Schalick field hockey snaps a three-year winless streak against rival Woodstown, goes to 3-0 for first time since 2020
TUESDAY’S SCORES
Schalick 7, Woodstown 2
Gloucester Catholic 1, Pennsville 0
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PITTSGROVE — If there’s one team on the schedule Schalick field hockey wants to be more than any other, it’s that orange and blue bunch 14 miles up the road.
But for all the current players on the Cougars’ roster that’s all it has been, a want-to, a desire and a lot of frustration. None of them had ever beaten Woodstown in their varsity careers.
And then Tuesday happened.
The Cougars snapped a six-game winless streak against their biggest rival in a big way, coming out aggressive from the start and posting a 7-2 victory.
“It feels like it’s been forever since we’ve beaten Woodstown,” Schalick coach Heather Cheesman said. “It’s been a long time. It’s a nice feeling.”
The Cougars last win in the series came in November 2020. They were 0-4-2 in the six games since and were outscored 15-6.
It has been a tough go. They are 7-9-4 in the series during Cheesman’s nine years as their coach, but since sweeping the Wolverines in her first year the win Tuesday was only their fourth in the last 17 meetings. The seven goals were the most they’ve scored in the series since at least 2010 and their biggest margin of victory.
“We came in the game and were like ‘We have to win,’” junior Ava Scurry said. “They’re our biggest rival.
“It felt so good. For years this is one our biggest goals, to come in and beat Woodstown. We were coming into this like we have to put our weight behind this, we have to come out more hungry than them and I think we did that. We started off really good.”
Scurry, Phoebe Alward and Luci Virga scored two goals apiece for the Cougars. Freshman Paisley Warner scored her first career goal for their other score.
Scurry assisted on the first two goals of the game in the first quarter and scored the next two in the second. She was denied a second straight hat trick when Woodstown keeper Shelby Foote turned back her penalty shot with 2:48 to play.
Alward scored both of her goals in the first half after taking a shot off her right ankle early in the first quarter. She said adrenaline kept her from feeling it during the game. She sat in the trainer’s cart with ice wrapped around the ankle after the game and will be held out of Wednesday’s game with OLMA at Rowan West as a precaution.
The Cougars looked even more aggressive than they were last season when they played for the South Jersey Group I championship. They were in attack mode right from the start and peppered the net with 18 shots. Woodstown did all it could to keep up, sending 15 shots towards Lydia Gilligan, but only got past the Schalick keeper twice.
“I do think they are more aggressive,” Cheesman said of her team. “They’ve gotten older so they matured a little bit and they’re growing with the game. They’ve been playing this game since they were like three feet high so they know the game and that comes with experience. They might have been a little skittish last year, but they are super aggressive – and that’s what we like.”
The win moved the Cougars to 3-0 on the season, the first time they’ve been 3-0 since 2020 when they started the season 11-0. Cheesman said it’s hard to compare teams but said of her current squad “collectively there are more talented people on this team, really ready at the varsity level, than I’ve had in the past.”
And their ceiling just seems to be getting higher. This team has no seniors.
“We’re trying not to look ahead,” Cheesman said. “One game at a time. I tell them all the time, chip away and get to where you want to be.”
Schalick 7, Woodstown 2
| Woodstown (1-2) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1- | 2 |
| Schalick (3-0) | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1- | 7 |
SCORING
S-Phoebe Alward (Ava Scurry), 9:05 1Q
S-Lucy Virga (Ava Scurry), 4:58 1Q
S-Ava Scurry (unassisted), 13:20 2Q
S-Ava Scurry (unassisted), 11:38 2Q
Wo-Shyann Higinbotham (penalty shot), 8:35 2Q
S-Phoebe Alward (Caylan Taylor), 1:34 2Q
S-Paisley Warner (Lena Virga), 13:13 3Q
Wo-Sienna Land (Hannah Hitchner), 5:14 4Q
S-Luci Virga (Alex Shimp), 0:40 4Q
GLOUCESTER CATHOLIC 1, PENNSVILLE 0: Leila Belusik raced downfield and scored in the opening minute of the game and then Gloucester Catholic spent the rest of the game trying to keep the Eagles from getting the equalizer. Each team had three shots on goal and Pennsville had 10 penalty corners.
“They played consistent, but we just couldn’t get in the circle and make anything happen,” Eagles coach Lisa Doran said.
Riverview Sports News 