MEDFORD – The Ocean City Red Raiders football team fell 42-7 on the road to the Shawnee Renegades Friday night in their South Jersey Group IV quarterfinal game.
“We knew they were good, but they played great tonight,” Ocean City head coach Kevin Smith said. “They executed so well. They just didn’t make any mistakes, they hit on all their opportunities, they just seemed to be really on point tonight, and we weren’t.”
The shorthanded Raiders couldn’t keep pace with the run-and-gun offense of the Renegades as the game got out of control by halftime.
“In the second half we were sending kids out to play positions they’d never played and just telling them what to do,” Smith said. “You kind of turn to each other on the sidelines and say, ‘we don’t have any safeties left, what do you want to do?’ ‘I don’t know, we don’t have anyone who’s played it before.’ But that’s not why we lost; we played a really bad second quarter. You can’t play teams like this and not play 48 complete minutes. We lost because we stopped competing as hard as we needed to.”
After a stop to start the game Shawnee drove 86 yards for a score, keyed by a 54-yard run from Jimmy Potter.
Ethan Krauss pulled down a 20-yard pass to open the scoring shortly after.
After a Raider three-and-out, Shawnee doubled the lead as quarterback Joe Papa connected again with Krauss on a 46-yard touchdown.
“We always talk about how a lot of teams are more talented than we are, but we can play with them because we play hard and we execute well,” Smith said, “but you see what happens when we don’t.”
The Raiders responded with a Riley Gunnels 89-yard pass to Ricky Wetzel to cut into the lead, but it was all Renegades thereafter.
All the injuries the Raiders have dealt with this year caught up with them down the stretch.
“Especially coming down to the wire, we had Jack (Hoag) go down in the St. Joe’s game, and Andrew Karayiannis in the Millville game,” Gunnels said. “Then Ricky Wetzel in this game. They all play big roles on the team and losing them is like losing a family member.”
“I think these guys are pretty ground down,” Smith said. “The senior class is decimated. We started the season with 12 seniors and at the end tonight we had four healthy seniors. So they’ve just been beaten up with season-ending injuries. We’re not talking about dings, we’re talking about season-ending injuries. That’s why we have a field full of underclassmen at the end.”
Between the injuries and a first-place schedule, the Raiders were under the gun all year.
“Coming into the season we knew we had a tougher schedule than last year,” Gunnels said, “but we prepared for it from June 24, our first practice.”
The coaching staff and quarterback had to prepare for battle with whoever was healthy in a given week.
“We always have the ‘next man up’ mentality,” Gunnels said. “Everyone who stepped in stepped up and did well in their role.”
The hope is the young players who were pressed into duty will reap the benefits later.
“Those guys have a bright future, I can tell you that,” Gunnels said.
“While ability-wise and execution-wise we weren’t there yet, they had the right approach,” Smith said. “They did the best they could with their opportunity. People talk about the schedule and all the injuries, but we’re not making excuses for ourselves. We are what our record says we are; that’s who we are right now. But the good thing is the young guys are going to be well-prepared for next season.”
That includes a young offensive line that got better week after week.
“Watching them grow was great, because everything got better around them,” Gunnels said. “We developed more, we got our run game going, and it was great seeing them get better as the year went on.”
Gunnels will graduate as one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in school history.
“This group of guys are my favorite group to be around,” Gunnels said. “It’s going to be tough playing without them. It’s not how everyone wanted it to end, but I wouldn’t want to play with any other team.”
“He had to battle against some difficult circumstances, no question about that,” Smith said. “For the younger guys it’s a learning experience and I think they’ll all be better for it.”
The Raiders still have a chance to send out this senior class the right way. They travel to Pleasantville at 10 a.m. Nov. 24 for the annual Thanksgiving Day game.
“I don’t know who we’re going to have available,” Smith said. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. But we’ll have these guys prepared. The seniors will try to send them out the right way and give them something to be proud of.”
By KYLE McCRANE/Sentinel Sports
