The 2016 boy’s soccer season at Cinnaminson High School began Friday as the Pirates played to a 1-1 draw with Ocean City.
The Red Raiders came into the game with a 1-0 mark after taking down Lower Cape May 6-0 on Thursday in their opener.
Ocean City jumped out to a 1-0 lead roughly 15 minutes into the contest when the Red Raiders put together a string of nice touches to find the back of the net.
“After they scored I think we took the game more personal and we got more aggressive in the back,” Jarrod Averill said. Everyone was winning their 1v1 battles.”
From that point on, the Pirates would dominate the game on both sides of the ball.
“I thought we played real well,” Averill said. “I thought we were organized. I thought we talked well and kept it going.”
Cinnaminson would tie the game with roughly 10 minutes left in the second half.
“We need to take away that if we give up an early goal, we can’t get down about it,” Averill said. “We’ve had trouble with that in the past. Today we bounced back real well and put them under pressure.”
Finn Raymond moved the ball up the left side of the pitch, found Ryan Mahaffy towards the middle, who then hit Chris Updike in front of the net.
Updike deposited the shot to tie the game at one.
“We got a good ball from Finn Raymond down the line to Mahaffy,” Updike said.
“Mahaffy found me in the middle and I was there for an easy tap-in. It feels good. It gives confidence for me and my team, backing us up.”
“What was nice with that goal was it was something we struggled with in the pre-season,” head coach Jason Meile said. “Either Finn would’ve taken an extra touch or Mahaffy would’ve been offsides because he didn’t have his timing.”
The defense for both teams clamped down to send the game to overtime, but there were chances.
“I think the defense played great,” Meile said. “All five of them in the rotation played great. Good teams create their own good luck and they (Ocean City) created a deflection from their pursuit and took advantage of it.”
Mike Deal made a big save early in overtime and then it was all Pirates from there.
“Mike’s an emotional kid,” Meile said. “Something he’s been working on is when he lets in a goal is not to beat himself up too much. It’s important for him to find that rhythm.”
Updike rocketed a shot off the post. Then, in the second overtime period, he had an open net with the Red Raiders keeper on the ground, but had a bad angle with the ball.
“Dan Kern had two golden opportunities in the second half there,” Meile said. “Mahaffy had another big opportunity. Updike had another opportunity. We’ve got to realize, great teams finish that. Tying a program like Ocean City is nice, but the goal is to get a win.”
That was the final scoring chance for either team in the contest. The Pirates are 0-0-1 and the Red Raiders are 1-0-1.
Cinnaminson plays again at home on Tuesday, September 13 when Pennsauken comes to town for a 6:30pm game under the lights at the football stadium.
“They need to take Pennsauken seriously,” Meile said. “The last two years, a team that went to the sectional final and a team that went to the state final went to overtime against this team. To think that this is just going to be an easy win, their mistaken.”
Follow Cinn City News for all the news stories in and around Cinnaminson, including exclusive coverage of Pirates sports at the high school and in-town levels. We are on Twitter and Facebook. Be sure to sign up for our daily newsletter on the homepage.
