The Ocean City Red Raiders were dominant on both sides of the ball against Pleasantville on Thanksgiving day, in a rivalry match-up tradition that has lasted decades. In the first quarter alone, Ocean City scored 26 points, starting the team on their march to a 39-0 victory.
Ocean City first struck with a 25-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Chris Gabor to senior wide receiver Chris Turner, who scored two touchdowns in his final game as a Red Raider. He wasn’t the only senior to score for a last time on Thanksgiving — Ben Bethea also ran for a 46-yard touchdown in the first quarter and Bob DeLuce, a linebacker, scored his first and last touchdown of his high school career on a fumble recovery at the very end of the first quarter.
“It was my first time scoring,” DeLuce said. “The ball was in the perfect place; I mean, last game, first career touchdown … it felt great. I was so excited.”
Ben Bethea, one of the leading running backs in the region and a team leader for Ocean City, said that although he was sad to see the season end, he was glad that the team could win in their last game.
“We came out fired up and knew we had to execute what we were told,” he said.
Pleasantville had trouble offensively throughout the game, turning the ball over eight times and three times allowing the Ocean City defense to score, first on DeLuce’s fumble recovery, then again with a Chris Gabor interception returned for a touchdown and another pick that turned into a Red Raider score for Chris Turner.
By halftime, Ocean City had already scored all of its 39 points.
There was no scoring for either team in the second half of the game as the clock ran throughout both the third and fourth quarters due to a mercy rule. Freshman players were given an opportunity to see some varsity game time as the game wound down, and seniors played their final plays, bidding farewell to Carey Stadium.
“They got off to a great start and set the tone for the game,” said Ocean City head coach Kevin Smith, who said that he was glad to see some of the seniors score in their final game.
With the win, Ocean City improves to 2-8 to finish the season.
