VIDEO, PHOTOS: Crusaders end terrific week with shutout of rival LCM

Posted: October 31st 2024

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

ERMA – It’s been a good week for the Wildwood Catholic Academy girls soccer program.

The Crusaders, of the Cape-Atlantic League’s bottom-tier United Conference, recorded their second victory in three days over a team from the league’s middle-tier National Conference when they scored three times in the second half for a 3-0 win over Lower Cape May in a game played under the lights on the Caper Tigers’ football field Wednesday evening.

“I think our kids have really stepped up their game the last couple games,” Wildwood Catholic coach Bob Mannino said.

Lily King opened the scoring seven minutes into the second half after being sprung by a through ball from Reagan Flickinger, King slotting the ball inside the left post. Megan Feketics made the proceedings more comfortable for Wildwood Catholic when she added an insurance goal after running down a long ball played by Maggie Davenport with six minutes remaining. Only a minute later, Reese Manni rounded out the scoring by getting her body on Flickinger’s long free kick and redirecting the ball into the goal.

“We seemed to have difficulty in the first half because I thought we were bunched up too much,” Mannino said. “It’s a narrow field but we were making it easy for them to defend us because we just had too many people in one spot too many times. We talked at halftime about trying to open things up. We started feeding it to the flanks and that helped open the field up so we could have opportunities.”

Grade Murphy had the shutout in goal for the Crusaders.

The win was Wildwood Catholic’s first over Lower Cape May since the 2021 season. Lower Cape May had won four straight over the Crusaders over the past two seasons, with three of the results coming by just a goal.

“It was a big game for our kids,” Mannino said. “They were looking forward to this since the start of the season.”

The victory over Lower also came one game after the Crusaders pulled off a 2-1 stunner over an 11-win Hammonton team that qualified for the CAL Tournament. Wildwood Catholic fell behind with just 10 minutes to play but then scored twice in the final four minutes to secure the upset.

“It was a game where we just hung in there,” Mannino said. “Defensively we played great. Grace made some great saves and we did a good job of stringing some passes together. The kids definitely showed some great resilience.”

Lower Cape May hung in Wednesday’s contest deep into the second half thanks to the goalkeeping of Meredith Lutjen, the midfield work of Bella Lund and counter-attacking runs by Julia Deignan and Avery Proud that produced a few decent chances. Deignan narrowly missed the far post on a shot from the right flank that would have tied the game with about 15 minutes to go.

“I really liked our effort and our energy,” Lower coach Darren Rutherford said. “But we made a couple of mistakes that led to their first two goals.”

For Lower Cape May (5-13), the contest closed its 2024 season. The team will not participate in the state playoffs.

Wildwood Catholic (11-5) is the fifth seed for the South Jersey Group II playoffs. The Crusaders will travel to No. 4 Calvary Christian in Old Bridge for a second-round game – both teams earned first-round byes – next Thursday.

Wildwood Catholic will go into the state playoffs having won eight of their last nine games.