By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @Gdsullysays
OCEAN CITY — You can call it luck. You can call it divine intervention. Whatever it was, something special happened at Carey Stadium on Friday night as Holy Spirit pulled off a miraculous 15-13 victory over a determined Ocean City squad in our Bunting Family Pharmacy Marquee Matchup.
Spirit dominated the first half but only had three Mason Forte field goals to show for it, and the Spartans took a 9-0 lead into halftime. The script completely flipped in the second half as an inspired Red Raiders squad rallied to take an improbable 13-9 lead by sandwiching a touchdown between a pair of J.P. Forster field goals.
Holy Spirit took over with 2:42 remaining, needing to go 61 yards to win the game. There was nothing in the second half to indicate the Spartans were remotely capable of that, in such a short amount of time. Their deep shots weren’t connecting, their running game had stalled. They looked like a boxer slumped over in the corner after a vicious uppercut.
But somehow the Spartans dragged themselves off the canvas and put together a drive that took them into Ocean City territory. But even still, the odds were stacked against them. They faced 4th-and-11 from the Raiders’ 37, and quarterback Ty Costabile’s desperate heave to the goal line short-hopped receiver Matt Abbott.
Game over.
Except for that little yellow flag in the backfield.
Ocean City was whistled for roughing the passer, keeping the drive alive. Holy Spirit made the Raiders pay behind bruising running back Jahcere “Pops” Ward (5-foot-10, 225 pounds), who hadn’t been much of a factor until that last drive. He plowed his way to a first-and-goal at the 8-yard line, took another run down to the 1, then punched it in with 36 seconds to go, giving Spirit a thrilling — and shocking — come-from-behind victory.
It was an emotional roller coaster for the Spartans, who are dealing with the death of beloved assistant coach John Bewley, who passed away earlier this week after a months-long battle against cancer.
“It sure is emotional. We were up and down throughout the game, but our defense really stepped up and the offensive line stepped up when it mattered, and Pops gets in the game and nobody wants to get in front of him. He’s running people over with 50 seconds left and we’re giving him the ball instead of throwing it. That’s the kind of guy we want on our team. Everybody stepped up. God rest John Bewley’s soul — we did it for him,” said Costabile, a senior. “We came out soft (in the second half) and we can’t do that, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing. You can be playing the worst team in the league or the best team, it’s not going to go well if you come out soft. But we came together. Nobody put their heads down. We’ve been in a couple games like this, going back to last year against teams like Immaculata and Washington Township. It’s the same group of guys and everybody knows what they have to do. Do your job, and we’ll get it done.”
“A lot was going on and those last two minutes were a roller coaster of emotions. That roughing the passer call saved us, and then Pops just punched it in. That’s what Holy Spirit is all about — we never give up. Even if we’re down 42-0, we’re always trying to punch it in and have that glimmer of hope,” said senior linebacker Nick Medina. “We came together as a team and knew we had to change our mentality, don’t get your heads down, and just play the game. Do your job and we’ll win.”
“We tried to focus on the main thing all week, but like I told the kids (after the game) we all wanted to play better. Nobody was thrilled with how we played, but at the end of the day you work all week to get a win, and we did that, so you can’t be upset about that. (Ocean City) is very well coached, they play hard. They did a great job tonight. They shut us down defensively, so credit to them. They played hard, and our kids just battled,” said Spirit head coach Andrew DiPasquale. “That’s just the mentality of our team. They know at no point are they out of a game, they proved that a couple weeks ago against St. Augustine Prep and they did it again tonight. That’s just who they are.”
Turnovers were the story of the second half, as Ocean City (5-3, 1-2 West Jersey Football League Constitution) forced Holy Spirit (7-1, 3-0 WJFL Constitution) into a fumble that led to a 32-yard Forster field goal that cut the Spartans’ lead to 9-3 early in the fourth quarter, then another fumble on Spirit’s next possession led to Ocean City’s only touchdown drive of the night. Clay Compton had a big run that eventually set up a 1-yard touchdown by quarterback Walker Bailey.
That gave the Red Raiders a 10-9 lead with 4:20 to go, and after a stop by Ocean City’s defense, the Raiders capitalized again, getting a 34-yard Forster field goal with 2:47 remaining to go up, 13-9.
That left 2 minutes, 42 seconds after the ensuing kickoff for Spirit — No. 3 in the South Jersey Glory Days/South Jersey Football Frenzy Show Best 11 rankings — to make something happen, and boy did the Spartans ever.
“We knew they were going to play soft (coverage) knowing we had to drive 60 yards down the field, and with more than two minutes, that’s a lot of time, especially because the clock stops on first downs. We were just taking what they were giving us — we knew the box was light, so we could run the ball, so we just kept taking what we could get,” DiPasquale said. “Defense won us the game tonight and they’ve been doing that all year. They played great tonight. We put them in a bunch of bad spots in the second half (because of turnovers) but credit to them, they held them to a couple of field goals in the fourth quarter.”
“This wakes us up. This can’t happen,” Costabile said. “If we’re going to run through (the state playoffs) we can’t let games like this get down to the last minute. That can’t happen if we’re going to try to win a state championship, so we have to figure it out.”
Despite Spirit’s frustrations in letting a first-half lead slip away, the Spartans said they are happy about getting a win heading into the bye week, and also being able to come through for coach Bewley, who was on hand last Friday night to send the players off to an away game before losing his battle with cancer this week.
“We’re a family. I wouldn’t even call it a team,” Costabile said. “Everyone has bonded together and stepped up. We have guys, guys who are going to make plays. We have sophomores making plays all the way up to seniors.”
Added Medina, “our coach before the game was like, ‘life happens and don’t let that affect you. (Coach Bewley) would want you to play as hard as you can, every snap.’ This win says we’ll come and compete with anyone.”
“For us, this is big because we’re going into a bye week and there’s nothing worse than going into a bye week coming off a loss,” DiPasquale said. “So this was big, mentally, just going into next week. We’ll try to get some guys healthy and start getting ready for the state playoffs.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Ocean City travels to Cedar Creek on Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. Holy Spirit hosts St. Joseph Academy on Nov. 1 at 6 p.m.
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com
