Ocean’s Aidan Zacharczyk on His Game-Winning, 51-Yard Field Goal: ‘I Love Pressure’

Photograph by The Link News

When Ocean lost starting kicker Joe Bercovicz to transfer in the offseason, it opened the door for Spartans junior Aidan Zacharczyk to make school history. 

Zacharczyk delivered one of the most thrilling moments of the Shore Conference football season when he nailed a school-record 51-yard field goal in windy, nor’easter conditions with 10 seconds left in the game to beat Neptune 30-28 in Class C North last week. 

His proud father, Mark Zacharczyk, captured the show-stopping moment on video from the stands. 

 

 

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“I’m used to pressure,” Zacharczyk said on the Shore Sports Insider podcast(opens in new tab) this week. “I love pressure. Whether in sports, school, I love pressure.” 

“I knew I had to go out there and win the game for my team,” he continued. “They’d done all the hard work for me, and now I felt they deserve to win, and that’s what motivated me to go out there and give it all I had.” 

He booted what is believed to be the longest field goal in the Shore Conference since Toms River South’s Jake DelVento hit a 52-yard field goal in 2007 for the Indians. DelVento went on to kick at Monmouth University. 

The Shore Conference and state record is believed to be 58 yards, set by Shore Regional’s Kevin Mills in 1984. Zacharczyk is one of the rare Shore Conference kickers to clear the 50-yard mark, which also includes Jackson Memorial’s Mike Cortese hitting a 53-yarder in 2001. 

Zacharczyk did it in only his fifth game as a placekicker. He was Ocean’s punter last year before Bercovicz transferred to the state’s No. 1 team, Don Bosco Prep, in the offseason. That elevated Zacharczyk to placekicker, and he already has field goals of 46 and 51 yards on his resume. He is 5-for-5 on field goal attempts and 13-for-15 on extra points. 

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound junior is also a soccer star who plays goalie for an academy team, Cedar Stars Academy, and has Division 1 potential in that sport. He does not play for Ocean’s boys soccer team because by rule players cannot compete for an academy team and their high school team in the same season.  

Ocean football coach Chad King believes he could have a future in American football if he wants it. 

“Just given his background and size, I just thought in my mind like, ‘Hey, if you put a little more into this just outside of the football season, you could be really good at this thing,’” King said on the SSI Podcast. “And then when he got the chance to get the green light, I said, ‘Hey, maybe you take this a little more serious because you could probably be pretty good at this, and who knows where it takes you.” 

King said Zacharczyk went to multiple kicking camps over the summer and worked with Ocean long-snapper Dylan Rose. 

“We had nothing but support and confidence in Aidan,” King said. 

It took an acclimation period before Zacharczyk was comfortable with being a kicker. 

“My plant foot was terrible,” he said. “I kick a ball differently in each sport. There was definitely a lot of adjustment to be made to learn to kick a football correctly.’ 

Not only did Zacharczyk’s kick set an Ocean school record, it also was huge in the Spartans’ push for a state playoff berth. It moved them to 3-2 and No. 8 in the South Jersey Group 2 section. The top 16 teams qualify for the postseason. 

Next up for the Spartans is old rival Long Branch (2-3) on Friday, where King was formerly the head coach. New Green Wave quarterback Jordan Gaudious was also Ocean’s signal-caller last year before transferring to Long Branch. The senior played his first game last week in a 21-7 victory over Manchester after sitting out the first three games due to the NJSIAA transfer rule.

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Scott Stump is the football editor and a reporter for Shore Sports Insider. He first started covering Shore Conference football in 1999. 

Email: scottstump25@gmail.com