OCEAN CITY — Mother nature was unrelenting Thursday as she brought heavy rain and wind to the Tennessee Avenue Sports Complex.
The St. Augustine Hermits kept their unbeaten season alive as they edged out the Ocean City Red Raiders 1-0 in boys soccer. It was their second matchup this season, with Ocean City losing earlier in the year 3-0.
The Raiders still have a respectable record on the season, dropping to 6-3 and having two of those losses against the 9-0 Hermits.
“We played them a lot better than the first time, and you know that’s a good team. But we will get better,” Ocean City head coach Aaron Bogushefsky said.
The weather only got worse throughout the game as strong winds carried the ball and the heavy rain forced some players to lose their footing.
Ocean City started the first half with the wind to their backs, giving them an advantage by kicking the ball farther. Both teams came out with a lot of energy, yelling and calling out to teammates as they moved along the field.
Both offenses had decent scoring opportunities early with corner kicks, but the goalies stood their ground.
For the rest of the opening half, Ocean City was forced onto the defensive. Midway through, a Hermit player took an open shot on goal but it barely hit the left goal post. He kicked against the wind and might have scored if not for the weather.
Sophomore goalie Eddie Fuller stopped everything else that came at him for the rest of the first half, including two corner shots for the Hermits.
The final offensive possession for the Raiders in the first half had them gain a free kick off a Hermit penalty. Leading goal scorer for Wade Hudak had a good kick but the goalie made a great save and the half ended 0-0. The senior has scored 12 goals this year and has had one in each of the past three games.
As the second half began, the rain and wind grew in strength again as the Hermits got to switch sides and play with it to their backs.
They almost immediately capitalized on the side switch with Alex Clark taking a long shot toward the goal. Luckily for the Raiders, the ball hit the crossbar and went out of bounds, which kept the game at 0-0.
Almost two minutes later, St. Augustine thought it scored the first goal of the game off a deflected shot but it was disallowed after a penalty was called on St. Augustine for an illegal tackle.
At the moment, both sidelines were questioning what the penalty was for but the call stood and the game stayed at 0-0.
With only 15 minutes left, the high energy each team had at the start was completely drained. The only people who were yelling out play calls were the coaches and players on the sidelines.
The weather was relentless and so was the Hermit offense, which tested Fuller until the very end. John Paul Mazza ended the stalemate with 8 minutes left in the game when he kicked the ball past Fuller after a corner kick centered the ball for the Hermits.
St. Augustine proceeded to run around with the ball to drain the remaining time and defeat the Raiders.
“It was a hard-fought game, we battled until the last minute,” Bogushefsky said after the game. “They had their opportunities and we had ours.”
Ocean City was scheduled to play its next game Oct. 2 on the road versus Egg Harbor Township. After that game they play on the road versus Atlantic Tech on Oct. 6. Both games start at 4 p.m.
By WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel
