By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – This may be the “post-Faith” era, but Ocean City girls soccer coach Lisa Cuneo still wants the state finals circled on her calendar.
“I don’t have the state championship date memorized yet, but I should,” she said. “That’s where I want to be. There are a few pieces of the puzzle to be put together, but that’s the end goal. Absolutely.”
Two years ago, the Red Raider girls won their first-ever state championship behind then-junior Faith Slimmer and then-sophomore Summer Reimet, the highest-scoring team tandem in the state that year. Last year’s COVID-19-shortened season didn’t include state playoffs, but the girls still made the most of it and won the South East B final, the furthest they could go. Slimmer scored her 100th career goal in that, her senior season finale.
Faith is gone, but Cuneo still has four girls left from that state championship team including Reimet, Hope Slimmer (faith’s younger sister), Kasey McDonnell and Riley Fortna.
“They are definitely the core group that holds it all together and has the experience of that moment that is always in their mind. I don’t even want to say in the back of their mind,” Cuneo said. “It sits in the front of their minds and they come out here every game knowing they’ve been there and they want to get back there.”
A winning attitude also is infectious among the younger players in part because of their 11-0-1 season in 2020.
“The rest of them, I feel there is such a precedent between last year’s shortened COVID season – and not the strongest schedule in the world – but they only know winning, which is a great thing to have until that one moment, but they only know winning and they come out and they play that way,” Cuneo said.
“They only know one thing and that is to win games.”
The coach said Ocean City’s winning tradition is just as much a part of the attitude among her players.
“Even for the young ones coming in, the history of what we’ve built here is win games. And don’t take anything else. The bar is set really high and they know it,” she said. “And it is to just come out here and execute because the bar is set so high. We have no other option. That’s what we’re looking for.”
Although reformulating is often the order of the day after a loss of players to graduation, Cuneo wants her team leaders to lead from the positions where they have experience.
Reimet, the prolific scorer, is back up top. “She has a home up there. She is one of the top scorers in New Jersey so she is staying there,” the coach said. “Hope is back in the middle, Kasey is back in her center back spot and Riley is the sweeper. She holds it down back there.”
“It helps us because they have the years of experience of doing it in those same spots, so no shuffling for those four,” she said.
Cuneo noted her “tendency” to bring up a few freshmen every year. Last year they brought up four and all four are now in the starting lineup as sophomores – Joy Slimmer (Hope’s younger sister), Ashley Rhodes, Mckenna Chisholm (younger sister of state championship player Camryn Chisholm, lost to graduation), and Zoey Lappin (sister of Delaney Lappin).
Lappin is starting at center mid, Chisholm is the starting outside midfielder, Joy Slimmer is another outside midfielder and Rhodes is an outside back.
That puts four sophomores in the starting lineup. Add two freshmen to that: Brooke Liebrand (sister of another former player) and Naomi Nnewehi. To keep the family lineage going, freshman Corinne McDonnell (Kasey’s younger sister) will also get “plenty” of playing time.
“We got some youngins, but it’s a good mix. That’s what I’m looking for,” Cuneo said.
Some things will change, but other things will stay the same with the game plan, according to the coach. “It’s definitely a different team dynamic. Not only not having just Faith Slimmer graduating, but four starters who put goals on the scoreboard; that changes the dynamic,” she said. “Summer is now a target, but we are still looking for the whole team approach so I feel like that is a change with the post-Faith era, as we’re saying. It’s more of a team approach, the buildup is still there. We still have a target, but it doesn’t have to be for the one or two threats that we have. It can come from anywhere.”
Faith Slimmer not only set a scoring record, but she also set an assist record as teams would key on her and Reimet. Although they would be able to (sometimes) keep them from taking shots on the goal, they would simply set up their teammates and the scoring would continue.
Cuneo said she always does her homework on the competition and expects the Cape-Atlantic League to be strong. Mainland Regional, as always, “is going to be good competition” with their returning starters. “Their senior group and our senior group have always been battling since they were freshmen.”
The coach has also set up some intense out-of-conference games. The girls will face Williamstown (“always a good battle”) and Rancocas Valley soon. “It’s another good battle and I feel it is now a rivalry we have in the past because of the Coaches Tournament and our one loss two years ago. We’re looking forward to it.” There are limits to the non-conference games because with the Coaches Tournament and CAL tournament, time is limited.
“You stop pretty early in the season with regular season games,” she said. “Things look good. I like where we’re sitting right now. I like how our scrimmages have been going, and we just take it one game at a time and just try to win.”
The girls were to open the season Tuesday, after the Sentinel went to press, hosting Oakcrest. They are at Our Lady of Mercy Academy (OLMA) at 4 p.m. Thursday.