Raider senior Ryan Cooke scores 100th career goal
LINWOOD – The Mainland Mustang girls lacrosse team took a couple of tough losses over spring break, including 10-3 against Ocean City and 11-5 against Paul IV, but has been holding its own with a young team that only sports three seniors.
The Ocean City Red Raiders, their opponent April 24, are 7-3 with all three losses coming to out-of-conference opponents, including Allentown, Strath Haven (Pa.) and Cherry Hill West.
The win over Mainland featured a highlight – senior Ryan Cooke scored her 100th career goal, a feat she immediately attributed to those around her.
“I couldn’t do it without my teammates. They helped me get open and I couldn’t do it without them,” Cooke said after the game. She acknowledged hitting the milestone was pretty exciting, but that statistics are not what drives her.
“It’s more important to win the game and I think as a team we do a great job of doing that,” Cooke said, “so I don’t care how much I score. I just care if we win as a team.”
What she is “super excited” about is heading to Duquesne University after graduation. There she will be reunited with her sister on the women’s lacrosse team.
Ocean City head coach Lesley Graham confirmed stats aren’t that important to Cooke.
“It’s nice for kids to get accomplishments and milestones,” Graham said. “We preach this mentality of team first. It’s sort of cliche, but we always say, in order to get to 100 goals, 100 draws, whatever that accomplishment is, you can’t get there without your teammates.
“I think Ryan is one of those kids that recognizes that; she works hard for her accomplishments. She puts in the time and she’s a phenomenal player so for her to reach this milestone in her senior year, it is just a testament to how hard she works and how much of a team player she is.”
The Raiders’ game against Mainland was fairly close through the first half with Ocean City up 4-2, then they shut out the Mustangs 4-0 in the third quarter and topped them 2-1 in the fourth for the 10-3 final.
Cooke had three goals, Marley Ostrander had four, Katie Pierce two and Marley Dwyer one.
Cooke leads the team in scoring with 27 goals. Juniors Pierce (20) and Allie Hudson (13) and sophomores Dwyer (21), Ostrander (18) and Laurel Manning (14) are among the top scorers.
For the Mustangs, Ava Sheeran, Sydney Stites and Abigail Elliot scored against the Red Raiders.
The Mustangs
Sheeran is one of the three senior leaders on the team with Avery Notaro and Caroline Sher.
Sheeran leads the team in scoring with 31 goals. Sophomores Lauren LaMonaco and Sophia Blanco are next with 22 and 14, respectively, with Notaro adding 11. Jade O’Neil, another sophomore, has 11 assists to go with her five goals, LaMonaco has 10 assists and Sheeran has eight.
“I have to commend our senior class, Ava Sheeran and Caroline Sher and Avery Notaro,” Mustang head coach Kelly Klever said. “They have really set the tone for the rest of the team. We are a younger team so that is super appreciated by us coaches. That just lets us do the things on the field that we want to do because of their leadership.”
Sher doesn’t have the stats like her fellow seniors because she anchors the defensive end of the field.
“A lot of times in the game of lacrosse defense doesn’t really get the praise or the recognition that they should. And I think that Sher plays a massive role, not only in her defense, but in our transition and into the attack, just because her energy leaks everywhere,” Klever said.
Blanco and LaMonaco are young but returning starters.
“We ask a lot of (Blanco) and she really rises to the occasion every time and she makes the adjustments that we ask her to make,” the coach said. “She always has the entire team in her mind.”
LaMonaco, Klever said, “loves lacrosse and she works really hard and she does the things that we ask her to. She also knows that she never wants to be complacent because complacency won’t really get her to her goals. So that’s also nice to have on the field.”
Klever wasn’t thrilled with her team’s performance against Ocean City, a program she said is great and well-coached.
“They play a clean, solid game so it’s not a great day to not have a good day,” she said. “We just had too long of a lull and you can’t do that against a good team like Ocean City because they’ll just capitalize off of it. Our energy went down a little bit.”
She noted her team didn’t have an opportunity to let down, knowing they were going to face Paul VI two days later and then had Holy Spirit as an opponent on Monday.
“We don’t really have time to dwell on the mishaps, but we will make the adjustments and come back stronger every single game, especially with a young team,” Klever said. “I feel like that’s kind of how you not only build momentum throughout the season, but also build your program with solid contributors who are mostly sophomores out there this year.”
In addition to the three seniors, the Mustangs’ varsity roster includes a trio of juniors, six sophomores and three freshmen.
Mainland is at Our Lady of Mercy Academy at 4 p.m. Wednesday, then host Egg Harbor Township at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Ocean City was at Egg Harbor Township Tuesday and hosts Cape Henlopen (Del.) at 2 p.m. Thursday.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
