By TOM WILLIAMS
It could be a championship week for Ocean City High School’s sports teams.
The Raiders have already won the conference championship in girls cross country and field hockey and the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament in boys soccer. This week could bring more titles.
Aaron Bogushefsky’s boys soccer team (12-5) lost to Egg Harbor Township tonight, 3-1, in a non-conference game. But with wins at Lower Cape May on Thursday and at Cedar Creek on Friday, the Raiders would be the outright champions of the conference. Ocean City kept its conference championship hopes alive last Friday with a 1-0 win over Middle Township when Luke Varallo scored with an assist from Hunter Paone. Brian Calderon had six saves.
Bogushefsky’s team has been seeded No. 2 for the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 3 Tournament and begins play at Carey Stadium Monday against Timber Creek. The winner will play the Cherry Hill West-Highland winner. Triton is seeded No. 1, Mainland No. 3 and Absegami No. 12.
OCHS Boys Soccer Stat Leaders
Goals
7 – Luke Varallo
6 – Hunter Paone
6 – Trevor Paone
5 – Matt Brook
5 – John Lindsay
Assists
6 – Matt Brook
5 – Hunter Paone
5 – Luke Varallo
3 – Fisher Hudak
3 – Trevor Paone
Kelly Halliday’s OCHS girls (13-5-2) were eliminated from the South Jersey Coaches Tournament yesterday, 3-1, in the quarterfinals by Eastern. Summer Reimet scored with a Carly Reighard assist. The Raiders had beaten Rancocas Valley, 3-2, in the first round with Tori Rolls, Faith Slimmer and Alyssa Liebrand getting the goals.
These Raiders have the rest of this week off before hosting Absegami next Tuesday in the opening round of NJSIAA South Jersey Group 3, a championship they won last season. OCHS is the No. 5 seed and Absegami No. 12. The Raiders have defeated the Braves twice this year by identical 6-0 scores. The winner will play the Gloucester Tech-Toms River East winner. Moorestown is the No. 1 seed and Mainland No. 2.
OCHS Girls Soccer Stat Leaders
Goals
12 – Faith Slimmer
10 – Delaney Lappin
10 – Summer Reimet
5 – Carly Reighard
4 – Paige Panico
Assists
10 – Faith Slimmer
8 – Tori Rolls
5 – Hope Slimmer
4 – Carly Reighard
4 – Summer Reimet
Kelsey Mitchell’s OCHS field hockey team (15-3-1) has been seeded No. 1 in South Jersey Group 3 and will never have to leave Carey Stadium. The Raiders, who received a first round bye, will host Cherry Hill West on Thursday in the first round. The winner will play the Absegami-Gloucester Tech winner next Tuesday. Mainland is seeded No. 2 and Absegami No. 4.
Ocean City lost to Bishop Eustace, 3-1, yesterday with Jaclyn Charbonneau scoring off Reese Bloomstead’s assist. Maddie Kahn made 19 saves. The Raiders finished their undefeated conference championship by beating Mainland, 3-0, with Molly Reardon scoring two goals and Bloomstead one. OCHS outscored its conference opponents, 92-1, this year and finished with 11 straight shutots.
OCHS Field Hockey Stat Leaders
Goals
24 – Reese Bloomstead
19 – Jaclyn Charbonneau
19 – Molly Reardon
10 – Tara McNally
9 – Sophia Gresham
Assists
15 – Chloe Prettyman
11 – Reese Bloomstead
11 – Jaclyn Charbonneau
8 – Molly Reardon
7 – Shannon Decosta
Girls tennis (16-3) is currently playing in the CAL Tournament in Vineland. Samantha DiMatteo’s team will host Bridgeton on Thursday and a win would clinch a tie for the conference championship.
The Raiders almost won it outright, losing a 3-2 decision to Egg Harbor Township yesterday. Both doubles teams (Brynn Bowman-Rosalie Graham and Nicole Blum-Ashley Devlin) won in straight sets but EHT swept the singles.
OCHS Girls Tennis Records
Singles
Jordan Moyer (12-7)
Gina Schmid (13-6)
Kate Carter (11-7)
Doubles
Bowman-Graham (17-2)
Blum-Devlin (18-1)
Despite its tough overtime loss to Oakcrest during Red & White Weekend, Kevin Smith’s football team (3-3) can still clinch a share of the West Jersey Football League’s Independence Division by beating Mainland on Friday (6pm) at Carey Stadium. Senior parents will be honored during the game.
If OCHS wins on Friday it will share the division championship with Oakcrest and/or Mainland, depending on how those teams do on Thanksgiving eve. If Mainland wins on Friday, it will clinch the outright division championship. The game also is very important regarding the NJSIAA Group 4 playoffs. Both Ocean City and Mainland are Group 4 teams.
In the loss to Oakcrest, senior quarterback Ian Aungst tied a school record with his sixth straight 100-yard passing game. Matt LeFever (1996) and Andrew Donoghue (2016) were the others. Aungst completed 13 of 26 passes Friday for 212 yards and two touchdowns. He now has 1,180 passing yards this season, the ninth highest total in school history. Aungst’s career passing total is 1,215, the 10th highest at OCHS.
Against Oakcrest, Aungst threw two touchdowns, one each to Brandon Lashley and one to Jake Schneider. Aungst has 11 TD passes this year, third best among quarterbacks at CAL schools. Lashley has caught eight of them, the highest total among CAL receivers. And, at halftime, senior Faith Willett was named Ocean City Homecoming Queen.
The complete box score of the Ocean City-Oakcrest game is here – http://www.oceancitysports.com/ocfootballgamestats.html.
Both Ocean City cross country teams won Cape May County Meet titles last week. You can read Brian Cunniff’s story about the meets, including photos and video, here – https://coastsportstoday.com/2018/10/conte-mclees-lead-raider-sweep-at-county-meet/.
Trish Henry and Matt Purdue will take their teams to Millville Thursday for the CAL Meet.
Check out all the daily results and schedules in the Raider Diary – http://www.oceancitysports.com/OCDiary.html.