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The cheering had barely stopped after the Nov. 8 victory at Carey Stadium when Ocean City High School football Head Coach Kevin Smith gathered the troops. “Great team win,” Smith told the squad, after their dominating 35-0 defeat of Washington Township in a state playoff consolation game. “But we still have one more big one left.” Smith was referring to the Red Raiders’ traditional Thanksgiving Day contest against the Pleasantville Greyhounds. The game, at Pleasantville, kicks off Thursday at 10 a.m.

If 2018 marked the “Year of the Woman” in the mid-term elections, as numerous media outlets have termed it, then Marie Hayes is ahead of the curve. Hayes, an Ocean City resident, has been a Cape May County Freeholder since February 2013, when she filled an unexpired term and was elected to a full three-year term in November 2014, well ahead of the record surge in women Congressional and Senate members. “That was something that did come up during the week,” Hayes said on Friday from Washington, D.C., where she was named a “Woman of Excellence” of the National Foundation of Women Legislators during the organization’s annual conference.

If you’ve ever gazed at a Currier and Ives Christmas print or vintage holiday card and wondered what it would be like to live during those times, the Ocean City Historical Museum just might have the next best thing planned for you. The Museum is currently putting its annual holiday exhibit together, with this year’s theme of “A Victorian Ocean City Christmas.” The exhibit will open Friday, Nov. 30, and runs through Jan. 1.

For those who wish to get an early start on holiday shopping, the Ocean City Historical Museum has you covered. The museum will host its first Holiday Arts and Crafts Fair on Friday, Nov. 30, from 1 to 7 p.m. The event, which takes place in the atrium outside the museum entrance, will also serve as an open house for the museum and the kick-off for Mrs. Claus’ Market. During the month of December, the museum’s gift shop is expanded to include holiday gifts, museum-related items, local wares and one-of-a-kind antiques. During these weeks, the shop takes on its new identity as Mrs. Claus’ Market.

It was the Brandon Lashley Show. Ocean City High School’s 35-0 defeat of Washington Township on Thursday night was a team effort on both sides of the ball and special teams, but Lashley’s individual effort stood out. All the senior wide receiver-safety did was set two school records, grab three touchdown passes of 40, 24, and 12 yards, and on defense pick off Minutemen quarterback Roger Baldacci twice.

Ocean City High School’s football team received a nice surprise when it was informed it would host Washington Township on Thursday. It was originally believed the Red Raiders (3-5) would be on the road for their New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Group 4 tournament consolation game. But when the word came down from the state’s governing body of high school sports, the Raiders were assigned to face Washington Township in a 6 p.m. contest at Carey Stadium.

If it was easy to define what makes a champion, maybe it would be easy to be one. In the case of Ocean City High School tennis champs Rosalie Graham and Brynn Bowman, the Cape Atlantic League girls’ doubles top guns, there is no mystery. “I think their friendship is the major reason for their success,” said Samantha DiMatteo, the Red Raiders’ 10-year veteran coach.

“It’s not how fast you cut … it’s how good you cut fast.” Those words, catchy, reassuring and, OK, just a little bit cocky, adorned the front door of Andy’s Ocean City Barber Shop for the last eight years. But no more. The sign was one of the first things to go when Andy Abbott learned the economics of today’s Ocean City real estate market would force the shop to close. The iconic location at 735 Atlantic Ave., believed to have been a barber shop for at least 30 years, will mark its last day of business on Nov. 10.

This was Ocean City-Mainland to the max. The high-energy game featured two evenly matched teams going at it for 48 minutes. Unfortunately for the Raiders, “The War at the Shore” did not have a happy ending. Sean Corey booted a wind-aided 41-yard field goal with three seconds left on the clock to lead Mainland to a wild 24-21 win at gusty Carey Stadium.

If you don’t think the Ocean City-Mainland football rivalry is intense, you weren’t at Carey Stadium last Friday before the OC-Oakcrest game. Fans were already looking ahead to Friday night’s 6 p.m. kickoff at Carey. Members of the school nursing staff were doing a brisk business selling T-shirts, hats and sweatshirts. One of the featured items was a T-shirt hyping the game as an event worthy of a boxing promoter: “Ocean City vs. Mainland: The War at the Shore,” the shirts proclaimed.