Junior wide receiver Jake Schneider on the move vs. St. Augustine.
By TIM KELLY
When your football team is 4-1 and you have a bye week following the “one,” in this case a 35-3 loss to perennial powerhouse St. Augustine, it’s best to take the positives out of the experience and to move on and to look ahead.
That seems to be the case with the Ocean City Red Raiders, who return to Carey Stadium 6 p.m. Friday for their West Jersey Football League inter-divisional date with Triton, which is also O.C.’s Homecoming game.
“This (was) a great experience for us,” Head Coach Kevin Smith said of the St. Augustine game on the team website. “We saw a lot of great things and some of our flaws got exposed. We have some great points of emphasis to work on going forward.”
What lies immediately ahead is a Triton squad (2-3 overall, 2-1 in the West Jersey National), that handed the Raiders a 33-22 loss last season on their home field in Runnemede, Camden County.
Ocean City has a great opportunity to avenge that defeat against a team that has been outscored 121-34 in its three losses. That said, the Mustangs have a lot to play for, too.
Triton is currently tied for second place in the WJFL National and is coming off one of its better efforts of the year, despite losing 36-21 to Cherry Hill West. They want to leave Carey with a .500 record and avoid a dreary bus ride home at 2-4. A win over O.C. would also bolster the Mustangs’ playoff hopes.
The Raiders have plenty of incentive as well, primarily to get all three phases of the game back in synch as the second half playoff and Independence Division title push begins in earnest.
Isaac Wilson’s running has provided a strong dimension to Ocean City’s dynamic offense this season.
Ocean City currently sits alone and undefeated (3-0) at the top of the division standings and Triton is a great tune-up for what lies ahead: a two-game stretch of division games on the road against always tough Oakcrest and arch-rival Mainland.
The Raiders are returning home Friday for the first time since late September and the last scheduled time until their traditional Thanksgiving Day contest against Pleasantville. There should be a large crowd on hand as the team honors its senior players and pays homage to its alumni.
The Red Raiders would love nothing more than to build their resume for the postseason and show their Homecoming attendee elders they are building on the program’s proud tradition. A victory would also ensure a winning regular season.
And because football is played by human beings and not robots, the Raiders naturally hope to silence their critics and combat some fans’ perception they just aren’t as good as their record might indicate.
Reasons for optimism abound. Despite the score of the St. Augustine game, O.C. went toe-to-toe with the Hermits all night. Unlike last season when they were never really in the game on their home turf, Ocean City went to Richland and gave the Hermits all they could handle.
“Of course (the coaches) were disappointed in the outcome, but not the effort,” Smith said after the game.
Junior wide receiver Jake Schneider on the move vs. St. Augustine.
Never an excuse-maker, what Smith didn’t mention were some obvious mitigating factors in the loss.
St. Augustine was playing its first home game of the season and its first game of the year with two potential All-South Jersey transfers. Carnell Davis (late of Absegami and the focus of Division I recruiting efforts) caught three touchdown passes. Kanye Udoh, a transfer from St. Joseph, rushed for over 100 yards and a touchdown.
Additionally, the Raiders appeared to be headed into halftime down by just 14-3, a manageable deficit. But a turnover and resulting late TD in the half forced Ocean City to go to a pass-heavy offense and allowed St. Augustine not to worry about the Raiders’ emerging running game in the second half.
All of that is now in the rear-view mirror and Ocean City still has the opportunity to achieve some pretty lofty goals.
For that reason, coupled with as good a weather forecast as one could hope for in mid-October, Carey Stadium should be packed on Friday night.
