LINWOOD – The Ocean City Red Raiders took down the Mainland Mustangs with a relentless offense Friday afternoon.
Jon Moyer and Pat Grimley scored three goals each for the Raiders as Ocean City High School beat Mainland Regional High School 10-2 May 3. With the win, Ocean City swept the season series versus Mainland 2-0.
Ocean City controlled the entire first half with its offense. The Raiders had more than double the number of shots on goal in the half as they dominated the time of possession.
“It started with the face-offs with our poles doing a great job dominating getting the ground balls,” Grimley said. “We controlled the possessions with selected shots and shot backup was key to keep the long possession going.”
Grimley scored the goal of the game in the third quarter. The senior ran across the field and shot the ball behind his back. His shot bounced in front of the goalie and hit the top of the net for the score.
Mainland’s defense held out for as long as it could versus the barrage of shots. Defensemen Drew Kwapinski forced a couple of Raider turnovers and blocked a shot to help goalie Carter Mostecki.
On offense the Mustangs did not score until late in the third quarter due to costly turnovers. They were limited to only four shots on goal in the first half.
“You can only play defense for so long,” Mainland head coach Clayton Smith said. “We had a hard time handling the ball. We had way too many turnovers and they capitalized on our turnovers. They are just a good, solid lacrosse program. You cannot beat great teams when you have the errors and turn the ball over.”
Mostecki was under siege from the start of the game. Moyer side-armed a ball past him early in the game for a 1-0 lead, but Mostecki blocked four shots and weathered the storm for as long as possible.
Nolan O’Kane broke through the Mustang defense and scored with two minutes left in the quarter, which started an offensive explosion for the Raiders. Ocean City won the ensuing face-off and patiently waited for an opportunity to score. Grimley found a soft spot in the defense and ripped a shot past Mostecki with 36.1 seconds left.
Grimley put the Raiders up 3-0 but they weren’t ready to end the quarter. Ryan Hendricks won the face-off and Ocean City quickly scored another goal to increase the lead to 4-0 in only 18 seconds.
Mainland opened the second quarter with a good offensive possession that was turned away by Moyer. He picked up a ground ball and it eventually led to Charlie Schutta scoring his first goal of the game.
Moyer later picked up his second goal of the game after defensemen Joey Berardis got the ball back to the offense.
Grimley’s behind-the-back goal was the only score of the third quarter for the Raiders as Mainland got into a rhythm on offense.
The Mustangs took control of the ball for the remainder of the quarter and pelted shots at the goal. Mainland’s leading goal scorer this season, Harrison LaMonica, got the Mustangs on the board.
Thirty seconds later Luke Hall scored another goal for the Mustangs as they built some momentum.
Now only up 7-2, Ocean City goalie Henry Vaules made a great save in the final seconds of the quarter to stop the bleeding and slow down the momentum.
Ocean City got back on track to close out the game. The Raiders started to control the time of possession once again and burned through the clock.
O’Kane picked up his second goal of the game after a couple of penalties on both teams forced a man down on each side for two minutes. Eventually Moyer and Grimley finished off their hat tricks with a goal each in the final moments.
Ocean City improved to 8-6 on the season with a perfect 7-0 record in the Cape-Atlantic League. The Raiders only have a couple more games before the start of the Cape-Atlantic League tournament.
First, they will travel to Egg Harbor Township High School to take on the Eagles May 9. Two days later, on May 11, Ocean City will head north and face off against undefeated Manasquan High School.
Mainland was on a five-game winning streak before back-to-back losses last week to Holy Spirit and Ocean City. The 7-4 Mustangs have a big week ahead of them that starts with 10-2 St. Joseph High School coming to Linwood. Mainland will host the top team in the Cape-Atlantic League on May 9 at 4 p.m.
Mainland’s last scheduled home game before a potential Cape-Atlantic League tournament game is against Cedar Creek High School at 4 p.m. May 10.
Each game is crucial for both teams to make the tournament as the top two seeds from each division move on. Ocean City currently sits in first place in the American Division while Mainland is in third place behind 8-3 Holy Spirit.
– STORY by WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel
– PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
