SEBASTIAN — After remaining idle last week Vero Beach hit the road for their first away game of the 2011season and faced Sebastian in the sixth annual Dollars for Scholars Football Classic Friday night, beating the Sharks 26-14, at Shark Stadium.
Vero Beach Coach Lenny Jankowski said that it was good to be back on the field.
“We used the bye week to get some guys healthy and work on some new things but it felt great to be back to playing football,” he said.
The Fighting Indians came into Friday night’s match up ranked fifth in Class 8A according to the AP Top Ten poll.
They got the jump on the Sharks with 6:38 to go in the first quarter when quarterback Nick Madden threw a six-yard lob pass over the Sebastian secondary for the first score of the game.
Twenty-three seconds into the second quarter Sebastian’s workhorse running back, Nikko Finnegan, took the ball in from two yards out to even the score at 7 apiece.
The Fighting Indians scored twice more in the second quarter. Madden connected on a deep sideline pass to receiver Charlie Miller that set up a two yard run by running back Dentist Hall with 9:32 to go.
Then, Vero defensive back Josh Gallo sparked the offense with a fumble recovery that transitioned into a Madden-to- Rakeem Marcell touchdown good for 45 yards and a 20 to 7 lead.
Hall recorded his first 100-yard game of the season and gave all of the credit to his offensive line.
“I would put my offensive line up against anyone in the nation,” Hall said, “The big boys up front did all the work and they deserve all of the credit.”
Sebastian dominated the time of possession in the third quarter on a single drive that consumed almost eight and a half minutes that resulted in a seven-yard touchdown pass from Norris Rogers to Jack Flannery and put the Sharks within six yards.
Vero Beach took over and in less than two and a half minutes Madden found Marcell for his third touchdown catch of the game.
After junior kicker Carson Dietrich missed his second extra point of the evening Vero led 26 to 14. Neither team could find the end zone in the fourth quarter so the missed extra points were not a factor.
Coach Jankowski said that there are some big games ahead.
“We’ve got two big district games coming up against Centennial and Treasure Coast and all of the festivities that go along with homecoming,” he said. “We will enjoy this win tonight but get back to work on the things we did poorly first thing tomorrow.”
Vero Beach improves to 6-0 and returns to the Citrus Bowl next week to host their first district game of the season against St. Lucie West Centennial. Sebastian falls to 2-4.