By TIM KELLY
It was the Carnell Davis Show.
The wide receiver transfer from Absegami made a spectacular debut for St. Augustine Prep on Friday night as the Hermits rolled to a 35-3 defeat of Ocean City in a West Jersey Football League inter-division game.
Davis, eligible for his first game following his transfer, caught three Austin Lehman touchdown passes of 60, 31 and 35 yards to spark the Hermits before a raucous, near-capacity crowd at St. Augustine’s Richland campus.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed in the result, but not the effort,” Ocean City Head Coach Kevin Smith said after the Raiders fell to 4-1 overall for the season.
They remain alone at the top of the West Jersey Independence Division with a 3-0 division mark, and still are in an excellent position to make the NJSIAA playoffs despite the loss.
St. Augustine, playing its first home game of the season, improved to 2-3 overall and remains winless in the American Division at 0-2. That will probably change next week when the Hermits, who were ranked No. 5 in South Jersey despite their losing record, host winless Rancocas Valley. Ocean City has a bye week and will return home on October 18.
Ocean City did not back down all night, and at the outset looked more like the team that started the season with four straight lopsided wins.
The Raiders’ defense held the Prep to a 3-and-out on its first possession and had some success running the football on the first series. Isaac Wilson had runs for 9 and 13 yards and a Sean Mazzitelli 6-yard jaunt moved the chains and advanced the ball inside the Hermit 40.
But quarterback Joe Repetti, who came into the game completing 80 percent of his passes, was sacked and threw the first of five straight incompletions in the half to end the threat.
On a third-and-13 from their own 40, the Hermits drew first blood when OC bit on a Lehman play fake. Davis sneaked behind the Raider defensive backs and was wide open for the touchdown. Luke Snyder booted the first of five successful extra points to make it 7-0.
After the teams swapped failed drives, the Raiders answered. Will Drain’s second tackle for a loss pinned the Hermits back at their own 10 and after a punt, OC got the ball at the St. Augustine 42.
Two Wilson runs of 4 yards each and a nearly 2-yarder by Mazzitelli brought up a fourth and inches situation, which Ripetti converted with a quarterback sneak. He then hooked up with Jake Schneider for 13 yards and a Wilson run picked up a first down at the St. Augustine 7.
From there the drive stalled on three incompletions, including a near touchdown to Brian Beckmann, who made the catch but could not get his foot down in bounds. The possible game-tying drive instead ended with a Brendan McGonigle field goal to draw to within 7-3 with 9:19 to play in the half.
But that was as close as OC would get.
St. Augustine embarked on a nine-play, 72-yard drive capped by another long scoring pass to Davis, this time a 31-yarder on the way to 28 unanswered points.
The final score didn’t really indicate the level of competition OC gave St. Augustine, which improved to 8-0 over the Raiders all time.
“We did some good things in the game, especially on defense,” Smith said. “(St. Augustine) just had a few athletes we didn’t have an answer for. We will learn from this and get better.”
