By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
OCEAN CITY — For more than a decade, Kevin Smith ran the show for the Ocean City High football team. Longtime defensive coordinator Sean Matthews is now the head coach, but aside from that, little has changed with the Red Raiders. They still play a brand of football that relies on intensity, tough running from the backs, and even tougher tackling from a defense that Matthews has spent years building and fine-tuning.
A defensive coach couldn’t have been more proud of his troops than on Thursday afternoon, when the Red Raiders started their season with a dominating 32-0 win over Oakcrest that featured Ocean City limiting the Falcons to less than 150 total yards and also adding a pair of defensive scores in the fourth quarter to help salt the game away.
“The key defensively was to swarm to the ball. We knew they were fast around the edges, so we tried to contain them, try to lock them down and make some plays,” said junior defensive lineman Aron Desch.
“I had nothing to do with it, it’s all (defensive coordinator Jimmy) Harritopulos taking over, running the show; and, most importantly, the kids. They make a lot of the decisions and calls out on the field for us — they are not just robots. It was really cool to see them execute what we’ve practiced all well, and, most importantly, perform and come out with the win,” Matthews said. “We’ll take (defensive touchdowns) anytime. That’s stuff that we work on in practice, getting to the near sideline, blocking the quarterback on an interception return. Again, it’s great to see things that you practice every week show up in the game.”
The game was a 6-0 slog through three quarters, the only tally a 24-yard touchdown run from sophomore quarterback Jackson Becker in the first quarter that put the Red Raiders on the board.
But the floodgates opened in the fourth quarter, as rushing touchdowns by senior Triston Schmidt and Becker pushed Ocean City’s lead to 18-0. Then, in the span of less than two minutes, Ocean City scored twice more on defense, as Ayden Majors returned an interception 33 yards to paydirt and then Desch scooped up a fumble on a sack and rumbled 21 yards into the end zone for the first touchdown of his varsity career.
“It felt so good. Awesome. Amazing,” Desch said of the scoop-and-score after a Jake Chapman sack. “Everything went black, I picked it up, started running. The only thing in my head was, go, go, go! I just kept running. It was awesome. You’re in the zone right there.
“We’ve worked really hard this offseason. Our D-line is great here, we push each other so hard, and I think that’s the key to why we won this game. And our linebackers are amazing and the secondary was lock down. When you can shut out someone, that’s a great feeling. (Getting coach Matthews) the win was the best thing I could have done all day.”
Becker had a tough day as a passer in windy conditions, completing just 3-of-14 attempts for 40 yards, but he put up 77 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the ground to compliment Schmidt’s 145 yards on 21 carries.
“I don’t ever feel comfortable until the end of the game. We just had to get our feet under us and play the Ocean City football way. Once we got to getting things done the right way — making sure we weren’t missing down blocks on offense and not having those self-inflicted wounds, we started putting things together. We need to develop a little bit of confidence sooner in games,” Matthews said. “Jackson’s outstanding. Most importantly, he’s a high quality young man. He’s a great leader, he’s a phenomenal human being. I don’t know many sophomores who can command a team like Jackson does. He said it after the game, that he was a little disappointed in the passing game, but that’s going to come with experience. He ran the ball tough as nails. He was very smart with the football, made great decisions. We just have to do a better job of capitalizing.”
Matthews admitted to being a little nervous to be taking over one of South Jersey’s storied football programs. His patented excitable coaching style was still evident, but slightly muted as he tried to keep in check the variables of an entire team instead of just the defensive side of the ball.
“You always have butterflies, whether you are a coordinator calling the game or a linebackers coach just coaching the inside backers. You still get that feeling that you got when you played. It’s because you care and because you want to do your best for your kids. It’s fun. At the end of the day, it’s high school football, you work really hard and you only get 10 of these opportunities a year,” he said. “Now the kids know what they are capable of. Now we, as coaches, can point out the great things on film that we see — the great effort plays, the great technique stuff — and also things that were not so great, like lack of effort, lack of fundamentals. You just try to make sure the kids can play to the best of their ability. We’re trying to get the best out of our kids.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Oakcrest hosts Holy Spirit on Sept. 5 at 6 p.m. Ocean City travels to Eastern on Sept. 4 at 6 p.m.
