ERMA – The Caper Tiger girls soccer team has only two seniors, but head coach Darren Rutherford believes they can compete.
“We’re just kind of getting into the beginning of our season and if we can kind of figure out the style of play that we’re looking to play, and if the girls can go out and execute what we want them to execute as coaches, then we should have a pretty good year,” Rutherford said the day after the Lower Cape May Regional High School team lost 4-1 to Millville Sept. 8.
Sophomore Abby Verity scored the team’s lone goal on an assist from Avery Proud and keeper Lena Mormello recorded 17 saves to keep the score respectable.
The Caper Tigers opened the season Sept. 1 with a win over Wildwood on a pair of goals by Verity, one assisted by Jocelyn Montgomery. Mormello made 12 saves in the 2-1 win.
“We’re a little young. We only have two seniors, but we do have some quality players,” Rutherford said. “It’s just that we have some players that just started coming up this year that haven’t played the game before … they’re learning kind of on the fly.”
Despite the inexperience, the coach said there is a core group the coaches are relying on to be the leaders by example, “to kind of show the younger and experienced players … what it looks like to play at a certain level.”
Rutherford said he saw things in the Millville game that were good, including moving the ball around well, that the team can build upon.
“I think we should be fairly competitive. Our goal this year is to get back to the (Cape-Atlantic League) tournament to try and see if we can’t get a third-, second- or first-place spot in our conference to get there. I feel like we can be competitive this year. It’s just a matter of us kind of putting everything together.”
The coach said Verity, a striker, will be leading the attack after scoring 24 goals last year as a freshman who was named a CAL First Team All-Star.
Proud is moving up from the midfield area to get into the offense a little more and fellow junior Rayne Clark also is expected to do more on offense. A three-year player, Clark came in off the bench last season, but will be relied upon in more of a full-time role.
“Those are probably the three that I’m looking for to play whatever formation we play. I’m looking for them to kind of to take on the attacking roles,” Rutherford said.
In the midfield is experienced junior Alli Walker and freshman Jocelyn Montgomery. Walker “is not afraid to get involved in the defense and offense and get stuck in the tackles. She is one of those lead-by-examples and lets her play do the talking. She will also be vocal when she needs to.
Montgomery, he said, is working to get used to the speed of the high school game, “but she has the skills and the soccer IQ and the ability to play the game really well. Her skills will help her get better.”
The area that may take the most work this season is defense.
“We knew coming into this season that we were going to have to work on (that). I do have a few experienced defenders in, um, Maggie King (a junior) and my goalkeeper, Lena Mormello,” Rutherford said. As a freshman, she backed up the starting goaltender and did well when she got into games.
“She’s our full-time goalkeeper this year. She’s our number one. I think she has the ability to make some big saves and keep us in games,” he said.
“She got a chance to kind of sit behind our senior goalkeeper last year, who had a lot of experience and set a lot of records for us. (Mormello) got a chance to watch how she kind of handled herself. So Lena coming in this year in that full-time role, she doesn’t have game experience, but she does have that experience of having a quality goalkeeper ahead of her,” Rutherford said. “She could learn from her and hopefully she took a lot of things from her last year and can apply them this year and for the next couple years.”
King has experience on the Caper Tigers’ back line for two years now and the coaches are hoping she becomes a leader back there.
In addition, freshman Adeline Yerk is filling in for Avery Hansen, who’s recovering from an ACL injury. “Unfortunately, we don’t have her this year and she was a starter for us last year, but with her being injured, we needed someone to kind of come and fill in and Adeline so far has been doing a fantastic job,” the coach said.
There are a few more players getting some full-time play, including sophomores Jenna Dilworth and Annabelle Wright.
On Sept. 10, Verity scored three goals for the Caper Tigers on assists from Walker and Proud against Holy Spirit. They took a 2-1 lead into the half, but the Spartans responded with three goals in the second half to win 4-3. Mormello had 19 saves in the game.
Rutherford said he is glad the team has Mormello for three years.
The Caper Tiger girls are home next at 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18, against Wildwood Catholic.
By DAVID NAHAN/Cape May Star and Wave
