By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher OCEAN CITY – Last September, the Ocean City field hockey team was coming off a state championship season in which the Red Raiders lost just one game, but they stumbled out of the blocks and were just 5-3 by the end of the month. One of those losses was a 2-0 shutout at the hands of Egg Harbor Township. The Red Raiders learned their lesson. No longer will Ocean City come into a season taking wins for granted. On Wednesday afternoon, in their season opener, the Red Raiders bolted to a 6-0 first-half lead and cruised to a 9-0 victory over visiting Egg Harbor Township (0-2) at Trish LeFever Field. Seven different players scored as the Red Raiders kept up an offensive blitz from the starting whistle to the final horn, proving they are on a mission from Day One to three-peat as Group 3 state champions. 
Ocean City’s Railee Allen gets the ball past Egg Harbor Township defender Devon Barr during first-half action on Wednesday in Ocean City. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) “We learned from last year that we can’t go into every game thinking, OK, this will be a piece of cake, we’ll win this no problem,” said senior Kelly Hanna. “Everyone knows we’re a team to be reckoned with. Our record last year wasn’t perfect, and we just want to go out every game with as much energy and power as we can. There’s no taking anything lightly this year.” Power might be an understatement. Lauren McNally blasted a goal from about 10 yards out to give the Red Raiders an early 3-0 lead, and later in the first half Hanna absolutely blistered a shot from nearly 15 yards out that pushed the lead to 5-0. Jordan Allegretto, a junior, got the scoring going early, poking in a shot in the first few minutes of the game. She said it was imperative that the Red Raiders get off to a strong start and not allow the Eagles to get any momentum offensively. “That was very important. We just need to play our game and not let it get in our heads, we need to be the best we can be against any competition,” Allegretto said. “It’s a great start to our season. We just wanted to come out really hard, especially since last year we had some trouble with EHT.” Ocean City dominated with its signature crisp passing attack that gets the ball upfield quickly and doesn’t allow a defense much time to get set up inside the circle. Their style was evident midway through the second half when Hanna dribbled in from midfield and just before taking a shot, dished a nifty pass over to Allegretto, who calmly tapped the ball into the corner of the cage to make it 7-0. Grace Steele scored a pair of late goals, and Maria Farnan, Alexis Paone and Railee Allen also notched their names on the score sheet. 
Egg Harbor Township midfielder Abbie Umphlett, right, tries to get around Ocean City’s Julia Herrington. “We knew going in they would be a tough opponent for us because they beat us last year, and we always have a target on our back. I think the score reflected that we were dominating, but there are things we need to clean up and we realize that. (The Eagles) are always going to come after us, and everyone in the CAL is,” Hanna said. “Our chemistry is very good this year. We all get along really well on and off the field. It’s definitely clicking, and it’s good that (the underclassmen) are getting the experience.” Ocean City has a number of underclassmen in its starting lineup, and they are well schooled in the Red Raiders’ tradition of playing aggressive field hockey and never letting their foot off the gas pedal. “We definitely need to stay focused. We have to use our passing game and stay low and strong,” Allegretto said. Ocean City travels to Absegami on Friday and Rancocas Valley on Friday before a pair of home games next week leading up to a big tilt against rival Mainland at home on Sept. 19. Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]
Ocean City field hockey begins defense of state championship with dominating win over EHT
