Caper Tigers keep first half close in CAL semifinal, but Red Raiders pull away
OCEAN CITY – The Caper Tiger girls gave Ocean City all it could handle in the first half of the Cape-Atlantic League lacrosse tournament semifinals Friday afternoon, matching the Red Raiders almost goal for goal.
The Lower Cape May Regional girls trailed 7-5 going into the second half, but couldn’t keep pace with Ocean City’s spread-out attack and stubborn defense and ended up falling 16-8.
It was only the fifth loss for the Caper Tigers this season against 13 wins. Coach JoAnn McLaughlin is proud of her girls making the CAL tournament, which featured the four teams with the best record in the league.
Two of the girls’ losses this season were by a single goal – 15-14 in the season-opener to Middle Township and 18-17 to Holy Spirit. The Caper Tigers beat both teams the other time they met, 11-7 and 13-9, respectively.
All the more impressive is that LCMR sports a 13-5 record as a Group I school competing against larger schools in the CAL. Ocean City and Mainland, two of the schools that topped LCMR, are in Group III, and Kingsway and Millville are Group IV. The Caper Tigers beat Millville, but lost to Kingsway.
The Caper Tigers scored just over two minutes into the game, but Ocean City responded half a minute later to tie. LCMR made it 2-1 at the 21-minute mark, and two minutes late Ocean City evened things up. Twenty seconds later, Ocean City took the lead at 3-2 and a minute and a half later was up 4-2.
The Caper Tigers narrowed the gap with 16:11 to go in the the half and then Ocean City made it 5-3.
That early pace continued as the LCMR girls closed in again.
By the end of the half, Ocean City led 7-5.
Sabrina Faulkner and Julia Gibson had the hot sticks in the first half with Faulker putting in three of the goals and Gibson adding two more.
Ocean City’s spread-out attack showed two goals each from Olivia Vanesko and Delainey Sutley and a goal each by Bre Fabi, Racheli Levy-Smith and Gracie Pierce.
In the second half, the Caper Tigers girls could only manage three more goals, one more by Faulker, who ended up being the high scorer in the game, and one each from Maggie Boyle and Maddie Schiffbauer. For good measure, Faulkner had two assists and Gibson and Brianna Loper had one each.
Caper Tiger goalie Allyson Walsh made 15 saves. Ocean City goalie Presley Green had five saves.
Sutley led Ocean City (13-3) with three goals overall, Vanesko, Levy-Smith, Ally Leeds, Pierce and Fabi each finished with two, and Brynna Culmone, Grace McAfee and Madison Wenner each had one. Fabi, Leeds, Wenner, Levy-Smith, Vanesko and Kelsea Cooke each had an assist.
Team effort for the Caper Tigers
McLaughlin said achieving a 13-5 record has been a team effort “from the goalie all the way through to our attackers.” On the attack end, she pointed out Boyle and Gibson, Schiffbauer and Faulkner in the midfield and Jenna O’Neill on defense.
Just before the CAL semifinals, the coach said the best game in which the team fully came together was against Our Lady of Mercy Academy (OLMA).
“I felt like that was the best game where we’ve been consistent from goalie to mid to attack. In previous games we’ve had a good offensive game or really good defensive game, but we’ve finally been putting it all together,” McLaughlin said.
Schiffbauer was the third girl on the team to reach the career 100-goal mark this season and she did it against OLMA on May 11 when the girls won 19-8. Schiffbauer had four goals and three assists in the game. Gibson and Boyle also had four goals and two assists each and Faulkner was the high scorer with five goals and one assist.
Boyle and Gibson surpassed 100 goals earlier this season and Faulkner went past the plateau last year.
“As a program, it’s exciting all three have reached these milestones along with the draw controls and the 100 ground balls along the way,” she said of Schiffbauer, Gibson and Boyle, “but I really do appreciate them putting the team first over themselves throughout the season and just playing for each other, instead of just worrying about their individual statistics.”
McLaughlin noted that being in the CAL has its difficulties and its benefits.
“I think it’s hard for us being a Group I school, especially just not having as much of a bench. We don’t have that much experience coming off the bench if we do need to sub, but we’re always up for the challenge,” she said. “I think each of our players brings something different to the table. They’re all so gritty and they’ll always fight until the last whistle. They enjoy the challenge and so do I.”
She said it was exciting making the CAL tournament being among the smaller schools in the league.
“We had a tough loss against Holy Spirit. We lost by a goal to win our side of the CAL, but I think it’s helped us move in the right direction for … state playoffs,” she said. “It helps us playing teams, especially like Ocean City here and Holy Spirit and Mainland. It helps prepare for the harder teams we see in the state tournament, especially because we’ll be playing a lot of North Jersey teams. It looks like we have Bernards, which is up near New York City. It’s definitely good for us.”
Ocean City coach: Don’t take any team for granted
Ocean City coach Lesley Graham noted how well the Caper Tigers played Friday.
“Especially in playoff season, everybody comes to play,” she said. “You can’t take any team lightly.
“We didn’t necessarily put our best foot forward in the first half, but give credit to Lower,” Graham said. “They came out firing and on a mission. They gave us a battle.”
The coach said at halftime the Red Raiders adjusted and refocused because of a number of distractions they have faced this week, including the funeral for a beloved coach, Mikenzie Helphenstine, on Thursday.
Graham said she told the players that they had to get back to fundamentals and to remember how they are capable of playing. Once they started doing that in the second half, the Red Raiders got their feet under them and started to roll with their style of play.
The CAL finals, originally scheduled for Monday against Holy Spirit, were postponed until Tuesday because of predicted harsh storms Monday afternoon.
The Red Raider girls are the fourth seed in South Jersey Group III and will host No. 13 Hightstown on Thursday in the first round of the playoffs.
Mainland is the No. 6 seed and hosts Toms River South.
The top seeds are No. 1 Shawnee, No. 2 Moorestown and No. 3 Cherry Hill West.
Photos and Story by David Nahan/Ocean City Sentinel