OCEAN CITY – The Mustang and Red Raider boys soccer teams played even up in Friday’s match at Carey Stadium, but a goal with just over six minutes left broke the 1-1 tie and gave the game to Mainland in the teams’ annual rivalry.
While Ocean City coach Aaron Bogushefsky felt his team didn’t get up for the rivalry game, Mainland coach Alex Weidman was proud of his Mustangs’ resilience after a tough division loss the night before.
“This was the second of back-to-back games for us,” Weidman said. “We played Bridgeton last night. It’s tough to always go to a rival in a back-to-back game and our boys proved that they have some extra juice. I’m kind of at a loss for words because I’m very proud of them and what they were able to show.”
Weidman said the coaches challenged their players.
“They really took that to heart. They took the loss to heart last night,” he said. “It was a division game so it was a big one. I know the rivalry is big too, but sometimes division games versus rivalries, which one would you rather have? Either way, (we saw) the resolve and resilience. You don’t get to show resilience in easy times and the boys showed their resiliency today.”
“We have a tough schedule this year comparatively to last year,” Bogushefsky said, “and we’re into the grind, day in and day out. After today, you see a team like this. They came off a disappointing loss and were ready to go and we weren’t.
“I wasn’t happy with the result today. I know we can play better. It’s just a matter of all getting on the same page,” he said.
After a stalemate for most of the first half, Mustang Ryan Madamba got the ball in front of the goal and put a shot past Ocean City goalie Eddie Fuller at the 9:41 mark.
The 1-0 lead held up well into the second half when Red Raider Wade Hudak, off an assist from Kai Lindsay, tied the game at 1-1 with with 23:51 to go.
The two teams continued to trade possession and shots when, with less than seven minutes remaining, Aidan Clark scored for the Mustangs.
Both teams are coming off a bit of a disappointing season last year, each having bowed out in the opening round of the South Jersey Group III sectional tournament. The Red Raiders had a solid 12-4-1 record, including 10-1-1 in the Cape-Atlantic League, but as the No. 4 seed were knocked off by No. 13 Cumberland in a 1-0 contest.
The Mainland boys were 6-12-1 last year with a still relatively young team and lost to higher-ranked Clearview in the tournament.
After Friday’s game, the two teams sported records of 2-2.
Ocean City, in the American Division, opened the season with a 5-0 victory over Millville with four goals from Wade Hudak and one from Anthony Evans while forcing Thunderbolt goalie Matthew Sooy to make 10 saves. The Red Raiders got assists from Colin Bowman, Nick Bimbo, Tighe Olek and Dan Leiser.
Ocean City followed that with a 3-0 loss to St. Augustine Prep, but rebounded with a 4-3 win over Egg Harbor Township. Hudak had a hat trick in that game and Lindsay had the other goal. Bowman had two assists and Anthony Videtto had one.
Mainland, in the National Division, beat Middle Township 1-0 to open the season behind a goal from Clark on an asset by Karim Aksenov.
The Mustangs then lost to Cedar Creek 1-0. Goalie Tristan Miller kept his team in the game with his 10 saves, while Mainland forced the Pirates’ goalie, Daniel Perez, to make 11 saves.
After that the boys fell in that tough loss to Bridgeton, 2-1, in overtime. Clark had the goal in that game with John Batty providing the assist. Goalie Tristan Miller made 2 saves in the game.
Mainland and Ocean City both have a mix of experience on their rosters.
“We have a good amount of returners,” the Ocean City coach said. “We’re trying to pick up where we left off last year. We had kind of a disappointing end with a lot of guys trying to play tough.”
He said his team leaders include Lindsay, Hudak, Leiser, Anthony Videtto and Bowman.
Hudak and Lindsay are leading the Red Raider attack.
“They work really well in tandem,” Bogushefsky said. “They complement each other really well. I wouldn’t want to mention one without the other.”
Bogushefsky doesn’t want the season to end the same way it did last year.
“We’d like to go further in the state tournament and maybe get somewhere in the Cape-Atlantic League tournament, but we have to take it one by one now, just game by game. I know it sounds cliche, but we’re just trying to be better today than we were yesterday,” he said.
“Today didn’t go our way. We didn’t really play the way we wanted to. We tried to say before the game that it’s a rivalry game, all bets are off. It doesn’t matter what our records are. We have to play hard. We were kind of on the receiving end of it today. It was not the way we wanted it to go. Mainland played well today.”
The Mustang team has a mixture of veterans and younger players.
“We have a couple of returning starters who have been here for three years now and have experience and we have a couple of new guys who are trying to break into the starting lineup and show what they have,” Weidman said. “They’re young and they’re hungry, but they’re also experienced.”
Team leaders include John Batty. “He’s in the back. He’s stands out, obviously, because he’s like 6’4”,” Weidman said, laughing. “He’s an excellent senior leader defender. We have Ryan Madamba, he’s our midfield leader. He’s vocal, loud, winning the tough stuff. And we have Aidan Clark up top.
There are about four or five of them who are awesome and I’ll go to battle with them any day.”
Weidman said the last couple of years “have been a struggle and a lot of these guys have struggled through that, especially starting as sophomores so we’re just trying to learn to win and take one game at a time and try to keep going forward and play (well) in more important games like tonight.”
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
