PHOTOS: St. Joe slips past Middle in CAL playoff through OT goal

Posted: October 19th 2023

Middle Township's Gia Famiano moves the ball away from a St. Joseph player near the sideline.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE – The field hockey teams from Middle Township High School and St. Joseph Academy went back and forth trading chances without either finding the net for 60 minutes Wednesday afternoon.

Once the game went to overtime, however, it didn’t take long for a goal to come.

St. Joseph’s Emmah Devlin finished off a fine transition play and the game by slamming a backhand shot from the left side of the scoring circle inside the right post as the Wildcats edged Middle, 1-0, in a Cape-Atlantic League quarterfinal game.

St. Joseph (6-6) moves on to face top-seeded Hammonton in the semifinal round Friday.

“It’s very disappointing because we had the ability to win that game,” Middle coach Janina Perna said. “But when you play average, you can’t expect to win against the better teams.”

St. Joseph enjoyed a bit more possession and created more chances than Middle in regulation. But the Lady Panthers generated more dangerous chances than the Wildcats but failed to convert.

“We have a strong group on offense and today we just weren’t working together well enough,” Perna said. “We had problems in the midfield transitioning to offense. For whatever reason, we weren’t playing like we can normally play.”

The loss does nothing to diminish Middle’s status as one of the better small-school programs in South Jersey. The Lady Panthers (12-2-1) are positioned to earn one of the top seeds for the South Jersey Group I Tournament.

“We didn’t play our best game today but we’re still in a good position and I feel really good about the playoffs coming up,” Perna said. “I think we have the ability to get to that (South Jersey) final. So while this is disappointing, we still have a great opportunity ahead of us.”