Spartans struggling in the early season

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

Outracing a Manasquan player for a lose ball is Ocean sophomore Erin Decker (18).

For Alex Pickett and her 2025 Ocean Township High School girls’ varsity soccer team the start to the season has been challenging. The first four games have resulted in a 3-1 loss to Shore, 5-3 to Raritan, 5-0 to St. John Vianney and 2-0 to Manasquan. In the fifth game of the season, the Spartans earned their first win a 6-0 victory over Pinelands.

Pickett is an alumnus of Ocean Township and was twice selected for the Shore Conference All-Division Team and the All-Monmouth County Team during her high school career. She attended East Stroudsburg University where the Warriors won an NCAA Atlantic Region Championship, and three straight Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference titles.

During her collegiate career, Pickett was a three time All-PSAC and All-Region selection. She had scored 31 goals, which put her in the top 10 in school history, and 19 assists which was fourth in school history. She was a skilled player in high school and college, and has taken those traits back to her home town.

Pickett is in her fourth season as head coach, and last season the team finished 8-11-1 playing in the A Central division of the Shore Conference. Ocean graduated several longtime key players, so this year, as they say is a building season. Ocean has five seniors, 10 juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen on the pitch this year.

Leading the team in goals this is Mia Fiorentino, junior forward, with four goals and three assists. Right behind her is sophomore midfielder Erin Decker, with three goals and two assists. Senior midfielder Lucy Wood has two goals and junior forward Ryan Ippolito has one goal and one assist. In the goal for Ocean this year is Grace Fuller, a senior, who has 32 saves so far.

During the 2-0 to Manasquan, there was a United States Olympian on the sidelines. Christie Pearce Rampone, who played her high school soccer at Point Pleasant Borough and then at Monmouth University is an assistant coach for Manasquan. She has three Olympic gold medals and was a member of the two-time FIFA World Cup winning Team USA.

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