Schalick girls soccer storms back in second half to earn a tie
PITTSGROVE –When freshman Morgan DuBois scored the first goal of her career late in the first quarter Monday it did more than send Schalick on its way to a 3-1 victory over Overbrook.
It gave the Cougars the ultimate prize for teamwork. It gave them the unique distinction of having every non-goalie player on their roster score at least one goal this season. With the contributions of four JV players to the scoring rolls, 18 players overall have scored for the Cougars this season.
The most they’ve had score goals in a season previously was 15 last year, but they never had more than 13 in any other year of coach Heather Cheesman’s tenure. Even when the Cougars scored a school-record 118 goals in 2024 only 11 players lit the lamp.
They added a lot of players to the scoring column when 10 players found the back of the net in a September 11-0 win over Salem. They had eight players score in double-digit wins over Pennsville and Deptford.
“I don’t think it’s unheard of, but we do like to spread it around a little bit,” Cheesman said. “If one person keeps scoring, they are very generous and they’ll give the ball up for other people to score.
“They’re not worried about their stats, that’s for certain. They’re not driven by that. They just want to win and they want to share it.”
Getting back to the way they used to do things has helped the Cougars flourish. They started the season with an alignment they raved about coming back from the University of Maryland camp this summer and it looked good playing against themselves, but it wasn’t effective against outside competition and they scored only one goal in their first three games.
They went back to the old way of doing things and have gone 10-1 and outscored their opponents 59-7 since.
“We first started off playing in this really funky lineup that we all went to a camp and learned there, and I just don’t think our team was ready for that yet, especially since we were all new to each other,” senior Luci Virga said. “We lost six of our starters last year so we were all new to playing with each other.
“Learning how to play with each other plus also learning how to play new positions just wasn’t working, so once we went back to our normal lineup I think we all started to gel better. We were comfortable where we were playing, we just needed to get comfortable with each other.”
DuBois scored her goal with 2:51 left in the first quarter. It came off one of the Cougars’ 14 penalty corners. The freshman collected a carom off the shot in, dribbled a little to the right and fired it between the goalie and the post to open the scoring. Up to that point, the only scoring points she had collected on the season were assists against Salem Tech and Pennsville.
“It was super exciting because I’ve been really trying to score all season,” she said. “I kind of felt it today, too. During warmups I felt like today is the day. I just kind of felt it and it worked out.”
Paisley Warner and Virga scored goals in the second quarter to give the Cougars (11-3) a 3-0 halftime lead. Overbrook scored off a corner with 27.4 seconds left in the game, ending Schalick’s stretch of 205 minutes and 5 seconds of shutout field hockey.
The win was the Schalick’s fourth in a row and snapped the Rams’ five-game winning streak. It also was the Cougars’ 15th straight over the Rams in Cheesman’s tenure and 16th straight since 2013.
The Cougars are back in action Tuesday against Deptford for Senior Day, where they’ll recognize the program’s five seniors who so far have been responsible for 57 wins in their four years.
“It’s definitely going to be kind of sad because I’ve been with this team for four years,” Virga said. “It’s just sad to see all my friends leave, too, because I’ve been playing with all the seniors my entire hockey career.”
WINSLOW 5, SALEM 0 1: Mikayla Mangaro scored three goals and Kamyia Morsindi had three assists for Winslow.
ABSEGAMI 5, PENNSVILLE 0: Maya Famelio scored a hat trick between two goals by Paige Goodwin. Each of Absegami last four wins have been by shutout.
Boys soccer
MONDAY’S SCORE
Salem Tech 6, Salem 1
SALEM TECH 6, SALEM 1: Raphael Busch scored a pair of goals in the first half to help the Chargers (7-9) snap a five-game losing streak. Logan Pace, Landon Haley, Daniel Marandola and Avery Reed also scored. Hayden Stauble scored for the Rams (0-11).
Girls soccer
MONDAY’S SCORE
Schalick 4, West Deptford 4
WEST DEPTFORD – After falling three goals behind in the first half, Schalick rediscovered its mojo after halftime and rallied for four goals to earn a 4-4 tie with West Deptford.
The Cougars (10-3-2) fell behind 3-0 in the first half on three “preventable” goals, then scored four goals in the first 20 minutes of the second half to get even.
Olivia Vanacker and recently crowned Homecoming queen Kyleigh Cutler pulled the Cougars within 3-2, but the Eagles went back up 4-2. Macy Saul made it a one-goal game again with her first career goal and Karlie Bakley got the equalizer.
Schalick keeper Eve Berger made two big saves in overtime to keep the Eagles (5-10-1) from getting the game-winner; she had 17 saves in the match. The Cougars hit the post twice in extra time. Kassady Sickler hit the outside of one and Cutler looked to have it won but hit the post on a breakaway.
“It was difficult to see them start off so slow and give up the goals that we gave up,” Cougars coach Will Kemp said. “I think the halftime talk was exactly what they needed. I think the girls kind of reminded themselves about who they truly are today and what they actually need to do to get back to the level they observe of themselves.
“Their thought process and their expectations of themselves today really came back out the way they actually went back into the second half and performed well. For the most part it came down to them. They were able to go and change the momentum in the game and they had that championship mindset towards the end.”
Volleyball
MONDAY’S SCORE
Timber Creek 2, Salem Tech 0 (25-9, 25-18)
Girls tennis
MONDAY’S SCORE
Kingsway 5, Pennsville 0
KINGSWAY 5, PENNSVILLE 0
Emma Adams (K) def. Graillyn Weber, 6-0, 6-0
Abby Malesich (K) def. Naomi Hess, 6-4, 6-4
Kelsey Dion (K) def. Jaisley Weber, 6-0, 6-1
Sophia Campbell-Bella Jain (K) def. Aubrey Hall-Juliana Thomas, 6-1, 6-1
Bianca Mirkovic-Gemma Palladino (K) def. Mariangela Rangel-Yasary Clemente Brito, 6-0, 6-0
Records: Kingsway 13-8, Pennsville 9-5.