Ocean City Field Hockey Advances to Sectional Finals

It was only a matter time.

The Ocean City High School field hockey team pelted the Delsea goal with shot after shot, but only got one goal to show for it during the first half of Saturday's sectional semifinal game.

However, that all changed in the second half as No. 1 Ocean City scored four times en route to a 5-0 win over No. 4 Delsea in the NJSIAA Group III South playoffs.

Ocean City (19-0) will take on No. 3 Kingsway on Nov. 8 with the sectional championship at stake.

"I just think we had a difficult time finishing," Ocean City coach Cory Terry said. "We had opportunities to score, but we did didn't finish. And their goal keeper played a very good game. We just didn't finish, but we generated a ton of attack. It wasn't any different, but we capitalized in the second half."

The Red Raiders pin-pointed their shots, peppering Delsea goalie Kelsey DiBenedetto, who faced 36 shots.

Ocean City also had 22 corners while Delsea had just three.

Red Raiders senior Liz Cruz scored on a corner with an assist from Shannon Lawson. Lawson, who leads the team with 30 goals, scored twice against Delsea and added two assists.

Jacquie Fenton also tallied two goals, and Casey Hanna and Mia Tompkins had assists in the win.

Fenton has 19 goals this season, which is fourth best on the team. Cruz has 23 and Ali Stever has 21.

"We don't have one or two people we rely on to score goals for us," Terry said "To have four goal scorers who have almost 20 goals, that is a huge asset to our program, to have so many players capable of putting the ball in."

In two games this postseason the Red Raiders have outscored their opponents 10-0. Roisen Dougherty earned her second straight tournament shutout, making six saves against Delsea.

"Overall it was a great team effort," Terry said.