By Jim Hintelmann
MIDDLETOWN – Field hockey and football are not the only dominant Fall sports teams at Shore Regional as the girls soccer team is currently enjoying an excellent season.
The Blue Devils (9-1-1) kept pace with St. Rose in the B Division race with a 3-0 shutout of Mater Dei Prep, and coach George Moutis is looking for a high seed in the upcoming Shore Conference Tournament
“I think we should be in the top 9 or 10 in the seeding,” said Moutis. “I thought we would have a good team this year. We have a lot of girls who have been playing soccer for a while and a lot of four-year seniors. We are having a nice season, but I didn’t expect it be this good.”
Although Shore won the game, a young Mater Dei Prep team made the Blue Devils work for the win and only several excellent saves by Shore goalie Amanda Olsen kept the shutout.
“I thought Mater Dei Prep did a real good job,” said Moutis. “They played real hard and did much better then they did in our last game.”
Shore’s Sam McDonough broke a scoreless tie seven minutes into the game when she crossed the ball across the net and it went in for the only goal that Shore needed. She added another goal midway in the second half.
Chelsey Henderson followed that up at 17:18 of the first half by taking a feed from Julia Luebs on a breakaway and knocking it into the back of the net for a 2-0 lead. It was her eighth goal of the season.
“We’ve had a great season so far,” said Henderson, a lacrosse standout who will be playing the sport next season at Villanova. “Julia crossed the ball in and I was right there wide open to finish it. We’re expecting a lot this season.”
Although Mater Dei Prep lost, coach James Gelpke has been pleased with the progress that his team has made since the start of the season.
“I think we out shot them by three or four goals,” said Gelpke. ”We’re very young. We have seven freshmen and a couple of sophomores and juniors. We’re getting better every day and I can see the improvement.”
“If we started the season now, I think we could be .500,” he noted. “We have eight games left and I think we can win most of them. We want to finish the season strong.”
