Red Raiders Host Rival Mustangs on Gridiron

The rivalry continues.

The Mainland Regional High School football team visits Carey Stadium for Ocean City's home opener at 7 p.m. on Friday night.

This installment of the Mainland and Ocean City High School football rivalry may be different than any other in the long history of these teams.

The Cape-Atlantic League schools and communities have all shown their support for the Mainland football team, which lost four players—Edgar Bozzi, Casey Brenner, Nick Conner and Dean Khoury—in a tragic car accident last month. Bozzi and Conner worked on the Ocean City Boardwalk and Bozzi's funeral Mass was held in Ocean City.

It has been written and said before that the Mustangs need some normalcy back, and the gridiron provides that. What better way to add to that than a rivalry football game?

Both teams enter the contest looking for their first win of the season. Ocean City is coming off a 27-18 loss to Atlantic City. Mainland lost its second game of the season last week, falling to St. Augustine Prep, 38-7.

"They will be excited," Ocean City coach Kevin Smith said of his players. "It's our home opener. It's our biggest rival. Their situation is obviously terrible, and I'm sure they are coping with it the best they can, but I don't think it will diminish the game. It's going to be great competition between two teams that I think respect each other but love to play each other. We are excited."

The Red Raiders lost by nine last week but had multiple chances to get the best of the Vikings. The game was much closer than the final score indicates. Only a few plays decided the outcome.

The Red Raiders know they need to strengthen their special teams, which allowed their second kickoff return for a touchdown last week.

Ocean City also allowed too many yards after the catch and after initial contact last week, however, the Red Raiders did improve compared to Week 1.

Sophomore quarterback Chris Gabor will try to continue finding success through the air with targets Matt Schuler, Chris Turner and Matt Locotos.

The Red Raiders also found the end zone twice last week on the ground with both touchdowns coming from Ben Bethea. Bethea and Nick Zauck will again try to find open ground against the Mustangs.

If the Red Raiders continue to play better, they could be walking off their home field with a win over their rivals. Mainland has won the last six meetings.

"We play Mainland, it's a grudge match," Bethea said. "We have to go out and play as hard as we can. We haven't won in six years. We have to go out and change that."