Red Raiders hold off Holy Spirit – again – in ‘a really hard-fought win’
OCEAN CITY — Another year, another championship-winning victory over Holy Spirit fueled by five goals from the girls lacrosse team’s leading scorer.
The Ocean City High School Red Raiders defeated the Spartans 15-6 on May 19 in the Cape-Atlantic League title game on the strength of a handful of goals from junior Delainey Sutley, who netted the same number in the inaugural CAL championship game last season.
Head coach Lesley Graham called it a “really hard-fought win.”
“This is the third time that we’ve seen Spirit this year and the more you play a team, the harder it is to beat them,” she said. “Credit to Spirit, they brought their A game and challenged us from the first whistle to the last whistle. I’m really proud of the heart and dedication that our team showed today.”
Sutley now has 58 goals on the season to go along with her eight assists. “She is just a remarkable player,” Graham said, noting she is headed to Rutgers in two years. “Her ability to do what she does is in large part to all the things she does when no one is looking — her work ethic, the tireless conditioning and stick skills. She works hard with all of these things that people don’t see. They just see her on game day and think she is incredible. She’s incredible because of her work ethic and unselfish nature.”
Senior Madison Wenner added four for the Red Raiders.
“Once I see the wide-open lane and goal, I don’t think I just shoot,” Wenner said, noting she received some good passes. “It’s not just me, it’s everybody else on the field working together.”
OCHS has now beaten Holy Spirit at least the past six times by a combined score of 100-35, including a 19-11 victory April 24 and a 17-11 win May 11.
The Red Raiders controlled possession throughout the game, but it was the Spartans who got on the board first. Junior Kendall Murphy scored off a restart to put Holy Spirit up 1-0 at 21:42. It was their only lead of the game.
Junior Gracie Pierce tied it up at 21:05 and sophomore Brynn Culmone gave Ocean City the lead for good on a penalty shot shortly thereafter.
At 16:41, junior Breanna Fabi fed Wenner, the team’s second-leading scorer (46), in front of the net for a goal to make it 3-1.
Freshman Katie Pierce added a tally at 14:51 to make it 4-1 before Sutley scored her first of the game, scooping the ball up after a rebound off the post and putting it past Spartans goalie Marissa Gras to put the Raiders up 5-1.
Fabi made it 6-1 before Holy Spirit cut into the lead on a penalty shot by junior Hanna Watson to make it 6-2 at 10:14.
Sophomore Ryan Cooke restored the five-goal lead with 5:29 remaining in the half.
Holy Spirit got one back with 1:09 remaining in the half when Maddie Abbot blocked the pass of freshman goalie Aliza Otton, scooped it up and scored. The Spartan senior had a team-high three goals in the game.
But with just 6 seconds remaining, Wenner scored her second to put the Raiders up 8-3 at the half.
Holy Spirit had some chances but never maintained possession long enough to make it count, failing to get shots off or score when they did.
With Sutley controlling the faceoffs, Ocean City started the second half strong on a quick goal from its top player. Less than a minute later, she took the faceoff straight down the field and scored to make it 10-3 at 23:23.
The Spartans showed why they were there by netting another from Abbott at 20:52 to make it 10-4, but after a long possession, Ocean City’s Gracie Pierce scored her second on a penalty shot at 16:35.
About a minute later, Wenner scored again to stretch the lead to 12-4. Sutley added another at 14:42 and Wenner her third at 4:15 to take a 10-goal lead at 14-4.
Holy Spirit’s Abbott scored her hat trick with 2:16 remaining and freshman Taylor Lyons capped the scoring for the Spartans at 1:07 to make it 14-6.
However, the Raiders were not satisfied and Sutley put another one past Gras with just 3 seconds remaining.
Graham said the team has had a balanced attack all season. In addition to Sutley and Wenner, Gracie Pierce now has 33 and Cooke, Culmone and Fabi each has more than 20.
“We like to work as a team. We pass the ball to see what the open opportunities are, and if you have an open opportunity to take it,” Sutley said.
“We preach it in the sense that no one on the team is more important than anyone else and we really try to keep that mentality of team first,” Graham said. “What’s really nice about it is they do that unselfish play themselves. They’re very good at doing that on their own because they really value each other as a team and as a family, and I think that’s really cool to see.”
“Collectively as a team we played as one unit and when we all play together we show that we can beat teams,” Wenner said.
The Spartans, who beat Mainland Regional High School 9-3 in the semifinal round, lost only three games all season, all to the Raiders.
Ocean City improved to 14-4 overall as the girls prepare for the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III playoffs.
“I think now we know what to expect. When we played them before we weren’t really prepared. Now we are prepared and ready to go at them because we want to win a state championship,” Wenner said.
Ocean City No. 4 seed,
Mainland is No. 6
The Red Raiders are the No. 4 seed in the south Jersey sectional and host No. 13 Steinert at 2 p.m. Thursday. Mainland is the No. 6 see dand host No. 11 Lacey at 3 p.m Thurday. The quarterfinals are May 30, semifinals June 2 and finals June 5.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
