By Brian Tortella
Special to The News of Salem County
WOODSTOWN — After graduating a talented senior class that accounted for nearly half of the team’s scoring last season, it would be understandable if Will Kemp didn’t know what to expect this season from a young squad featuring several new faces.
However, it didn’t take the Schalick girls soccer coach long during the preseason to realize that this would be far from a rebuilding year.
Behind two goals from standout freshman Nicolette Bloomer, the Cougars earned a 4-0 shutout over county rival Woodstown in Tri-County Diamond Division action Tuesday.
“She’s done extremely well,” Kemp said of his star rookie. “She’s a fiery individual. She’s developed really fast inside the last three weeks alone. I was excited to get her on the squad when she was coming through the eighth grade system. I’ve seen her play a few times for Pittsgrove Club. It’s good to see what she’s applying from there over to here.
“She’s been an absolute game changer for us when it comes to us getting some more goals and adding that aggression on the field that we currently need.”
Bloomer scored the first goal of the match midway through the first half with a strike to the bottom left corner of the net while in the box to give Schalick a 1-0 advantage into intermission.
It didn’t take her long into the second half to find the net again as her shot seven minutes into the second half gave the Cougars a two-score lead they would not look back on. Olivia Vanacker and Emily Tramontana-Miller each scored insurance goals within the 64th minute to solidify the triumph.
“I’ve been playing since I was really little and I’ve been working my way up,” Bloomer said. “I’ve been striving to be who I am now and I’m looking forward to keeping going.
“It was a big win. We came out real strong. We really came together as a team.”
Schalick improved to 6-1 and recorded its fifth shutout of the young season. The Cougars’ lone blemish came 2-1 to Camden Catholic in a non-league matchup last Friday.
Unbeaten in their last seven contests in the series, the Cougars haven’t lost to Woodstown in 1,452 days. You’d have to flip the calendar back to Oct. 7, 2022, to find Schalick’s last setback to their division rival.
With the win, the Cougars now narrowly hold the No. 1 seed in the South Jersey Group 1 girls soccer power point standings. Gateway, Collingswood, Wildwood and Woodstown round out the top five in what is expected to be a highly competitive race this fall, with two-time defending champion Haddon Township currently riding a five-game losing streak due to an injury-riddled roster.
“I believe we’re one of the best teams (in Group 1),” Bloomer said. “We’re for sure up there. If we keep playing the way we are, we’re for sure the best team.”
It has been an impressive start, to say the least, for a squad that graduated two of its top three scorers in the spring. The heavy production lost from graduated seniors Quinn Berger (team-high 14 goals and 18 assists) and Cali Fisler (eight goals and 11 assists) has been filled by Bloomer, who now leads the team with nine goals, and fellow rookie Mackenzie Talarico, who has five goals this fall.
So does Kemp believe his squad is the best in South Jersey Group 1 like the standings say? Only time will tell.
“I have a lot of faith in my players,” he said. “They’ve done extremely well over the last few weeks. We still have a lot of growing to do, but I think we can really push forward to another level.”
Woodstown fell to 6-2-1 with the setback. The Wolverines enjoyed one of their best seasons in recent memory in 2025, finishing with a 15-4-1 record and reaching the South Jersey Group 1 semifinal, where they fell to eventual champion Haddon Township.
The Wolverines are also riding a strong underclassmen core, headlined by freshman Korynn Hernandez, the team leader with 12 goals. They also have a first-year varsity goal keeper in sophomore Mazie Mazzoni, while freshman Bella Lucas and sophomore Hailey Kucharczuk continue to make dividends on the scoreboard.
They just couldn’t get much going Tuesday.
“As the saying goes, ‘You learn more in a loss;’ we’ll learn from the mistakes we made today because we made a lot of them,” Woodstown coach Kieran Keyser said. “Schalick is a heck of a team. We beat ourselves down in a lot of ways. Small defensive breakdowns here and there. We’ll work on those things and I’m glad they’re happening now rather than in November.”
Brian Tortella can be reached at btortreportssj@gmail.com