Raider girls one of few teams to beat St. Joseph this season
HAMMONTON — There was no doubt St. Joseph of Hammonton was the dominant team when the Wildcats beat Ocean City 6-2 on Oct. 22 in the semifinals of the Cape-Atlantic League Field Hockey Tournament, but it did seem closer than a four-goal spread.
The two teams were tied 1-1 until near the end of the first half after St. Joe’s Stella Devlin scored and Ocean City’s Casey Adamson tied things up. With time running out in the half, Nina Aponte, who provided the assist on Devlin’s score, made it 2-1 off a corner play.
The game still looked tight going into halftime, but early in the third quarter, the Wildcats put in two more goals within 40 seconds of each other to make it a 4-1 game.
Shayla Malone scored at the 12:53 mark and Aponte got her second goal with the clock at 12:14 after picking off an Ocean City pass.
Ocean City made it a 4-2 game with a score by Stevie Wright.
The Red Raiders just missed on few other opportunities.
Adamson was awarded a penalty shot, but as Wildcat goalie Katie Canova guessed correctly and moved to her right, Adamson sent the ball just outside the cage.
It also appeared the ball crossed the line in the cage during a scramble in front of the St. Joe’s goal, but the referee ruled that it wasn’t a score. On a different loft goal attempt, the ball was dropping toward the cage away from the goalie, but another Wildcat defender swatted it away.
Later in the game, Wildcats Miranda DiGeralamo and Jaylani Cooper scored to put the game out of reach.
“I think we were all in, all together on this one. I think last time we played them, we had a lot of disconnections,” Wildcat head coach Corinne Etter-Veight said.
Ocean City lost to St. Joe’s 5-2 early in the season, then was the only CAL team to beat the Wildcats, winning 5-4 on the Tennessee Avenue field Sept. 26. West Deptford is the only other team to blemish the loss column for the 15-2 Wildcats.
“This time, we worked really hard throughout practice and we watched a lot of game film. We planned, we strategized and we brought it today,” Etter-Veight said.
The coach credited the entire team for its play on its home turf in Hammonton.
“I think all of them,” she responded when asked about outstanding contributors, “even the subs coming off the bench. We really didn’t have any drop-off as far as talent or strategy.”
Individually, she cited Aponte being “always huge for us,” Nora Devlin “as always strong,” Canova for some “amazing saves,” Stella Devlin for her goal-line save, freshman Cooper because “she really lit it up,” Samantha Butter on defense and Shayla Malone for “sparking the corner spree.”
Realizing she was on a path for naming all of her players, the coach smiled. “All of them,” she said.
“We struggled a little bit with the style play that they had today and they were the better team today,” Ocean City coach Carole Williams said.
She acknowledged with Sofia Wright out with a concussion, she had to rearrange her lineup a bit, but said they made their adjustments and it wasn’t the first game they played without Wright.
“We did some nice things today,” she added.
Mentioning the plays that were close to scoring, Williams said “It was not a four-goal differential feel of a game. We had a little letdown there in the one section, then we picked it right back up and started attacking again.”
However, she added, “It just wasn’t our day.”
So far this season, Adamson, a junior, leads the team in scoring with 16 goals. She also has three assists for a total of 35 points. Sophomore Lyla Clark is next with nine goals, 10 assists and 28 points. Junior Stevie Wright had six goals and two assists; sophomore Marley Dwyer five goals and an assist; junior Faelyn Clark, three goals and two assists; sophomore Lily Cozamanis, three goals and two assists; sophomore Everee Peak, two goals and two assists; sophomore Sofia Wright, two goals and an assist, and senior Meghan Burns and sophomore Caroline Bickings, a goal and assist each. Goalie Devin Dolka, a junior, has 100 saves.
Ocean City has an 8-6-1 record on the season and is 3-4-1 in the division, which includes St. Joe’s and Hammonton (14-3).
The Red Raider girls are third in power points in South Jersey Group III, behind leader Clearview (16-3) and Hammonton.
Sectional tournament seeding was scheduled for Tuesday after the Sentinel went to press. The first round of the tournament will be Nov. 3.
St. Joseph wins CAL
In the CAL final Oct. 23, St. Joseph beat Hammonton 5-4 in overtime for the league crown. It was the third time this season the Wildcats beat the Blue Devils in close games. In the regular season, St. Joseph won 3-2 the first time the teams met and 1-0 the second time.
The third didn’t prove the charm for the Blue Devils.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
