Red Raider girls regrouped, settled down for 11-9 win in lacrosse quarterfinals
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – After blowing out Jackson Memorial High School 22-3 in the opening round of the South Jersey Group III girls lacrosse sectional tournament, Ocean City’s Red Raiders had to muster up a huge second-half comeback to beat Cherry Hill West in the quarterfinals Friday afternoon.
The final outcome was 11-9 in favor of the No. 4 seed Red Raiders, but at halftime, Ocean City was down 6-2 and looking for answers.
“When we get down a few goals, the offense feels like it’s their responsibility to get back into this game and then they play frantic and they play a little chaotic, and that’s what was happening,” Ocean City coach Lesley Graham said. She noted that has been the pattern throughout the season and chalks that up to the team’s youth and style of play.
In the first half, when the team was down and trying to get out of the hole “it was kind of working in reverse because they were forcing passes or not protecting their sticks and Cherry Hill West was doing a really great job of limiting our opportunities and taking full advantage of their opportunities. West has a fantastic draw-control kid … so we knew every possession was going to have to count.”
Graham made a goalie change later in the first half and a few key saves helped change the momentum. Then at halftime, she gave the girls a pep talk, saying she had “100 percent faith in their abilities to play lacrosse.” The told them they had all the requisite skills, “but just had to believe in themselves and in their teammates and get back to the style of lacrosse that we play.”
Going into the second half, the coach wanted the Red Raiders to dictate how the game was played because it would be the last home game of the season. She told her players to show that home field pride against No. 5 Cherry Hill West and “we just started chipping away” at the lead.
The Red Raiders outscored CHW 9-3 in the second half, overcoming the 4-goal deficit and limiting their opponent’s scoring.
Ocean City’s scoring attack was spread around six different players led by Summer Reimet with 3 goals, 2 each from Alexis Smallwood, Delaney Sutley and Grace McAfee and 1 each by Gracie Pierce and Racheli Levy-Smith. Olivia Vanesco and Levy-Smith each had an assist.
“Our defense played phenomenally the entire game,” Graham said. “With the goalie change, Presley (Green), who’s a freshman, came in and made some big saves and it kind of sparked the momentum in our favor and the offense was feeding off of that then.”
She said there also was a little more “fire” in the offense in the second half and one goal kept leading to another. “You could feel it building,” she said. “What’s great about our team, what’s been great all season long, is that I don’t have a standout stud player. There are a ton of teams in South Jersey with these incredible athletes on them. Cherry Hill West has two girls, Jenna Casole (who scored 5 goals in the game) is one of them and Sophia Graffeo is the other. They have 80 goals apiece this season.”
Graham said Ocean City’s leading goal scorer, Levy-Smith, has 36 goals, “but then I have seven kids who have 25 points apiece. That makes it tough for opponents to decide who to face guard.” That wasn’t the case for Ocean City; they made it a point to face guard Graffeo and sophomore Madison Wenner and freshman Breani Fabi held her scoreless. Graffeo “didn’t get a single point and coming in with 80 goals and 20 assists, that was a huge accomplishment for” Wenner and Fabi.
They knew if they could stop at least one of CHW’s top scorers, someone else would be forced to step up to replace the goals, but the Red Raiders have such a diverse scoring attack that opposing teams can’t guard them all. “I can give the ball to anybody and I’m confident in them and they’re confident in themselves and each other that someone is going to put the ball in the back of the net,” she said.
Top seed is next
Up next is top seed Moorestown Tuesday (after the Sentinel sports section went to press). The team hopes to use the win against CHW as a confidence booster going into that game, but they’re also motivated by the belief they haven’t gotten the respect as a program this season.
“We’ve played this season with a bit of a chip on our shoulders,” Graham said. “There have been some media outlets that haven’t given our players and our team much respect or credit because we don’t have those big stat numbers. We don’t have the 80-goal scorer or the 100-plus draw control kid.” The coach believes those players across the state deserve the accolades, but she uses the way her team is not recognized. When a media outlet predicted CHW would win the quarterfinal despite being the lower side and challenging Ocean City on its home field, she printed out a notecard for the players what was written.
And then she added, “Prove people wrong. And that’s exactly what we did and we’re going to take that momentum into Moorestown because no one expects us to win that game.”
Ocean City lost to Moorestown 13-7 in a non-conference game early in the season, but was down by only a single goal, 8-7, with nine minutes left in the game.
Ocean City has six seniors on the team: Smallwood, Stack, Morgan Decosta, Tara McNally, Tess Grimley and Katie Bowman. Although they will lose them to graduation, the Red Raiders will return 18 players with varsity experience next year. This season, Ocean City only had two players with varsity experience to start the season but going into Tuesday’s semifinal the team had a 12-3 record and was 9-0 in the Cape-Atlantic League, earning the American Conference title. Besides Moorestown, the team’s only losses were to West Deptford (8-6) and Rancocas Valley (14-9).
Graham said she has been proud of how far the team has come along this season, especially with a new coach and a season lost to the pandemic in 2020. The players had to learn new sets, a new way to practice, even a new way to travel on buses.
After Friday’s win, she told her girls how they impressed her.
“In my 12-plus-year coaching career (the CHW game) was one of my most favorites to coach, not because we won, but because they never gave up. They fought back and showcased their grit and their determination and those are the kind of wins from a coaching standpoint that I love because that’s not something I can coach. That’s something that they bring to the table.”
Ocean City 22
Jackson Memorial 3
Against No. 13 seed Jackson Memorial, Ocean City was able to score at will, taking a 14-2 lead into the break and finishing with an 8-1 advantage in the second half. Reimet netted 6 goals and had one assist to lead her teammates and Levy-Smith added 3 goals and 3 assists. Smallwood had 3 goals and an assist, Ally Leeds had 3 two goals and 3 assists, Chelsea Stack put in 2 goals and had 2 assists and Fabi had 2 goals. Vanesco scored once and had 3 assists, and Kelsea Cooke, Grace McAfee and Delaney Sutley had 1 goal each.
Mainland girls lax finishes season
The Mainland Mustang girls lacrosse team finished the season with a 13-5 record (12-2 in the Cape-Atlantic League). The girls lost once to division co-leader Middle Township 13-12 at the start of the season, then avenged the loss with an 18-8 win a few weeks later. The only other CAL loss was 11-10 versus Ocean City.
The Mustangs beat Brick Township in the opening round of the South Jersey Group III sectional, 20-2, but lost 16-5 to No. 2 seed Shawnee in the quarterfinals.
Against Brick, Charlotte Walcoff had 10 points on 7 goals and 3 assists. Casey Murray added 7 goals and Lani Ford, Juliana Medina and Eva Blanco had 2 goals each. Alison Sher had 1 goal, Blanco had 2 assists and Bella Tenaglia had 1 assist.
Against Shawnee, Murray had 3 of the team’s 5 goals and Medina and Walcoff had 1 each. Goalie Kylie Kurtz made 12 saves.