By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher LINWOOD – When Mainland Regional and Ocean City get together, wins don’t come easily, no matter what sport the Mustangs and Red Raiders are playing. They went at each other for 80 minutes on Thursday afternoon in girls soccer, and even that wasn’t enough. It took 18 additional minutes to decide a winner in this early season matchup of bitter rivals. With 1:29 remaining in the second overtime period, Ashley Edgell tapped in a shot that was deflected by Mainland goalkeeper Brook Vitale, giving an exhausted Red Raiders squad a 2-1 victory. But as bitter as the rivalry is on the field, once the game ended the Ocean City players and coaching staff showed heartfelt support and respect for a team that is going through a difficult time. Just before this school year started, Aisling Cooke, an incoming freshman at Mainland and member of the soccer team, was tragically killed in a car accident. The Mustangs, playing with heavy hearts, put forth a spirited effort, tying the game midway through the second half and nearly coming away with a result before Edgell’s late heroics. 
Ocean City’s Karissa Bourbeau drives upfield during the Red Raiders’ 2-1 overtime victory over Mainland Regional on Thursday. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) Ocean City senior Devon Terwilliger said it was difficult for herself and her teammates to focus, knowing what the Mainland players, many of whom they know personally, are dealing with. “I knew that they were going to be battling because of everything that they’ve been through. I think we came out flat and we weren’t focused on soccer as much as we should have been, but we kind of had a feeling that was going to happen coming into the game because of all the emotions,” Terwilliger said. Following the final whistle and after a muted celebration by Ocean City, each of the Red Raiders players handed a green carnation to an opposing Mainland player to show their support for the Mustangs. “After the accident, we knew we were playing them coming up shortly and we knew we wanted to do something. We weren’t sure what we were going to do. A couple of the freshmen played with (Cooke) and they thought of flowers. A couple of the moms paid for the flowers and we wanted to do that after the game,” Terwilliger said. “Ocean City vs. Mainland has always had that rivalry, but today we wore the green pre-wrap (hair bands) to show them that on the field we’re going to be competitive and be rivals, but off the field we still feel for them and want to support them in every way that we can.” “It was great. They are a classy team. It was a great rivalry between the beginning of the game and the end, but outside of that it’s nice to see the support,” said Mainland coach Chris Connolly. Veronica Garcia put Ocean City up 1-0 with 28 minutes left in the second half when she beat Vitale to a ball in the box and followed the shot to put it in despite a great effort by the Mustangs’ Caroline Carey to get back on defense to try to help her keeper out. 
Ocean City goalie Arianna Segich, right, hands a green carnation to her counterpart, Mainland’s Brook Vitale, after the game. Ocean City players said they wanted to show their support for their rivals, who are grieving the loss of one of their own. Incoming Mainland freshman Aisling Cooke was killed in a car accident just before this school year started. Mainland answered with 17:23 left when Maggie Dods’ shot was deflected over the head of Ocean City keeper Arianna Segich. “That was really nice,” Connolly said of the equalizing goal. “We, of course, didn’t play our best and I don’t think Ocean City did either, but they made the most of their opportunities. That was definitely nice, you can see the strength and the character of the team. We were down a goal and battled back and got a nice goal.” There weren’t many scoring opportunities in the overtime periods, as each team was spent on an unusually hot September day. Terwilliger said between the overtime periods, the Red Raiders knew they had to dig deep to get one more good scoring opportunity. “What we said in the huddle was, think of all the sprints we did in preseason because (the coaches) really push us in preseason. I think that’s what helped us get through this game was all that hard work in preseason. It was hard, that was almost 100 minutes of soccer right there,” Terwilliger said. Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]
Ocean City girls soccer team shows compassion following victory over rival Mainland Regional
