By Coach Ken Berardis
The Ocean City Junior Raiders football team hosted the Panthers from Linwood on a rainy Saturday morning. Linwood took the opening kickoff and began a nice drive controlling the ball for over 4 minutes. On a third and long play Linwood attempted a pass that was intercepted by Joey Berardis which he returned 70 yds for a touchdown. Evan Taylor ran in the extra point. Linwood put together another nice drive but Ocean City was able to get them off the field after a few first downs. The teams battled back and forth for the rest of the first half.
Ocean city took the second half kick off and drove down the field on nice runs from Evan Taylor, Colin Thompson, Jordan Gonzalez, and Joey Berardis. Ocean City was able to punch the ball in on a tough 15 Yard run by Evan Taylor. Colin Thompson was able to punch in the extra point on a tough two yard run. The teams then battled it out and exchanged turnovers on a wet field for the remainder of the game with either team able to sustain long drives. The peewee team posted their third shutout in a row with strong defensive performances by Clifford Dirkes (caused a fumble on a sack as he burst through the middle), Jordan Gonzalez with multiple tackles and a strip of the ball, and Evan Taylor with a strip of his own. Other contributors on defense were Jude Reynolds playing strong at safety, Brandon Gonzalez not letting anyone get outside of him on the end, Colin Thompson making several tackles from his linebacker spot and Jacob Rios-Diaz shutting down his side at corner and almost coming up with an interception.
The Linwood panthers did not field a JV or Varsity team this year so the Ocean City teams were awarded wins by forfeit. Next week all three Ocean City teams travel to Absecon on Saturday to play a tough Blue Devils Program. Come out and support our young athletes with peewee kicking the day off at 4pm.
