By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Publisher
OCEAN CITY — The Ocean City boys soccer team suffered some tough losses to graduation and also have been dealing with some injuries and a pretty tough early season schedule. But the Red Raiders might be starting to hit their stride.
The Red Raiders scored a pair of second-half goals to pull away from Wildwood Catholic on Friday, earning a 3-1 non-conference win that put them at 7-3-1 overall. It was the second straight win for Ocean City following a 2-1 loss to Atlantic City on Monday. Josiah Nistorenko scored a pair of goals and Luke Varallo added another, and senior keeper Josh Brook made 10 saves to help Ocean City finally put down a pesky Crusaders team that came in hot after an early season loss to Egg Harbor Township.
Since that loss to EHT on Sept. 10, Wildwood Catholic (8-2) had ripped off seven straight wins and only Buena Regional had scored more than one goal against the Crusaders during that span. But Ocean City scored two goals within 37 seconds early in the second half to build a 3-0 cushion.
“We knew we were going to have to deal with their goalie’s punts and long kicks, so we just had to keep it tight in the back to cover that,” said midfielder Andrew Tomaino. “Josh had to be off his line today, but we just had to play our game. We just had to focus on our own game.”
Nistorenko gave Ocean City (7-3-1) a 1-0 lead with a goal in the first half, then scored his second of the day with 23:31 left. Less than a minute later, Varallo tapped in a nice cross from Hunter Paone to give the Red Raiders a 3-0 lead.
“We try to capitalize on corner kicks and crosses, get the ball to the end line and pressure the keeper,” Tomaino said.
Wildwood Catholic scored with 12:40 remaining on a penalty kick from Beck Lindsay. Brook was flagged for a yellow card for a rough challenge inside the box, meaning Ocean City backup keeper Garrett Vliet had to come on for the PK. He guess correctly, diving to his right, but Lindsay drilled the shot into the upper left corner. Brook was forced to make several key saves in the final 10 minutes as the Crusaders ramped up the pressure.
“From what I heard, they had some very good players up top and some quick guys. But we’ve been playing teams that have been playing that same game plan — to get it to their quick guys up top and try to beat us down the line,” Brook said. “Since we’ve been playing so many teams like that, we’ve been able to adjust and play those teams very well. Our defense is quick and we were able to get on them right away.”
Tomaino said coach Aaron Bogushefsky is giving the team the weekend off to rest up and prepare for the final few weeks of the regular season.
“We’re picking up some speed. We’ve had some guys hurt, but everybody is going to rest up over the weekend, and hopefully next week we’ll have some people back,” Tomaino said.
“In the long run, I think the injuries might help us out. A lot of teams don’t have depth, but everybody on this team can play any position and we don’t lose anything when we put our subs in. They are really showing that, and once we get healthy, we’ll be an even stronger team,” Brook added.
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays