Team has to contend with different levels of competition
OCEAN CITY – The Red Raider girls lacrosse team season so far has featured lopsided wins over Cape-Atlantic League teams mixed with a pair of lopsided losses to out-of-conference opponents.
In between, they had the chance to play a team that looked like an even-up match and was ranked above them. And that one, on Wednesday against Clearview, turned into a solid, 13-5 win.
“It’s funny,” head coach Lesley Graham said after that game. “We literally said that before the game, that on paper, this is probably the most evenly-matched team we have played this season.”
What makes the difference when those matches come up, she explained, is that the Red Raiders girls pride themselves on their depth.
“When you have really talented kids and only have a few of those talented kids, it’s easier to scout them and come up with a game plan as to how to battle against that,” she said. “Whereas on our team we have really talented kids and we have a lot of them. I think that depth is what helps us be successful against evenly-matched teams.”
That depth showed with the way the girls spread the attack, were able to throw in two midfield lines, and how her players were able to support each other on defense.
Delainey Sutley led Ocean City’s spread-out scoring with 4 goals, Racheli Levy-Smith and Brynn Culmone had 3 each, Kelsea Cooke had 2 and Ally Leeds had 1. Madison Wenner added an assist and Red Raider goalie Presley Green made five saves.
“It’s a great win for us because we took a big loss against Moorestown and we’ve been coming back every single time and making a lot of progress as a team,” Levy-Smith said. “Everyone has been very positive, uplifting and encouraging. It’s great to have this win against them.
Clearview was really evenly matched with us, on paper especially, so to come out with a win is such a huge thing for us,” she said.
“Coming from an Absegami game to a Moorestown game is very, very different and the skill levels are very different so it’s hard to adjust from playing a Cape-Atlantic team to those outside, non-league games,” Levy-Smith said. The Red Raiders opened the season with an 18-0 shellacking of Absegami and then Moorestown, the perennial lacrosse champion, pummeled Ocean City 15-3.
“Taking that loss, we learned a lot from it and we’re still coming back from it,” Levy-Smith said. “They’re a powerhouse and they always come out with wins like that, but we’re coming for them if we play them again.”
“We really worked together today,” Andi Helphenstine said about the Red Raiders’ defense against Clearview. “We had been having some trouble clicking but today we kind of found it and came together. We had slides there and we were able to help each other out.”
She explained that “slides” involve having another player slide into position to back them up.
“It’s really special for us. It’s a big win. It’s also cool to play them,” she said of Clearview. “We haven’t played them in a couple of years. It’s a big game and it’s exciting.
“I think we’re coming on strong and our attackers are good shooters. They’re starting to work together really nicely,” she said. “We want to go all the way (to a South Jersey title). This is helpful for that.”
Graham noted how the team’s depth manifested itself in the midfield as well as the attack and defense.
“We had two midfield lines today and there was not a drop (in play). That’s fantastic to have six middies that you can interchange here and there – and even mix from a chemistry standpoint – is really what’s nice because they’re all practicing together, they’re all working hard, they’re all meshing with one another. They have that commonality that whoever is out there together we’re effectively going to join the offense or the defense. That depth is huge,” she said.
“I thought our defense as a whole played really well today. I thought our goalie Presley (Green) stepped up and made some really big saves. Andi (Helphenstine) always plays really composed, but she had three great caused turnovers today,” the coach said. “We had a game plan and it was face-guard and man-mark so we specifically tried to keep kids from the opposing team off of the stat sheet and our defense adjusted …. And again, our offense, they all spread the ball and at any time any one of them can score.”
Going back to the ups and downs of the league vs. non-league competition – the girls lost to Lenape on Saturday 22-10 – she said it’s difficult from a coaching perspective but even more so from a playing perspective.
“It’s got to be even harder because there is the mental game of it. How do you get pumped up for a game you’re supposed to win but also how do you get pumped up for a game you’re not supposed to win? The old adage of any team can win on any given day is true, but historically speaking it’s hard to fix those things and to understand how those things make a difference,” Graham said.
“Games like this where we’re evenly matched we challenge ourselves … so we can be prepared for the Moorestowns, the Shawnees, that next level when we hit playoffs. We understand that the conference is what it is. You can’t change it. You have to play those games. So we’re going to challenge ourselves when we have the opportunity to challenge ourselves.”
Graham is pleased with her team’s progress so far.
“From where we started to where we’re at now, we’ve made such great forward progress and we’re about halfway-ish through so if we continue at this, and at this point the systems are in and we’re just tweaking now. Tweaking little things, changing little things here and there, but all the bigger systems are in play.”
The Red Raiders are 7-2. In the Lenape game, Levy-Smith had 4 goals, Grace McAfee and Sutley had 2 each, and Vanesko and Gracie Pierce had 1 each. Green made 7 saves.
The girls were at Absegami Tuesday after the Sentinel sports section went to press and travel to Mainland at 4 p.m. Thursday for a rematch. Mainland started the season strong with a 4-1 record before taking four straight losses, but broke that streak with an 11-10 victory over Camden Catholic Saturday. In that game, Charlotte Walcoff and Eva Blanco had 4 goals each, Julianna Medina scored 2 (and had 3 assists) and Lani Ford scored 1.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff