Red Raiders beat Pirates 20-17, will face rival Mustangs Saturday
OCEAN CITY – With the season on the line, senior Triston Schmidt and the Ocean City Red Raiders were not ready to let the season end.
Down by 8 points late in the second half, Schmidt scored 9 of the Raiders’ last 11 points, including a field goal in overtime to stun Cedar Creek High School 20-17 Friday night, Oct. 24.
After a touchdown by Schmidt and two-point conversion pass from Jackson Becker to Clay Compton with under 30 seconds left in regulation sent the game to overtime, the Raider defense was tasked with stopping the Cedar Creek Pirates one last time.
The Pirates were held scoreless for the entire second half but managed to get within 4 yards of the end zone in overtime. Ocean City stood tall and forced a Pirate field goal attempt.
Joe Pancoast kept the shutout alive after he came sprinting off the edge of the line and blocked the kick to give the Red Raiders the chance to win it on their next possession.
Schmidt and the offense took the field in sudden death overtime needing any score to win but couldn’t get close to the end zone. On fourth-and-one, head coach Sean Matthews called upon Schmidt to win the game with his leg.
The running back had attempted only extra points the entire season but made his first field goal attempt of his career earlier in the game from 29 yards away. With a whole season’s worth of pressure and improvement on his shoulders, Schmidt lined up for the 33-yard kick and nailed it right down the middle to send Ocean City to the playoffs.
After the game, Matthews spoke about the confidence he had in Schmidt and the journey he has taken this year as the team’s new kicker.
“We have been working our tails off lately and I felt as soon as we got the ball in the middle of the field with that field position he was going to drill it,” Matthews said. “That kid has come a long way. We struggled in the kicking game to start the year and that was my fault running the special teams but man, I knew he could do it.”
After the walk-off field goal, Schmidt was mobbed by the entire Raider sideline as the home crowd in Carey Stadium celebrated the biggest win of the season.
“It was great,” Schmidt said. “Those are the first two field goals I’ve made and they were here in this game.”
He finished the game with 83 yards on the ground and combined with sophomore quarterback Becker to control the pace of the second half.
Down 17-9 with six minutes left in regulation, the Raiders took to the field needing 88 yards. Becker hit big passes to seniors Ryan Hendricks and Michael Ragazzi to bring the offense down to the 2-yard line with 25 seconds left. Schmidt ran in to score the touchdown but needed a two-point conversion to tie the game.
Becker scrambled around the pocket before he made a jump pass to Compton in the end zone to keep the Raiders’ season alive.
“No one thought we were going to hang with this team,” Schmidt said. “Once we came out and scored first, that’s when everything changed. We became confident and played our best game on offense all year. We really just had fun.”
While the offense was climbing back into the game, Ocean City’s defense was busy shutting out a Pirates’ offense that had averaged 42 points a game. After giving up a 44-yard touchdown as the clock expired in the second quarter, Ocean City shut out the Pirates the rest of the way. John Klebaur picked up a key fumble that was created by the whole team swarming the ball carrier each play.
“Our kids knew we had to win to give ourselves a shot of getting into the playoffs,” Matthews said. “Even with no guarantee we would get in, our kids played like it could have been their last game today. That is what it was going to take to beat a really good football team and if we are lucky enough to make it, we will see those guys again.”
Ocean City’s efforts were rewarded with the number five seed in the South Jersey Group III playoff bracket. The Raiders finished the regular season with a record of 5-4 and will take a very short and familiar bus ride over the bridge to Linwood for their first playoff game.
For the first time since the 2021 season, Ocean City will take on Mainland Regional High School with all the marbles on the line in the postseason. The Mainland Mustangs finished the regular season with a similar 5-4 record – beating Delsea 35-0 Friday night, but will host the Raiders after Mainland won this year’s Battle for the Bridge game.
The first meeting between the heated rivals started with all 27 points scored in a fast-paced first half. Mainland jumped out to a 20-7 lead and held onto that lead for the rest of the game to beat the Raiders in Ocean City Oct. 3. The two teams settled into a defensive struggle in the second half as neither squad managed to score.
Ocean City enters the playoffs off the big win over Cedar Creek, the No. 2 seed in the South Jersey sectional, and will look to snap its three-game losing streak to Mainland.
Mainland won its final game of the regular season and is gunning for its third straight state championship game appearance. The Mustangs won the state title in 2023 but lost in 2024.
Both teams will have a slightly different schedule leading up to the game, as the game will not be in the typical Friday night time slot.
Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, at the Mustang Corral in Linwood. It is the first time either team will play a game in the morning or on a Saturday this season.
– STORY by WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel
– PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
