By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
LINWOOD — The defending state champion Ocean City girls soccer team continued its winning ways Saturday, Oct. 10, against Mainland Regional — but it wasn’t easy.
The Red Raiders’ Summer Reimet scored early and late in the 3-2 win, flanking a goal by teammate Kasey McDonnell off a corner kick.
But the Mustangs put two in the back of the net themselves — one by captain Camryn Dirkes in the final minute of the first half and another by Serena D’Anna that brought them to within a goal with just under 4 minutes remaining — making for an interesting and well-contested game.
It was vastly different from the result the last time the teams met, a 6-0 win by Ocean City in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III final last November at Carey Stadium on their way to the state championship victory. It was Mainland’s first appearance in the sectional title game.
Reimet opened the scoring with a goal from a sharp angle at 33:24 of the first half, and it looked like the Red Raiders were off to the races.
But the Mustang defense played tough throughout the game, blanking Ocean City for the rest of the half.
At times in the first half, the Red Raiders had almost its whole team playing the high press in Mainland’s half of the field, which put extra pressure on first-year starting goalie Tori Vliet.
“I feel like I’m ready to handle that pressure,” Vliet said. “I’ve been training a lot lately and I think I’m ready for it.”
Senior left back Lila Schoen said there was a concerted effort to take Reimet and teammate Faith Slimmer — who each had 35 goals last season — out of the game.
“We talked all week — we knew from last year we had those two returning — about always knowing where they are on the field,” Schoen said, adding that it required marking, covering and a lot of communication.
Ocean City first-year coach Lisa Cuneo said her star forwards need to find a way to break down defenses.
“Faith and Summer have the skill, have the ability — they have to break them down,” Cuneo said.
Schoen said fellow senior defenders Tara Brown and Carly Strang played well but what was impressive was the performance of some of the less experienced girls, such as Ava Tenaglia, Anna Paytas and Emma Karver.
“From the beginning of preseason we all noticed [Tenaglia] right away. She’s built like one of us, it’s not like she is a little freshman. She really stepped up to the plate right away,” Schoen said. “We knew right away when he put her in that she had our backs.”
Mainland head coach Chris Meade said the team’s depth will help throughout the season.
“We started with our senior leadership because they’ve been there, and I think that was the right thing to do, but we knew Ava coming in was somebody that we were going to take a look at and once she got on the field, she was tough to take off because she just works so hard, she uses her body to her advantage. She’s grounded and knows how to possess the ball,” he said.
Schoen said she thinks the team will get better as the season progresses but has shown a lot of improvement already.
“We worked our asses off for the whole game, but compared to last year I think we held our ground pretty well,” Schoen said. “We showed that we’ve improved a lot.”
As the first half was coming to a close, Dirkes leveled the score after a pass from scrappy Sage Glover. That gave the girls a boost heading into halftime.
“Going into the second half tied is a lot easier to come back from than going in down by one goal,” Dirkes said, adding that it created momentum and got the team hyped. “We felt that we could make an impact in the second half.”
The teams played with a tie for almost three-quarters of the second half, until a corner kick from Ocean City midfielder Hope Slimmer fell right to the foot of McDonnell, who tapped it in for the lead.
“We graduated our two threats on those plays — Delaney Lappin and Carly Reighard: defensive corners they would clear it out, offensive corners they would finish,” Cuneo said. “We’ve been talking for weeks now that we need someone to step up and fill that space, and Kasey’s been doing well so far. She has filled that center spot and she was at the right place, right time for that finish.”
With the clock winding down, Reimet had a chance to ice the game but missed an open net.
“It definitely messes with your head but it just brings back the mentality to get the next one in,” Reimet said.
She was not to be denied a second chance when, with 4:33 left in the game and the Mustangs chasing the lead, she got free on a breakaway and scored despite getting her jersey pulled from behind.
“I have missed breakaway opportunities before so in my mind I was thinking ‘I can’t miss this,’ so it was a must-have,” Reimet said.
Serena D’Anna pulled one back for Mainland just 40 seconds later, giving the Mustangs some hope as the seconds ticked away.
Vliet said going in she felt it would be a close game despite the lopsided victories last season.
“I knew that they were going to be coming after us,” she said.
Vliet said the team really came together when it mattered.
“I feel like we did a lot better today getting the ball through up top and playing as a team. We’ve been really connecting lately, and I feel like that is helping us a lot,” she said.
After the game, Meade said the outcome came down to taking advantage of their chances.
“I thought it was an evenly matched game. Games like this it’s whoever capitalizes on their opportunities and they had one more chance that went in than us. It’s the team that makes the least mistakes as well. There were some mistakes by both teams and some good counters by both teams,” Meade said. “I don’t think either team would say they were thrilled with the possession that you want but that’s what happens when there is a lot of pressure and a physical game like that.”
He said the game plan was to get 10 girls behind the ball to contain Ocean City’s high-powered offense.
“One of the things we talked about is doing that, but as the game advanced we found out we could send more on the attack because we thought our substitution pattern was good enough to get fresh legs in, and I think our depth helped us in that regard,” he said. “So that was one of our goals was to make sure we get 10 behind the ball and contain. If you don’t contain them, they’re going to expose you. I thought we did a pretty good job of that.”
Mainland is now 1-1 and Ocean City is 2-0-1 after playing to a scoreless draw with Middle Township earlier in the week.
The Ocean City girls hosted Cape May Technical School Tuesday, after the Sentinel went to press, and host Lower Cape May Regional at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Tennessee Avenue field.