Teams split regular season games, but Ocean City beats Hammonton 4-2 for title
HAMMONTON – Befitting two field hockey teams that beat each other during the regular season and are 1-2 in their conference, it was no surprise this one would come down to the wire.
Although Ocean City’s Red Raiders were leading in the Cape-Atlantic League Championship game Friday afternoon, the Hammonton Blue Devils were pressing in the final quarter and came exceptionally close to evening the score.
But not close enough.
The Red Raiders came away as 2022 CAL champions on the turf at Hammonton High School, upsetting the top seed in the tournament.
With a 3-1 lead after a scoreless third quarter, Ocean City goalie Taryn Dolka and her deep defense turned away corner attempt after corner attempt as Hammonton turned up its attack. With five minutes to go, the pressure paid off. Blue Devil Abigail Goblirsch, assisted by Chloe Comunale, put one into the net, climbing to within a goal, 3-2.
The Red Raiders regrouped in those last five minutes and went on the attack themselves to keep Hammonton from having that chance to even the score.
With no time on the clock, Andi Helphenstine fired a shot from the top of the circle to make it a 4-2 final.
She was the fourth of four different players to score for Ocean City.
Brooke Hanley, on an assist from Julia Neff past Blue Devil goalie Angelina Catania, gave the Red Raiders a quick 1-0 lead barely two minutes into regulation.
Ocean City has a 7-1-1 American Conference record (12-3-2 overall) that put them right behind Hammonton in the standings (10-1-2, 13-2-2 overall). Hammonton was the only CAL team that beat the Red Raiders this season; Ocean City’s only other losses were to West Essex and Shore. They also had a 2-2 tie with Rancocas Valley. Hammonton had avenged an earlier 3-1 loss to Ocean City with a 1-0 win in their second matchup.
The Red Raiders kept that lead for less than two minutes. Blue Devil Maria Berenato scored unassisted at the 11:19 mark to even things up. It remained 1-1 through the rest of the first quarter.
Red Raider Tricia Nicoletti opened the second quarter with a bang, blasting a shot from near the top of the circle into the net just 21 seconds in. Five and a half minutes later, Mia Pancoast slammed a shot off the board with Nicoletti’s assist, giving the Red Raiders a 3-1 lead heading into the half. They held that lead through the third quarter and most of the fourth until Hammonton’s pressure found purchase.
Both teams were able to control action at different points in the game. Hammonton came away with 9 corners to Ocean City’s 8, and Dolka fended off 12 shots while Catania made 11 saves in the Blue Devil net.
Dolka said as time was running down she was trying to stay level-headed and as cool as possible.
“You understand your own skills, you understand the other team’s skills. It’s kind of like we’re both really good and it’s all a matter of playing as serious as you can and keeping your eye on the ball no matter what, no matter where it goes,” she said.
“I felt very confident with my defense in front of me. I knew with the amount of penalties they were drawing that probably something was bound to happen … so we were all mentally prepared,” Dolka said. “We were all talking to each other. It was an understood thing that if that was to happen we would lock it down, play cool and stay calm.”
Now headed into the playoffs, she added, “It feels great to get this boost. It’s another rocket under us to keep us going. It feels really good.”
On the offensive side, Hanley was thrilled with her opening score.
“Oh my gosh, it was amazing,” she said. Hanley saw her teammate’s shot that got past the goalie “and I tipped it in and we all just went crazy.”
She said that helped set the tone “because right away we had energy and we worked as a team and we were hungry to get another goal right after that.
“We knew it was going to be a tough one. They were good opponents,” Hanley said.
Nicoletti scored the second goal on a different type of angle for her.
“I never really shot anything like that before. I just was at the top of the circle and was like now is the time to take it so I shot it and luckily it went in at the top right corner. It was really exciting. It was a pretty exciting shot,” she said.
The Blue Devils, Nicoletti said, “were really great competitors so we had a really tough game against them. They kept putting goals on and we kept putting goals on. It was back and forth. We were in the lead the whole time but they scored and then it was adrenaline.”
