By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @Gdsullysays
CHERRY HILL — The last two seasons, the Oak Knoll School field hockey team has lost to Camden Catholic in the state championship game. On a misty, rainy Saturday morning, the Royals made the trek down from North Jersey and got a little bit of payback, riding an early goal to a 1-0 victory over the Fighting Irish in a matchup of two of the state’s top teams.
Camden Catholic came in ranked No. 3 in the state by nj.com and Oak Knoll was No. 4, and the meeting lived up to its billing as one of the best matchups of the weekend. The Royals scored a pretty goal in the first quarter when Phoebe Laferriere made a run down the right side on a give-and-go before sending a perfect cross in to Lilly Venezia, who finished in front of the cage for the game’s only tally.
The loss was the first of the season for Camden Catholic, which scored a pair of one-goal victories over Lower Dauphin (Pa.) and Staples (Conn.) at last weekend’s MAX Field Hockey National High School Invitational in Pennsylvania. Oak Knoll didn’t have the same kind of success at that same tournament, tying First Colonial (Va.) and losing 4-3 to Manheim Township (Pa.). The Royals came into the matchup with Camden Catholic having not won in 10 days, dating back to an 8-0 win over Scotch Plains-Fanwood on Sept. 18.
Oak Knoll (5-3-1, 3-0 Essex/Union Red) and Camden Catholic (6-1, 1-0 Olympic American) will meet up again next Saturday at Oak Knoll. Camden Catholic also hosts No. 2 Kingsway Regional on Thursday.
“They won the 50-50 balls and we couldn’t trap a ball to save our lives. It was that simple,” lamented Irish coach Mark Vittese. “We turned the ball over way too many times. You can’t come into a game and expect to win scoring no goals. (Being down) usually helps us. We were down 1-0 at MAX (Field Hockey Invitational) against Lower Dauphin and came back and won — I don’t try to figure it out. The pace picks up, the speed picks up, there’s more sense of urgency. (Oak Knoll) is a good team. We’ll see them next Saturday and hopefully again in November.”
“We’ve been playing Camden Catholic for a long time now and it’s always a great matchup. They have a great team,” said Royals coach Ali Good. “I’m really proud of our effort. We’ve had a tough stretch of playing Top 20 teams, but our game plan is always the same and we hope we can execute it. We’re continuing to grow after each game, each loss. This was a great win.”
Good said her team wasn’t nervous at all about taking a ride to face the No. 3 team in the state.
“We like to keep it loose, like no game is too big,” she said. “They are teenage girls, so they kind of dictate the mood of the day. It was the typical dance parties and understanding that it’s just another game that we have to show up and play hard. Every quarter we had to give our best, and (our mindset) was definitely to come down here and give them our best.”
The Royals certainly did give their best, as the back line of Keira Ardise, Cookie Motroni and Liza Rogers played a whale of a second half, as did goalie Kristen Shindle and midfielder Hope Russo, who was arguably the best player on the field all day.
“She’s one of our senior captains playing a different position for us this year and she’s done a nice job with really taking on that responsibility and understanding what it is,” Good said of Russo, who was matched up against Camden Catholic’s best offensive players on the left side of the defense. “We always say to have a short-term memory — when she’s on that sideline she does really good things because she’s able to stay in the moment of the game, the moment of that play. She realizes if she makes a good play, it’s on to the next play, and if she makes a bad play it’s the same thing.”
Irish goalie Madelyn LaForm kept her team in the game in the third quarter, making a brilliant save in a one-on-one situation with Oak Knoll’s Laferriere after the Fighting Irish turned the ball over deep in their own zone. Shindle matched her with a great save of her own with three minutes left in the third quarter on a Camden Catholic breakaway.
“We needed this. We’re talented and we never shy away from a tough schedule. Sometimes you forget that they are kids, and you have to make sure that what they’re doing is working and all the hard work they are putting in is really getting a result,” Good said. “We always like to win, but it’s not about the wins and losses, it’s about the growth. But when you’ve been out here since August and working hard, it’s nice to see you can compete with the best and come out with a win.”
Vittese said for the Irish, the fix is simple.
“We have to play harder.
“That was part of our problem. We have to play harder, and don’t turn the ball over. We’d turn the ball over, or when we got an opportunity we’d shoot the ball wide — they’ll really enjoy watching the film,” he said. “But that’s fine, that’s the only way to get better. I don’t worry about (wins and losses), we have a lot of kids playing at the next level, and if you do what we did today, you’re not going to play at the next level. You’ll be on the bench. (In college) they have 26 or 28 capable people out there, and if you’re incapable you’re not going to play. I have a kid who graduated (in 2023, Olivia Bent-Cole) who is at Northwestern, she’s starting and playing great; we have a kid at Wake Forest (Ava Moore) who is playing great. We have a bunch of girls playing at other places. We try to teach them how they need to play at the next level. We’re not really worried about winning and losing, I just want them to play well.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Camden Catholic travels to Lenape on Monday at 3:45 p.m. Oak Knoll hosts Verona on Monday at 4 p.m.
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com.
