OCEAN CITY — Visiting Williamstown took a 1-0 lead 3 minutes into Saturday morning’s girls soccer game at the Tennessee Avenue field when Harper Carney’s shot bounced off the crossbar and got past Ocean City’s goalie.
Williamstown wouldn’t score again, but that lead held up for the next 65 minutes until Red Raider Emma Vince, on a feed from Aurora Brown, scored the equalizer with 11 and a half minutes to go.
Both goalies in the game, which went to scoreless double overtime before it was declared a 1-1 tie, did yeoman’s work in net. Ocean City keeper Madi Adams and Williamstown goalie Sophia Brando were each credited with 12 saves.
“Given the results this past week, it could have gone any way and to go down early, it was a real challenge to us,” Ocean City head coach Sean Matteo said. “I think they really showed their heart and their pride in the game today. That was amazing.”
He also credited Williamstown (3-4-2).
“That’s a great team. They’ve had a couple of really tough games this year. They played us tough. For us to come back in the second half to pull out the tie was amazing. I’m just so proud of them for how they’ve overcome this past week and got a result today.”
The Red Raiders (5-3-1) entered the week with a 5-1 record, but lost to unbeaten Egg Harbor Township (9-0) by a 6-1 score Tuesday and to Middle Township 2-1 on Thursday, their first back-to-back losses of the season. The girls shut out Middle Township (2-4-1) 4-0 to start the season.
The coach credited the play of Jaida Dooley on Saturday.
“She’s one of the best midfielders, I would argue, in all of South Jersey this year,” Matteo said. “She’s been just such a disruptor and playmaker for us.”
He also cited Emma Vince and Savannah Rhubart on the wings.
“They changed the game for us, especially late,” he said. “We have a lot of youth and we’re showing that we can compete. Even a midfielder in Maddi Dever, she hasn’t seen probably the minutes she wanted, stepped up big for us today and really helped us claw back into that.”
He also gave a shout out to his keeper.
“She hasn’t played a lot. She stepped in for us Thursday in the second half and came up big for us today and kept us in that game,” Matteo said.
On Wednesday, the Ocean City girls travel to rival Mainland Regional (4-2) for a rematch after beating the Mustangs 2-1 early in the season.
“The nice thing is we have another game in Millville (Monday) to kind of get back settled in and build off it today,” Matteo said. “I thought we did what we’ve wanted to do this season. We just didn’t finish a couple of opportunities. So hopefully against Millville we build that confidence again with some goals.
“They’re going to be tough,” he said of Mainland. “They played us tough last time and … that’s a big game. Both of us are shooting for the bye in the CAL (Cape-Atlantic League) tournament. (Coach) Fred (Napoli) has them playing at a really high level this year so we’ll see how that goes.”
Matteo noted the team has another big game at home at 11 a.m. Saturday against Eastern.
“We don’t have days off right now,” he said.
Wednesday’s game at Mainland is set for 4 p.m.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
