After overtime battle on grass, girls race to 11-1 win on artificial turf
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – The Ocean City High School girls field hockey team came out of the gates on fire Saturday morning against their Mainland Regional rivals.
Nya Gilchrist fired the first shot from right in front of the Mustang goal on a feed from Olivia Vanesko, putting Ocean City up 1-0 48 seconds into the game.
By the time the fourth quarter ended, it was 11-1. The Red Raiders never let up.
That comes after the first meeting between the teams this fall on the Mustangs’ grass field. Ocean City led 2-0, but with six minutes left, Mainland tied the game to send it to overtime. The Mustangs lost, but it was close.
On the fast artificial turf at Carey Stadium, the scoring quickly added up, led by Tara McNally.
“We’ve had more games than I would have liked that were slow-starters in the first quarter, so that was a focal point today: start out on fire,” Ocean City coach Kelsey Burke said. “We scored pretty early and were able to continue that momentum.”
“I think we came out with a lot of intensity,” Mainland coach Jill Hatz said. “Ocean City met us with the same exact thing, but we couldn’t hang with the speed and intensity with the way they were playing. Our girls never let up. I was proud of that, but it is different when you play on different fields and it’s hard to keep up with that when you don’t play on a turf field every day.”
With 8:44 left in the first quarter, McNally fed Alexis Smallwood, who banged home the second goal.
After that, it was the McNally show, as she scored the next four unanswered goals for the Red Raiders.
With 3:45 left in the quarter, McNally hit a reverse shot into the net on an assist by Camryn Flynn. She opened the second quarter with an unassisted goal to make it 4-0. McNally added another on a corner play for the 5-0 lead. Katie Bowman earned the assist on the corner play goal.
McNally opened the scoring in the second half on a penalty stroke, firing the ball into the left side of the net out of the reach of the goalie.
After that, it was time for McNally’s teammates to pad the lead.
Carly Hanin made it 7-0 on an assist by Racheli Levy-Smith, before Mainland was finally able to find the back of the net on a shot by Casey Murray to prevent the shutout.
Hanin, on an assist by Flynn, scored again to make it 8-1, followed by a Levy-Smith goal, assisted by Ella Brogan, which took the lead to 9-1.
Brogan and Levy-Smith scored again as the game wound down for the final 11-1 score to give Ocean City an 8-2 record (8-0 in conference) and push Mainland to 5-4.
“Today we wanted to focus on starting off quick and getting that first goal in,” Bowman, a senior co-captain, said, “because that keeps our mentality good and keeps us excited and hyped, so that’s what we did.”
Bowman said all the scoring came because the players are energized by each other.
“We’ve been a really close team this year, so once one (goal) happens we like to feed off each other because we are such a close team,” she said.
Bowman said the team is going to stay ready for playoffs because “you never know what’s going to happen. We’re super excited, but we’re taking it one step at a time.”
“Our coach challenged us to come out strong in the first quarter and we did,” McNally said. “We connected very well today.”
Asked about her multiple games with multiple goals, McNally, another senior co-captain, said she is motivated because “this is my last season before I go to college and I want to make sure I’m prepared and to do the best I can.”
In one game in which McNally didn’t score, she had four assists. She explained it’s about the common goal. “We really look to see the open space and if they call for it we pass it to them,” she said. “There’s no selfishness on the team.”
Like Bowman, she believes the team is “absolutely” ready for playoffs, but agreed it is is one game at a time.
“We wanted to do early and often,” Gilchrist said about the scoring flurry that quickly put Ocean City ahead in this rematch with Mainland. “That’s what our motto has been now. We kind of hesitate in the beginning of the game and it sets the tone if we score early and often, so that’s what we did.”
The senior co-captain said the Red Raiders “are a really tight group. We’re not selfish. We work together on and off the field. We’re all friends so I think that comes into it.”
Coach Burke cited Levy-Smith and McNally for their play and “Katie Bowman communicating relentlessly from the back.”
Coach Hatz said her goalie Alex Pugliese-Conroy did well in the game. “She (faced) a lot of shots and had a lot of saves.” She also noted Murray in the midfield, and Brooke Albuquerque on the left wing did a good job of moving the ball down the sidelines with Arianna Dinofa.
Pugliese-Conroy had 17 saves in the game and Ocean City goalie Nora Bridgeford had 6.
Ocean City is the top seed in the Southeast Region A sectional tournament and Hammonton (5-1-1) is the No. 2 seed. Both teams earned a bye in the first round.
Ocean City will play the winner of No. 8 Lower Cape May vs. No. 9 Atlantic City on Tuesday, Nov. 17.
Mainland, the No. 5 seed, and No. 4 Millville also earned first-round byes and will also meet Nov. 17.
Because they’re on the same side of the bracket, Ocean City and Mainland could face each other in the quarterfinals.