Red Raider Boys' Soccer Advances to Sectional Semifinals

Ocean City and Oakcrest High School may have met twice in the regular season, but Friday afternoon's boys soccer match definitely had playoff intensity. And the result was the same. The Red Raiders, the No. 2 seed, defeated Oakcrest, the No. 7 seed, for the third time this year, winning 1-0, on Zack Sakena's goal in the Group III South quarterfinals. Ocean City will host No. 3 Lacey on Nov. 8 in the sectional semifinals. The Red Raiders, winners of seven consecutive games, expected to face Oakcrest's best on Thursday. "When you play a team that many times, you just know what they do," Ocean City coach Aaron Bogushefsky said. "We beat them twice in the regular season, 4-0 the first time, 2-0 the second time, and 1-0 today. They know what to do and play to their strengths. "I told them that today was going to be the toughest game. It was going to be a desperate game. It is do or die. They were ready to play today. I think we were more skilled than them, and they just out-hustled us in the beginning. We made adjustments and were able to score." Ocean City held the possession advantage throughout the game but had problems with Oakcrest's aggressiveness early on. "They were fired up and they challenged every single ball on the field," Bogushefsky said. "We had a hard time with that at first." The Red Raiders kept their composure and controlled possession and tempo most of the game. The ball was mostly in Oakcrest's end in the second half, as Ocean City went on the attack. Oakcrest played defensive-minded and packed in players inside the box, according to Bogushefsky. The Red Raiders finally found a way through the defense, as Max Berardis' pass from the corner skipped through players in front of the goal to Sakena, who scored the game-winning goal. "Their goalie is a very good player and didn't let anything by him, but we made one good play," Bogushefsky said. Max sent a cross and Steve Zellers tried for it first but was bumped off the ball and it went to Zack on the outside who powered it home."