By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
LINWOOD – The Ocean City and Mainland Regional field hockey teams had a chance to test their endurance Saturday morning when their game went into overtime.
The Mustangs trailed 2-0 in the fourth quarter against the undefeated Red Raiders in a game well matched in midfield play but in which Ocean City had more corners and scoring opportunities.
And then Casey Murray, whom Mainland coach Jill Hatz considers the heart of her team, scored on an assist from Julianna Medina to pull her team within a goal, 2-1. Less than 6 minutes later, on an assist from Brooke Albuquerque, Sandi Smoger evened the score at 2-2, forcing overtime.
That overtime, according to Hatz, was “anticlimactic.”
The Mustangs were able to take the ball down the field right off the bat, she said, the play moved back to midfield and then, only about a minute and a half into the extended period, Alexis Smallwood tipped in a pass from Tara McNally for the Red Raiders win.
“It was kind of a scramble in front of the goal and (the ball) slowly rolled in,” Hatz said, recalling the winning play. “It wasn’t even like a crazy hard shot or anything.”
What wasn’t anticlimactic for the Mainland coach was watching her team refuse to quit against a talented Ocean City team. The Red Raiders went up 2-0 on a pair of scores from Carly Hanin, the first assisted by Nya Gilchrist and the second by Racheli Levy Smith.
“It was awesome. I think the girls needed this type of game to prove that they’re capable of hanging with any team that we play against,” Hatz said. Coming back in the final minutes from a 2-0 deficit “speaks for itself. These girls are determined. They didn’t let down. If anything, I think they got more intense as the game went on because it was such an evenly matched midfield game on both ends.
“I think they were just, ‘We can do this. Let’s do this.’ So these girls have grit, they have heart, they’re aggressive, they’re athletic. So they have a good combination of everything you need in an athlete and a team,” she added.
Ocean City coach Kelsey Burke was happy with her team’s performance as well.
“Today was a test so I was happy with how we responded to it,” Burke said. “We haven’t prepared for overtime yet, but we were able to make it work, get the goal and win the game.”
Mainland also hadn’t prepared for an overtime period at this point early in the season, which has been shortened by COVID-19 restrictions.
“It was crazy,” Hatz said. “I said to my one coach we were going to work on a 7 v. 7 (in practice) and the time got the best of us, but I think with these girls we’re lucky to have so many returning players that they didn’t really skip a beat. So that really helped us out.”
One factor that both teams seem to be enjoying is that field hockey has moved to playing four 15-minute quarters this season after decades of two 30-minute halves.
Burke explained that international field hockey has been playing in quarters for the past few seasons and that college teams moved to quarters last season. This fall, high school teams followed suit.
“I think it helps us to our advantage because of conditioning,” Burke said. “You can catch your breath. We’re able to wear teams down and then get a quick catch of our breath and wear teams down again.” On the negative side, she added, “I think it might make the game a little more stunted. There isn’t as much flow. But we’re adapting pretty well.”
Hatz likes the change and believes the impact is more in strategy and mindset.
“It gives us three different opportunities to reset our play. If we’re not liking how we’re playing the first quarter, we can change that in the second quarter or for the third or the fourth,” Hatz said. “It breaks it up and it doesn’t make it seem like as long as a half for the girls. Mentally for the girls it allows them to think that they’ll get a break so they can go hard for 15 minutes. And then go another 15 minutes and get a little bit longer break. I think it changes our mental game more than anything.”
Overall, Burke believes her team played well.
“Statistically we had more corners than them and more scoring opportunities than them,” she said. There were “just a few breakdowns late in the game, but luckily we were able to recover and get the win.”
She singled out Chelsea Stack for her play in the backfield. “She kept it simple, played smart,” Burke said. Her team hosts Lower Cape May Wednesday and on Saturday the Red Raiders host Haddonfield at 11 a.m. on the artificial turf at Carey Stadium, one of the few out-of-conference games the girls are playing in the shortened season.
“We’re excited about it. It’s a new face,” Burke said. “We (already) see a lot of the Cape-Atlantic League teams.”
Hatz said she was pleased with all of her players, but wanted to note Murray’s influence on the team.
“They had such a good team game out there. I think Casey Murray was at the heart of all that. Our team really feeds off of her – her mentality going into a game, her play out there. They feed off her physically and mentally. She really set the tone for everybody and everybody joined right in,” Hatz said.
“The big thing is coming back. Just the fact (our team) never let down. We have to take that into all of our other games.”
What that tells her is “we have a good shot against competing and doing well against anybody.”
She attributes that to the girls being “very coachable. I was making a list of all of the things they did in the game that we practiced. Literally everything from our practice plans the week before they touched upon in the game. Even Julianna Medina made an awesome save in cage on an aerial shot. The day before I was throwing balls up like I was in the outfield and they were just bringing balls down. And I even tossed (Medina) one randomly in our warmup and she knocked it down … so I think that connection about what we do in practice will happen in a game these girls truly understand that.”
Mainland is having a pink game – to support breast cancer research – at 4 p.m. today (Wednesday) at Atlantic City.