HAMMONTON — Ocean City High School’s field hockey players lost to St. Joseph Academy on Oct. 22 in the Cape-Atlantic League tournament championship game, but they held their own.
That’s how it has been all season.
They lost to the best team in the CAL, but never by much.
On Sept. 14, the teams were scoreless through the first half, Ocean City scored first in the third quarter and St. Joe’s won 2-1 with goals in the fourth. On Oct. 2, St. Joe’s won again by one goal, 4-3.
In the CAL final, the Red Raiders got a leg up on the Wildcats at St. Joe’s home field, when senior captains Stevie Wright and Casey Adamson teamed up on a corner insertion from junior Lyla Clark.
Adamson received the ball and sent it across the circle to Wright, who fired in the first score of the game.
“Lyla put it in and then Casey sent it over to Stevie,” Ocean City head coach Carole Williams said. “And then Stevie buried it right in the corner. It was beautiful.”
Wildcats Jaylani Cooper and Shayla Malone scored later in the game to make it 2-1. Even though the Red Raider girls had a string of corner opportunities late in the game, they couldn’t convert. Ocean City goalie Devin Dolka rebuffed 13 shots on goal to keep it close and the Red Raiders forced a pair of St. Joe’s keepers to combine for 11 saves.
“They’re a great team and they’re having a great season and we’ve held our own with them,” Williams said. “Each time we played them, we came up slightly short. Each time we were one goal shy. We gave them a really good game. We were in that conversation.
“It’s nice to match up against a great team like St. Joe’s and to show that we can hang in that game,” she added.
St. Joseph Academy is 14-1 this season, the only loss coming to West Deptford, an out of conference opponent. Ocean City is 11-5-3.
Williams said her team is solid, ready for sectionals and, knock wood, all the players are healthy.
“We’ve really grown as a team. They’re playing well together. They’re finding their passes,” she said.
The team tied Moorestown 0-0 Saturday and Williams was impressed by the communication between her players that reduced what she had to coach during the game.
“I’m speaking less from the sideline because the communications on the field are the things that I would be saying out loud. The girls are starting to say it to each other. They’re really taking leadership on the field, which is really, really nice to hear,” she explained. “It’s one of the things we’ve been working on. I want them to do things from the field instead of me doing them from the sideline.”
Right now the Red Raiders are ninth in Power Points, meaning they will probably be on the road for the Group II South Jersey sectionals. Seedings were scheduled to come out Tuesday, after the Sentinel went to press. First-round games are Nov. 3 at the higher seed.
“It looked like we were going to be seventh and get a home game, but now it looks like we’re ninth and we’ll be on the road,” Williams said. “I think just like we were in the conversation with St. Joe, I think we’re going to be right there, looking at the competition ahead of us. We have a solid team that’s going to give everybody a battle.”
Williams isn’t fond of singling out individual players for praise because she and they know success comes from the supporting cast as well. She has an attack that features multiple players almost equally.
Adamson and Clark have 14 goals each, Wright has 13 and junior Marley Dwyer has 12. Clark leads with 21 assists and Adamson has 15. The team also has gotten 8 goals from freshman Madelyn Brown, 6 from junior Everlee Peak, 5 from senior Amanda Kunze, 3 from junior Caroline Bickings and one each from six other players.
Dolka, a senior, has recorded 123 saves so far this season.
“I truly believe it’s a team game and when some of the girls are doing really nice things, that comes with the support of the players around them,” Williams said. “It’s very hard to say this one’s standing out because I feel like everybody’s doing their job and they’re doing it well.”
The Red Raiders host Lower Cape May Regional’s Caper Tigers at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, at Carey Stadium in the team’s annual Pink Game. LCMR leads the National Conference with an 11-3-1 record.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
