VERO BEACH – The Vero Beach Fighting Indians held their preseason Kickoff Classic against Jensen Beach Friday night at the Citrus Bowl before an enthusiastic regular season crowd, dominating over their opponents with a final score of 41 to 6.
Many fans wanted to see how second year Coach Lenny Jankowski would handle double duty as head coach and offensive coordinator.
Jankowski said it’s a natural fit.
“It doesn’t feel any different for me this year. I prepare for the games the same way. It feels great calling the plays during game situations,” Jankowski said. “I even set up the field prior to the game. I like being totally involved.”
Most teams use the Kick Off classic to knock off the rust and clear the cobwebs. Consider the rust knocked and the cobwebs cleared for Vero Beach, who scored two touchdowns in the first quarter.
First year starting quarterback Dalton Stokes threw a 54-yard touchdown pass to Will Dawkins who played defensive back last year for the Fighting Indians.
Dawkins has made the transition look easy.
“I miss being out there playing defense with the rest of the guys, but they wanted me to move to offense so I did,” Dawkins said. “I like making big plays no matter what position I play.”
Dawkins also lined up behind center on a couple of plays that resembled the Wildcat formation.
“Will is an extraordinary athlete,” Jankowski said, “He did a great job for us tonight.” Stokes also hooked up with junior Javonte Bagley for another score with 2:21 to go in the first quarter.
“This is like a dream come true for me,” Stokes said, “I have always wanted to be in this position and play in front of this crowd.”
Jensen Beach opened the second quarter by snapping the ball over their punter’s head and into the end zone for a safety.
With 9:43 to go in the second quarter Stokes hit first year receiver senior Jamario Lambert for a 36-yard touchdown. Lambert is a recent addition to Vero’s spread offense and is listed at 6-foot-2 and 170 pounds.
Lambert started for the Fighting Indians basketball team last season and led the team to the 2012 final four tournament.
Lambert’s touchdown put Vero Beach up 21-0 at halftime after two missed extra points by Vero placekicker Karson Dietrich.
Vero Beach started the second half with a 30-plus-yard pass from Stokes to Nate Pryor at the 11:03 mark.
Dietrich uncharacteristically missed his third extra point of the night and Vero Beach led 27-0.
The Fighting Indians quietly held Jensen Beach scoreless during the first half of football but in the third quarter the defense made some noise.
Senior defensive back Sean Paul picked off a Jensen Beach pass and took it to the house 37 yards for the score with 9:07 to go.
Defensive captain Cole Ripple said the defense will never let up.
“It doesn’t matter how big of a lead we have we will never let up on a team. We will take out our starters and let the other guys get some reps, but we never let up,” Ripple said.
Quarterback Ryan Hiser replaced Dalton Stokes and completed a couple of passes including a 5-yard strike to Lambert with 3:23 to go in the third that put Vero on top 41-0.
Jensen Beach was able to finally put some points on the board in the fourth quarter via a 25-yard pass and catch from Alex Ogle to Sean Ritz with 5:02 to go in the game.
Vero stuffed the Falcons’ two-point attempt and recorded the 41-6 win.
Coach Jankowski said the score was not a true representation of what went on.
“We looked good at times but I’m sure tomorrow when we look at the film we will see plenty of things we could have done better as we prepare for Sebastian next week,” Jankowski said.
Vero Beach will host Inter-county rival Sebastian River next Friday at the Citrus Bowl for the annual Dollars for Scholars game at 7 p.m.