Young Red Raiders Look to Build for Future

While the record on the field doesn't look promising, the Red Raiders are building and seeing progess in the process.  Ocean City started eight young players Friday night.

"We started six sophomores and dressed three freshmen, two that played a lot of minutes tonight," explained Ocean City Head coach Kevin Smith,  "We only played three seniors on offense tonight, we just have a lot of young kids.  We get eight starters back on offense next year so lets hope we learn."

Of those eight starters coming back on offense, one is sophomore quarterback Chris Gabor.  The young signal-caller is already a leader in the Red Raider huddle.

"He is very smart, very coachable and he self-corrects," Smith explained about Gabor who has thrown seven touchdowns this season.  "That's a hard thing to get high school kids to do.  He is going to be very good, he will learn as we go through time and he will get better as we go."

Up next for Gabor and the young Red Raiders, is Holy Spirit.  The Spartans have had a disappointing season, losing 37-14 on Friday night to Hammonton, but defeated Ocean City 34-0 last season at Carey Stadium. While Holy Spirit hasn't met lofty expectations, they are still potentially dangerous.

Last season, Holy Spirit controlled the clock and ran the ball 53 times for 323 yards with their running back duo of Nigel Jones and Donta Pollock -- his health permitting.  Ocean City was held to just 88 yards of offense in last seasons contest.

"We are hoping to see some progression,  we feel we have been getting better and better every week, in some ways we did that (against Oakcrest)," explained Smith. "But going into that game (Holy Spirit) and them coming off a loss I am sure they will be in a foul mood since they lost (to Hammonton)."

Ocean City will travel to Ed Burns Stadium to face Holy Spirit at 7 p.m. on Friday night.  The Red Raiders are 10-16-2 all-time against the Spartans.