Ocean City Slams Mainland Regional on the Wrestling Mat

The Ocean City High School wrestling team has two goals every season: make the playoffs and beat Mainland.

The first didn't happen, as the Red Raiders failed to finish in the top six in the NJSIAA Group III South power-point rankings, which were released on Jan. 31.

However, Ocean City got the job done against Mainland on Thursday night in Linwood.

The Red Raiders won nine of the 14 bouts and racked up bonus points in every weight class in a convincing 52-27 win.

"Of course, every sport against Mainland is a big rivalry," Ocean City senior Coley O'Brien said. "We had a bunch of people come out here and show support for the team. It was nice. It felt great to come out here and get the win today."

"It's a match we look forward to every year and hope on winning it every year," Ocean City coach Dave Castellini said.

The Red Raiders, who have won five straight matches, haven't let missing the playoffs slow them down.

It helps that this week's schedule included county rival Middle Township (on Jan.31) and rival Mainland.

The wrestlers also know that these matches are important when it comes to seeding the District 32 Tournament later this month.

"They are two big CAL matches and district matches, and they are definitely matches you want to win or that will kill your seed," Ocean City's Dan Pettit said. "It's nice to have district matches to keep the team straight."

"We just wanted to win and that's all we talked about this week," Ocean City senior Anthony DeSantis said. "We all talked about beating Middle, Mainland and Barnegat. We are on track."

The Red Raiders started strong against the Mustangs, winning nine of the first 11 bouts, including six by pins.

Dominic DiGiacomo started the night off with a 13-1 major decision at 125 pounds. O'Brien followed with a pin at 130 to give the Red Raiders a 10-0 lead.

Ocean City's Marc Demore (140), Dan Pettit (145), DeSantis (160), Lucas Pearson (215) and Josh Johnson (heavyweight) won by pin.

"It's  a big deal to wrestle Mainland or play Mainland in any sport," Johnson said. "It felt great. Everybody wrestled hard, and wrestled the best they could."

Jake Terry (171) won by injury default in the first period, and Kevin Day (189) was awarded a forfeit win.

"We are having a great season," O'Brien said. "We have a bunch of matches left and we want to do as well as we can. It's disappointing that we didn't reach our goal of the playoffs, but are going to do our best."