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By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr
November 20, 2020
Ocean Township High School varsity football closed out their 2020 season with authority. Friday night, they hosted Manchester High School and after a shaky start dominated the Hawks winning 49-26.
Manchester came into Ocean with an impressive 5-2 record, while the Spartans were 2-3. Ocean Township started the game on offense. On their second play Tyler Douglas, sophomore quarterback for the Spartans, was intercepted by the Hawks defense. A few plays later, Manchester had moved the ball a total of 50 yards and scored their first touchdown taking a quick 7-0 lead with 9:40 left in the first quarter.
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The first quarter ended with Manchester in the Spartans red zone. And just seconds into the second quarter their quarterback ran in from two yards out for another score. The extra point was no good, but they had a 13-0 lead on Ocean with 10:09 left in the first half.
Ocean then exploded for 30 unanswered points in ten minutes. Manchester imploded during the second quarter and was never able to recover.
Senior Chris Carasia took the Hawks kickoff after their second touchdown and ran 85 yards for the first Ocean score. The Spartan defense stuffed Manchester on their next possession.
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Douglas hit Carasia for a 30-yard catch and run play going to the Manchester eight-yard line. Douglas then kept the ball and ran in for the second Ocean touchdown. He also kicked the extra point giving his team a 14-13 lead with 6:15 left to play.
Manchester faced a third and 29 on their own three-yard line. A group of Spartans led by senior Evan Peters tackled the Hawks running back in the end zone for a two-point safety and were now up 16-13 with 5:57 left in the first half.
The Hawks were forced to kickoff to the Spartans and guess what? Douglas took the ball 40 yards for another Ocean touchdown. Their lead increased to 23-13 with 5:12 left in the first half.
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Carasia this time took the ball and ran 60 yards for another Ocean touchdown. The Spartans now had a 43-13 lead with 8:09 left in the third quarter.
With 46 second left in the third quarter the Spartans added another touchdown. They were now up 49-13, and NJSIAA mercy rule went into effect. Any team that holds a 35-point advantage over an opponent during the second half, the clock will run.
Manchester was able to work their way to the Spartan goal line and with no time left on the clock in the third quarter scored making the score 49-20.
With 2:44 to play in the game, Manchester scored their final touchdown of the game on a two-yard quarterback run. The final score was 49-26 and Ocean finished the abbreviated pandemic season at 3-3.
Douglas finished with 129 yards completing 5 of 9 passes, throwing one touchdown and one interception. He also ran for 126-yards on 12 carries and had four rushing touchdown.
Carasia had 44 yards rushing on three touches and had two catches for 104 yards with one touchdown. Christian LaRosa had 10 carries for 39 yards. Peters had two catches for 20 yards.
Ryan Savage led the Spartans on defense with 11 tackles. Ben Trench had eight tackles, two sacks, and four tackles for a loss. Shane Garrett made four tackles, had two sacks, and two tackles for a loss. Joe Teresi had five tackles all for a loss. He also had two sacks.
“Very proud of our program. Our kids were negatively impacted by COVID probably more than any other team in the Shore,” said Don Klein, head coach. Ocean missed the only scrimmage of the pre-season, their first game was cancelled and none of those were caused by any member of the Ocean squad. “That can be frustrating for young people to deal with, but to our players’ credit, particularly the our seniors, they remained focused and stayed the course.”
Klein was very pleased with his teams last performance of the season. “We played in our final game of 2020 and executed at a high level. Made some big plays on both sides of the ball. The kids had fun and we were able to send the seniors out with a victory,” added Klein. He also praised his coaches, who he said are also great individuals and role models for the players.
Please click the photos to read the captions. Additional photos are posted at www.facebook.com/thelinksports
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