VIDEO, PHOTOS: Verity, Mormello help Lower Cape May to narrow victory in Wildwood’s official return to CAL play

Posted: September 2nd 2026

Lower Cape May's Adeline Yerk (left) looks to clear the ball away from Wildwood's Harper Rennie during Tuesday's girls soccer game.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

ERMA – As can occasionally occur in the sport, the team that enjoyed a majority of the possession and created more of the chances found itself on the wrong end of the scoreline.

In the season opener for both teams, an organized Lower Cape May Regional High School girls soccer team withstood different bouts of Wildwood pressure and used a counter-attacking style to create its two goals in holding off the Lady Warriors, 2-1, in a game played in extremely warm and humid conditions Tuesday evening.

Wildwood opened the game by putting immense pressure on the Lady Tigers. But less than a minute after Wildwood freshman sensation Harper Rennie struck the crossbar with a shot from 23 yards, Lower Cape May got the ball forward to sophomore Abby Verity, who curled a shot inside the right post from 20 yards to give Lower an early lead.

Verity gave Lower a two-goal cushion midway through the second half when she accepted a brilliant pass from freshman center back Jocelyn Montgomery and walked the ball past the Lady Warrior defense and easily passed the ball into goal.

Verity, who scored 24 goals as a freshman last fall, further proved her reputation as one of the Cape-Atlantic League’s top goal producers.

“She’s a No. 9. She’s a scorer,” Lower coach Darren Rutherford said of Verity. “We’re trying to play her a bit more central or even on the wing this year to give her more space to move around and play. She finds open spaces, she protects the ball and she puts herself in front of goal to give herself chances to score.”

Verity was denied another goal late in the first half when Wildwood goalkeeper Addison Troiano made a diving save at the right post and parried the ball away from danger.

“Abby really could have had a hat trick,” Rutherford said. “I don’t know how Addy got down to stop it. That was a great save.”

Wildwood pulled within a goal with a little less than nine minutes to play when Rennie chipped a shot from the left flank just under the crossbar, but Lower held its nerve to the finish to hold off the comeback attempt.

Sophomore Leena Mormello was sensational in goal for Lower, making several key saves. Two came on one sequence in the first half when she stopped a tricky long free kick from Rennie with a leaping save before scrambling to keep out a sliding attempt at the rebound by Julia Ennis. Video showed that Ennis had probably nudged the ball across the goal line but, to be fair, neither the referee or his assistant in the area would have had an angle clear enough to see the ball across the line.

Mormello also made a couple of difficult stops in the second half.

“We knew last year Leena was going to be our No. 1 (goalie) this season after Meredith (Lutjen) finished (her high school career),” Rutherford said. “She’s taken the reins. She wants to do just as well as Meredith did with the wins and the saves and the shutouts. She has that hunger. She can get all over the place. Her foot movement is really good. She goes after everything and she can get to things quickly. She showed that tonight.”

For Wildwood, the loss came in the team’s official return to the CAL after 24 seasons in the Tri-County Conference. The Lady Warriors represented themselves well against a Lower team that is expected to be competitive in the league’s National Conference. Wildwood has been placed in the lower United Conference for this season.

“It’s great for them to be back in the CAL,” Rutherford said of Wildwood. “After the way they played tonight and their result in a scrimmage against Vineland, I see them doing very well in the United Conference. I think they’re going to make some noise coming back to the league in their first year.”