OCEAN CITY – The Red Raiders football team lost its fourth straight at home Friday night at Carey Stadium, a heartbreaking 28-14 defeat against Hammonton as Ocean City stood toe-to-toe with an electric Blue Devils squad.
The Raiders made enough big plays to stay in it, but ultimately could not slow down the Hammonton rushing attack.
“That was a game we could win,” head coach Kevin Smith said. “The effort was excellent; I’m very proud of the effort. But again we were up against a team that’s a lot bigger and had more speed. Our kids keep scrapping. Unfortunately that’s a game where we’ll look back and see some of the fundamentals.
“We didn’t tackle well, two more times in the red zone we don’t come away with points. We’ve just squandered so many red zone opportunities this year,” he said. “They’re a good football team and we’re a little undermanned right now. It’s frustrating when you realize you’re right there; you’re right there, and it’s the same problems that we haven’t been able to solve.”
After the Raiders went three-and-out to start things off Hammonton methodically marched downfield with their ground game to open the scoring.
Down 7-0 midway through the first quarter, Jon Moyer woke up the home crowd when he crossed the field and got free up the right sideline for a 95-yard kickoff return to tie it up.
“Once I got it I looked up the middle and I didn’t see anybody,” Moyer said. “Nobody on my team was in front of me so I just had to try and figure something out. I hit the outside and there wasn’t anybody out there.”
“We started nine underclassmen on both sides of the ball,” Smith said, “and a ton of JV kids on special teams. I was really proud of them. Our kick return team – five of those guys are brand new this week because three kids were hurt and two kids we thought we needed to make a change. With a bunch of JV kids out there we popped one for a touchdown. That was a great individual play by Jon, obviously, but we had to be blocking people there to give him a chance.”
Ocean City then came up with a needed stop on defense to try to keep the momentum.
The Raider then advanced past midfield before a penalty derailed their drive.
The defense clamped down again when they needed to, shutting down the Blue Devils in Raider territory to keep it tied.
Duke Guenther jump-started the offense with a 37-yard run across midfield, but Ocean City stalled out inside the 30 when a quarterback sneak on fourth down was stopped shy of the sticks.
“I don’t really know why (red zone offense has struggled),” Moyer said. “In the past we’ve been pretty successful in the red zone. This year I think we just get the mindset that we’re close and we don’t have to try as hard. But obviously that’s not the case.”
“It’s on us as a coaching staff to figure it out, how to get over the hump,” Smith said.
Hammonton had one more shot late in the half, converting a fake punt that just barely gained enough for a first down.
Kenny Smith (32 carries, 238 yards) carried Hammonton into range to take a few deep shots to the end zone in the final seconds, but the Raider defense held strong again for a 7-7 halftime score.
Ocean City made another splash play to open the third when Joe Berardis knocked the ball loose on the kick return and Dino Christensen scooped it up.
From the 35, Riley Gunnels had good protection and dropped a perfect throw deep to Pat Lonergan, who made the grab with a defender all over him.
It has been a weekly occurrence all season for Lonergan to make a deep grab.
“We had a good match-up there,” Smith said, “and he ran a good route there on a double move and Riley made a good throw. After that they started to play the safety over the top to take that away. So we couldn’t go back to that well. He’s a really good receiver.”
The Raiders took the lead just 17 seconds into the half.
Hammonton responded quickly as Smith broke a 28-yard run to start the drive.
The Blue Devils drove 85 yards, including another fourth-down conversion as Smith took over.
“We came out of the gate strong,” Moyer said, “and so did they. It was a very close game and then after halftime I think we just didn’t come out with the energy we needed to stay in the game.”
On fourth and goal from the 1, Hammonton tied it up.
“It’s tough,” Moyer said. “We knew it was going to be a dogfight coming in and I guess we didn’t have the right mindset when things weren’t going our way.”
Guenther and Gunnels showed they can pound the ball too and moved the ball into Blue Devils territory in a hurry.
In the red zone and facing a third and long, Gunnels rolled out to his left and threw a dart to Lonergan to bring up fourth-and-2 inside the 10-yard line.
The Raiders elected to try a 22-yard field goal, but DeAndre Clemons made a massive play blocking the kick to keep it locked at 14-14 late in the third.
“I think our passing game was pretty good and our running game was also strong,” Moyer said, “but once we got in the red zone we just weren’t completing the plays we needed. We weren’t converting the first downs.”
Hammonton again turned to their running backs to drive 80 yards and retake the lead on a Smith touchdown.
“It’s definitely tough,” Moyer said. “We always try to encourage each other to stay in the game. Once they’re running the ball like that and you can’t stop it, it gets in your head.”
After another long return from Moyer the Raiders picked up a pair of first downs passing the ball before Hammonton clamped down.
With just more than four minutes to go, Ocean City turned it over on downs.
The Blue Devils burned precious minutes off the clock on their way to a clinching score with 1:44 left.
“They kind of wore us out as the second half went on with their run game,” Smith said. “We kind of got tired. Then we didn’t convert opportunities when we had the ball.”
At 2-6 and with four straight losses the Raiders find themselves in an unfamiliar spot.
“It’s frustrating,” Smith said, “because you realize that if you could just fix a couple little things maybe the Winslow game goes different, maybe the St. Joe game goes different, maybe this game goes different. You don’t get to do it over.”
With a litany of injuries to key players, the Raiders have been forced to use young players all over the field.
“It’s tough seeing our boys go down because we already have a young team to begin with,” Moyer said. “The young guys stepping in definitely have big shoes to fill but they work hard in practice.”
They’re running out of time to right the ship with the postseason upon them.
“We’ll come back tomorrow, lift and watch film,” Moyer said. “In the film room we’ll learn what we did wrong and then in practice we work all week to correct those things. We definitely have to step up. We have a young team but being young isn’t an excuse anymore. We don’t have much time and we want to send the seniors out with a good run.”
The program hasn’t faced adversity like this during the run of success in recent years.
“They’ve faced a lot of it this year,” Smith said, “with the schedule, with all the injuries, and they keep answering the bell. We’ve been in every game except for two of them, and those two teams are ranked number one and two in South Jersey. I feel as though we’re going to be battle-tested. We’re going to be in the playoffs, and I think whoever draws us we’re going to be a darn tough out because we’re not going to see anybody in the first round who’s better than what we’ve seen. We’re going to be ready.”
The Raiders, seeded No. 5 in the South Jersey Group IV sectional, head to No. 4 seed Shawnee for the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. Friday. Hammonton is the top seed in the sectional.
By KYLE McCRANE/Sentinel Sports