By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher ATLANTIC CITY – Taylor McCloskey must have felt like the person who drives around the caged cart at a driving range and gets pelted with golf balls all afternoon. Atlantic City’s offense was relentless on Monday afternoon, but the Eagles’ goalie was up to the challenge, making 30 saves to record the shutout in Egg Harbor Township’s 2-0 win over the upstart Vikings. McCloskey got plenty of help from her back line of Katie Dickerson, Erika Martyn and Abby Umphlett. Martyn is quietly putting together a solid season as a sweeper, and teammate Rebecca Richman was impressed with the performance No. 50 put in against the Vikings. “My mom always tells me, ‘No. 50, she always looks like she knows what she’s doing.’ And she really does. All three of them, they know how to work together and how to talk, they are so in sync with each other,” said Richman, who scored the first goal and assisted on the second. “I have full confidence when the ball goes back there that they will get it back (to the offense).” 
Egg Harbor Township goalie Taylor McCloskey makes one of her 30 saves on a shot by Atlantic City’s Abby Anmuth during the Eagles’ 2-0 win on Monday afternoon. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) “She’s so important. Sometimes the coach will be yelling, ‘there goes our sweeper,’ and I’ll look and she’ll be up around the 50-yard line starting up the offense,” Dickerson said of Martyn. Atlantic City controlled possession for much of the first half, but EHT (5-2) scored with just 12 seconds remaining before halftime when Richman punched in a pass from Dana Becker to make it 1-0. The Vikings (5-2) peppered McCloskey with a barrage of shots early in the second half, but the keeper made several outstanding saves to keep her team on top. “She was so good today. We were just talking about how she should get a game ball because she was so good,” Dickerson said of McCloskey. “I think that was really big to score in the last 30 seconds of the half. I wasn’t expecting it, but I’m really happy we did.” Richman said getting that goal late in the first half was huge, especially considering how much Atlantic City was dominating the ball at the start. “I’m not going to say my coach wasn’t like, ‘come on, guys, you can do better than this!’ But that definitely was the push we needed going into the second half,” Richman said. Egg Harbor Township extended its lead to 2-0 with 6:35 left in the game when Julianna Catania slapped a crossing pass into the back of the cage. 
Katie Dickerson was part of a strong defensive effort the Eagles put forth in their win over Atlantic City. For Egg Harbor Township, beating an Atlantic City team that came into the game with only one loss was a big step toward getting on a good roll with October and the state playoff cutoff date not too far away. Both teams had lost to Ocean City, and for the Eagles, dropping a 9-0 decision to Ocean City in their second game of the season was a wake-up call. “It was a little more pressure since AC had a streak of winning. I think we did well. It was tough because they are pretty fast,” Dickerson said. “I think we played Ocean City a little early so we weren’t really ready for them. But I think we are working our way back up.” Richman said the key for the Eagles was keeping the intensity up throughout the game and letting the defense provide the momentum the offense needed. “I’m going to be honest, we were a little intimidated, but all day coach said we had to keep the intensity up because we’ve had trouble with playing flat lately,” Richman said. “But this game we were playing as hard as we could.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]
Egg Harbor Township’s defense holds the line in 2-0 win over Atlantic City
