Top seed Moorestown knocks out Mainland Mustangs
OCEAN CITY – The 2026 girls lacrosse season ended for the Ocean City Red Raiders after a second-half surge was not enough to overcome Shawnee High School in the playoffs.
Shawnee sent the Raiders home with a 12-7 win in the South Jersey Group III semifinals June 4, but the Raiders made sure not to go down without one final push as a team.
Shawnee controlled the entire first half with a hat trick by Madison Scuderi and a great defensive performance that turned away all but one shot by the Raiders, a blast from right in front by Katie Pierce.
Down 6-1 at halftime and the season on the line, Ocean City head coach Lesley Graham proposed a question to the team.
“We asked the girls at halftime if they were having fun because it did not look like it,” Graham said. “We did not play like ourselves in the first half. It was not our style and once we got back to our ways and had some fun, we played a lot better.”
The fun started immediately after the break. All of the shots that were blocked in the first half suddenly could not miss.
Pierce was Ocean City’s lone scorer until 30 seconds into the third quarter, in which freshman Peyton Slattery found both the back of the net and the momentum.
Including Slattery’s goal, the Raiders went on a 5-1 run in the third quarter alone and turned a five-goal deficit into a 7-7 tie heading into the final frame.
Ocean City was much quicker moving the ball around the Shawnee defense which was just enough for the stars of the team to push forward.
Marley Ostrander scored a career-high 63 goals this season and was strong on the draws along with two goals in the game. The reliable wins in the draw circle built a steady rhythm the rest of the offense rode throughout the quarter.
Sophomores Marley Dwyer and Lyla Clark took advantage and got on the scoreboard, but it was Laurel Munning who put the finishing touches on the third quarter with a powerful drive into the defense for a solo goal that tied the game at 7-7. Munning scored with just under 30 seconds left on the clock.
Despite how impressive the Raiders looked to get back into the game, Shawnee eventually derailed the comeback with its offense.
Shawnee’s offense in the fourth quarter turned it up to another level and possessed the ball for most of the remaining time. The 6-1 Raider run in the third was met with five unanswered goals the other way in the fourth.
“We came all the way back and had a little back and forth there for a while but ultimately they put more in than we did and that is the nature of sports,” Graham said.
Ocean City finished its season with a 17-5 record and won 12 of its last 14 games, including its fifth straight Cape-Atlantic League tournament title.
Graham and the Raiders have a lot to look forward to next season with a lot of returning starters like Ostrander and Munning but will say goodbye to longtime players including Pierce and goalie Aliza Otton.
Otton stepped up to be the Raiders’ main goalie as a freshman after their normal starter was sidelined with an injury and ended up being a varsity goalie in her first season.
“They were just willing to do whatever needed to be done for the betterment of the team, not for themselves, and that is a rarity to find nowadays,” Graham said. “A lot today is stat driven, but this group was absolutely outstanding for each other.”
Mainland girls fall
The Mainland Regional High School Mustangs had an excellent season, posting a 16-5 record (5-1 CAL American), but they ran into top seed Moorestown in the South Jersey Group III sectional semifinal.
The Quakers (15-5) beat Mainland 16-6. Moorestown held a 2-0 lead after the first quarter and slowly built the margin throughout the next three quarters, outscoring Mainland 5-2, 5-2 and 4-2 for the final.
Senior Callie Smith had a pair of goals for the Mustangs and Lauren LaMonaca, Sophia Blanco, Gabriela Guillen and Margaret Albert scored one apiece.
Blanco and LaMonica, both juniors, tied this season for the most goals with 63 each. LaMonaca was the points leader with 99 courtesy of 36 assists. Fellow junior Jade O’Neil had 47 goals and 28 assists, junior Guillen had 45 goals and 7 assists, Abert had 22 goals and Smith finished her senior season with 18 goals and 2 assists. Senior Sydney Stites had 12 goals and 2 assists.
Mainland has two freshman goalies, Shane Harrison, who made 72 saves, and Franchesca Shoemaker, who made 17.
Moorestown is the defending South Jersey champ.
– STORY by WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel
– PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
