By Lesley Graham
The Ocean City High School field hockey team saw its season end Wednesday night in a 7-0 defeat against the Moorestown Quakers in the Group 3 state playoff semifinals.
Moorestown opened up the scoring in just over five minutes into the first half and never looked back. At the end of the first half, the Quakers led the Red Raiders 3-0.
As the second half got underway, Moorestown picked up right where it had left off, scoring its fourth goal with 22 minutes remaining. Over a span of 10 minutes in the second half, Moorestown tallied three more goals to end the game 7-0.
Kayla Frank of Moorestown led all scorers with three goals.
The game was predominantly played in Ocean City’s defensive end, with senior goalkeeper Maddie Kahn coming up with some huge saves. Unfortunately for Ocean City, the Quakers were relentless in their approach and attack on Ocean City.
Moorestown had 38 shots on goal, with Kahn making 28 saves.
“Moorestown goes at you 100 miles per hour and every kid from forward to back wants to score a goal at all times. That’s tough to compete with,” Ocean City Head Coach Kelsey Mitchell said after the loss.
Ocean City took six shots on goals, while being awarded five penalty corners.
With about 17 minutes remaining in the game, Mitchell called a timeout.
Mitchell said, “This is it. You either go out fighting or you lay down like a dog. And that is a choice. And I think we went down fighting.”
Although the game didn’t go the way they had hoped, Mitchell was still proud of her squad.
“It was a huge improvement from last year,” she said. “We want to get better every single day and we got better from last year. So hopefully this time next year we are moving on and playing on Saturday.”
While key seniors will be graduating, Ocean City returns a strong group of underclassmen who will undoubtedly look to continue the tradition of Red Raiders field hockey — and its quest for another state title in 2019.
