists. Faith Slimmer now plays for College of Charleston, an NCAA Division I program in South Carolina. Reimet and Faith Slimmer each set the single-season scoring record with 39 goals apiece during the 2019 season, when Ocean City won the state Group III championship.
According to Brandon Gould of NJ Advanced Media, Reimet’s 36 goals leads the state this season but she has no chance of catching New Jersey’s single-season or career leaders.
Gould said Lauren Kerrigan of Randolph scored 69 in 1984 and 190 for her career. Likewise, Hope Slimmer set the school record of assists with ease but Heather Deerin had 58 in a season for Morris Catholic in 1997 and 126 for her career.
The Red Raiders have outscored their opponents 72-4 this season. Before Morgan’s goal, only Mainland Regional High School and Our Lady of Mercy Academy were able to get a ball across the goal line against Vliet.
“There is a lot of pressure on me to keep it like that but I feel like I can handle it,” Vliet said. “I get to rely a lot on my defense, because they’re one of the best teams in the CAL (Cape-Atlantic League) right now.”
While enjoying the moment and the milestone, Reimet added that the end goal is to get back to the state championship.
“It’s great scoring 100 goals and breaking a record but a state championship would be amazing,” she said. “If we could get another state championship, going out with a win would be great.”
Cuneo agreed, saying she feels like she has the pieces in place for a good run.
“We can rely on front to back. We have a core group of kids that just know what they’re doing, know how to handle the ball. They can pass, they can move. It’s hard work from winning the ball and the transition game is big for us. A back wins the ball, hits the middies and it’s that transition between Joy and Hope in midfield and finding a forward and then going to goal,” she said.
Cuneo noted the stand-out work of the defense and Riley Fortna specifically.
The center back started as a freshman and was an outside back on the state championship team, Cuneo said.
“We always say ‘In Riley we trust,’” she said. “That experience just elevates the calmness of the play.”
Hope Slimmer sets assists record
Ocean City beat top-ranked Williamstown 7-1 on Thursday. In the game, Hope Slimmer had two assists to give her the career assists record previously held by her older sister Faith, who set the record with 65. Slimmer had a total of 66 after the game and one goal.
Reimet padded her career scoring record, adding three goals and three assists in the Williamstown game.
That put her at 38 goals on the season and 108 for her career.
McKenna Chisholm, Joy Slimmer and Naomi Nnewihe added goals and Vliet was credited with her third assist.
On Friday, Ocean City beat Our Lady of Mercy Academy 2-0, a game in which Reimet added yet another goal, bringing her to 39 on the season and 109 for her career and Hope Slimmer added a goal and another assist, bringing her total to 67.
Joy Slimmer also had an assist in the game.
The Red Raiders improved to 11-0 on the season.
On Tuesday they were playing rival Mainland Regional after the Sentinel went to press.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff