LAKELAND — The Vero Beach Fighting Indians traveled two hours by bus to Lakeland to play George Jenkins High School’s Eagles Friday night. And it was worth it as the Indians handily beat the Eagles 42-10.
This was Vero’s first road game of the season and their first game coming off of their bye week. Vero Coach Lenny Jankowski said the week off only helped Vero.
“It gave us a chance to get our legs under us and get a little healthier we were a little banged up,” Jankowski said. “We have some guys that are hurt so we were able to use the time off to move some guys around and I feel the bye week worked to our advantage.”
After Vero Beach received the opening kickoff, it took less than a minute for them to score. Vero quarterback Dalton Stokes completed a short pass to receiver Will Dawkins who ran 70 yards for a touchdown.
Vero scored again with 8:17 left in the first quarter on a 7-yard rushing touchdown by Vero running back Jason Pierre. Stokes was picked off in the first quarter by the Eagles with 5:13 to go but the Eagles could not convert the turnover into points and they trailed Vero 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.
At the start of the second quarter George Jenkins continued to drive and was able to get Eagles kicker Ben Rice into range for a successful 37-yard field goal with 7:24 to go in the first half.
After the two teams traded punts on their next possessions, Vero was able to add to their lead with another rushing touchdown by Pierre from two yards out with 1:54 to go.
Stokes threw his second pick to end the first half with Vero leading George Jenkins 35 – 3.
The Eagles received the kickoff to start the second half but a bad exchange from center during the offensive series resulted in a fumble that was recovered by Vero Beach linebacker Antonio Jones Davis on the Eagle’s 42-yard line.
It only took Vero 43 seconds to score on a 43-yard pass from Stokes to Vero receiver Javonte Bagley with 9:19 to go in the third.
“One thing we did well tonight was create some space with our receivers,” Jankowski said. “We knew coming into tonight’s game that this was a physical team and we weren’t sure how we would do but our receivers played well and did a good job getting open.”
Vero Beach special teams came up with a big play when they blocked an Eagles punt and Vero’s John Gallo recovered. Vero converted the turnover into points on another Stokes to Bagley hookup for a 10-yard touchdown with 6:20 to go in the third quarter.
Vero had increased its lead to 35-3 but the Eagles rebounded with an impressive 80 yard drive resulting in a 9-yard touchdown run by Kalil Holt with 2:16 left in the third and a 35-10 Vero lead.
The Vero Beach defense came into Friday night’s contest allowing opponents less than 7 points per game – a small victory that the Eagles relished.
Vero defensive end Patrick Bethel said he was proud of how he and the defense preformed.
“All in all we did pretty good. We still have some work to do but we did pretty good,” Bethel said. “We accomplished a pretty good goal tonight. We only allowed them to score ten points and that isn’t easy to do against any team.”
Vero quarterback Dalton Stokes was picked off for the third time with 35:5 left in the third quarter. Stokes had only thrown one interception all season but threw three in the game against George Jenkins.
Coach Jankowski said he wasn’t worried about his quarterback.
“The first interception their corner makes a great play and the other two we threw into coverage and probably shouldn’t have,” Jankowski said. “Quarterbacks aren’t always at their best but as I told Dalton he’s not just our quarterback he’s the leader of our offense and he does a great job from that aspect.”
In the fourth quarter Vero Beach continued to shut the Eagle’s offense down and recovered a backward pass with 1:52 left in the game. Vero running back Spencer Chenoweth scored on a 10-yard run for Vero’s 6th touchdown and a 42-10 win over George Jenkins.
Vero Beach is currently 4-0 and will travel to Fort Pierce next week to play their first district game of the season against Fort Pierce Central. The Cobras are also undefeated.
Patrick Bethel said the team is excited for the matchup.
“We are excited, everybody is excited it’s the biggest game so far this season,” Bethel said. “We are gonna work even harder this week at practice and play even harder and come away with the win.”