VERO BEACH — The Vero Beach Fighting Indians hosted the Sebastian River Sharks in the annual Dollars for Scholars football classic game Friday night at the Citrus Bowl. It was the seventh time the two teams have met in the annual contest. Vero Beach leads the series 4-2.
Tickets for the game were at a premium and the Citrus Bowl swelled with anticipation as fans for both teams filled the stadium seats, which overflowed into the additional seating into the end zone.
“The crowd was awesome,” Vero Beach running back Jason Pierre said after the game. “Sebastian has been talking stuff all week. We wanted to shut them up and shut them down.”
That’s exactly what the Vero defense did.
After shutting down the Sebastian offense on their first offensive series Vero Beach capitalized on great field position after a poor Shark punt.
With 9:41 to go in the first quarter Vero Beach quarterback Dalton Stokes hit junior wide receiver Jimmie Williamson on a short pass that Williamson caught and then ping-ponged his way16 yards into the end zone.
After the two teams traded unsportsmanlike penalties Fighting Indians’ junior running back Will Dawkins lined up in the Thundercat formation, Vero’s version of the wildcat.
Dawkins took the direct snap 16 yards for Vero’s second score in the first quarter with 2:55 to go.
Coach Lenny Jankowski said it was important to build momentum early.
“In this kind of a game you like to jump out early. We were able to take those first two drives down and score points and get it up to a two touchdown lead,” Jankowski said. We took advantage of some good field position.”
In the second quarter neither team could find the end zone. The Sebastian River secondary came up with a big interception with 8:13 left in the second quarter that stalled a Vero Beach drive and at the 2:53 mark the Sharks blocked Carson Dietrich’s 33-yard field goal attempt.
The teams went to their locker rooms at halftime with Vero out in front 14 – 0.
The Fighting Indians tried to get something started in the third by uncharacteristically calling a reverse on the opening kickoff. Senior Dravious Wright took the ball the length of the field for the score that sent the crowd to their feet.
The play, however, was negated by a Vero Beach holding penalty.
“That play is part of our return package,” Jankowski said. “It was a great play, a great team play. There were a lot of big blocks there. And it’s disappointing that it was called back. We can’t continue to make those kinds of mistakes when we get a big play opportunity like that.”
The Fighting Indians defensive dominance carried over from the Jensen Beach game a week earlier. Vero senior Josh Gallo recovered a fumble by Sebastian running back Nicholas Connor with 8:15 to go in the third.
Less than four minutes later, Josh’s brother John Gallo recovered a fumble by Sharks quarterback Hakeem Rainy that set up a 16-yard touchdown pass from Dalton Stokes to Jason Pierre.
Vero missed the point after touchdown and led Sebastian 20-0.
Stokes threw his second touchdown of the third quarter with 20 seconds remaining when he hit Jamario Lambert for a 10-yard touchdown that put Vero up 27-0.
Neither team was able to score in the fourth quarter as Vero recorded its first shutout of the season.
Vero Beach defensive captain Cole Ripple said he could not wait for this game.
“We wanted to show everyone that we had the best defense,” Ripple said. “We heard that Sebastian said they had a tougher defense than ours so we wanted to prove something tonight to everyone on their side.”
Coach Jankowski said the game was a complete win.
“I think it was a total team effort,” he said. “I was proud of our guys. They worked hard for it. They had a great week of practice. I think there are good things to come.”
Vero will travel to Stuart next week to play Martin County. Sebastian will travel to Port St. Lucie to play Centennial.