By LESLEY GRAHAM
The undefeated Dragons of Kingsway Regional High School defeated the Ocean City High School field hockey team 3-1 on Friday afternoon.
Nya Gilchrist scored the lone goal for the Red Raiders. The loss dropped Ocean City to 8-3, while Kingsway improved to 10-0.
In the first five minutes of the game, the Dragons were able to open the scoring, taking a 1-0 lead. Ocean City was awarded a penalty corner soon thereafter but was unable to get the timing down to get a shot on goal.
Kingsway continued its offensive push, but a great save by Ocean City’s Nora Bridgeford at the 18-minute mark thwarted their efforts. There was aggressive play all over the field, with both teams fighting for possession.
Ocean City’s defense was able to come up with big stops due to great play by Morgan Pizagno, who helped keep the score 1-0 to end the first half.
As the second half got under way, Kingsway had a breakaway goal early to go up 2-0. The Red Raiders had plenty of offensive opportunities, being awarded 13 corners on the afternoon but was unable to convert on most due to some stellar saves from the Kingsway goalkeeper.
With under 10 minutes to play, Kingsway found the back of the net for the third time. But Ocean City was not giving up the fight.
In what was the most thrilling five minutes of the game, the Red Raiders were finding their offensive fire.
Drawing penalty corner after penalty corner, Ocean City found the back of the net with under three minutes remaining in the game. It was a total team effort to finish the shot after the initial shot on goal was deflected by the Kingsway goalkeeper.
With under a minute to play, the Red Raiders were awarded a final penalty corner, but came up just short in their comeback efforts.
“I thought we beat ourselves,” Ocean City Head Coach Kelsey Mitchell said. “We had a lot of turnovers and didn’t capitalize on our offensive opportunities. If we eliminate those things and make some changes, the outcome could have been different.”
Ocean City doesn’t have much time to dwell on the loss, heading back into action Monday at Vineland for a 4 p.m. game.