“It’s pretty exciting that it’s finally our turn to win something,” she said, after watching other Ocean City sports teams have their championship moments in recent years. “Last year we were in the sectional game for Group III and it was pretty sad we had to lose that game. This is a great feeling that we got to come back and show how good we are as a team. It’s very exciting.”
Pancoast, a junior who padded the Red Raider lead to 3-1 not long after Nicoletti’s goal, didn’t begin the year on varsity.
“It feels amazing. I just started varsity halfway through the season. I want to make my coaches proud and my family,” she said. “I was right at the top of the stroke of the circle and I managed to turn around and hit it right past the right pad of the goalie. It was exciting.
“I feel very accomplished. I’m really excited to see what we can do. We’ve been working really hard this season. And they were a good opponent. It was tough. I’m excited to see what’s ahead,” Pancoast said.
Helphenstine, who anchors the defense in front of Dolka, iced the game from near the top of the circle.
“I never thought that one was going in. We had six seconds on the clock so why not try to get one off? It was pretty cool that we … didn’t escape with a 3-2 win. It proved we deserved it,” she said.
Watching Hammonton put on the pressure in the fourth quarter was “a bit nerve-racking because we know they have such good offensive cornering and they’re such a great team. Them having that many opportunities to score is never-racking because any one of them could be going in,” she said.
Being CAL champions, Helphenstine said, is “amazing. We’ve never had this opportunity before so it was great that we even got to play for it. It’s a good feeling.”
Ocean City coach Kelsey Burke said the championship game was “a good test for next week, state tournament time, prepping for battle.”
Hammonton, she said, is “a physical team, a tough team, so we came in ready.”
Facing the same opponent for the third time both helps and hurts, Burke said.
“I think it’s a little bit of both. We do know each other fairly well, but you have to get hyped up for these kinds of game so it’s good to work on the mentality, working on the mindset, moving into the state tournament coming up.”
She was pleased to have four different scorers, noting the Saturday before when her team beat Cedar Creek, seven different players scored the team’s eight goals. “We have been spreading the ball around. I’m thrilled about that. I think it makes us a tough scout. And it just goes to prove we’re a full team,” she said. “It takes 11 – I don’t know, we have 22 here – it takes all 22.”
Hammonton coach Kristen Silvesti knows Ocean City not just from coaching, but also from her playing days.
She knew the teams were pretty evenly matched after splitting games during the regular season.
“When I went through this program … if you can hang with Ocean City, you knew that you were doing something right. I think that’s how the girls feel too. They got to beat them once, which was quite the opportunity,” she said. “To watch them play the way they did today that was awesome. Even though the score doesn’t reflect it, this is the best game I’ve seen them play all season.”
It was tough not being able to convert on more corner plays, she said.
“It gets frustrating sometimes. You get the corners and you’re like, ‘We have to score on this one,’ and then something happens and the ball is coming right back out. But I mean, at least this game we had corner opportunities. Last time that we played them and won we only had two corner opportunities the whole game.”
When asked which players stood out for the Blue Devils, she first pointed to her goalie, who once was able to fend off an attack on a two-on-one breakaway. “At one point she had two offenders on her and there wasn’t a player on our team around because the goal had gotten called back. We had stopped playing and they went down and were playing on her.”
As soon as she finished talking about Catania, she started listing more and more of her players, including her forwards, who pressed the attack. “I could list them all. I think to watch them play like that heading into playoffs next week was good. They needed this kind of game.”
Hammonton is the No. 2 seed in the Group III South Jersey tournament. Ocean City (No. 4) is on the other side of the bracket where Shawnee is the No. 1 seed. The first round began Tuesday, after the Sentinel sports section went to press. Ocean City was hosting No. 13 Pinelands. If the Red Raiders win, they’ll host another home game, facing the winner of No. 5 Triton vs. No. 12 Burlington Township on Friday, Nov. 4. The semifinals are Nov. 7, where Ocean City could come up against Shawnee, if both keep winning. The finals are Thursday, Nov. 10, at the higher seed’s field.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
