VERO BEACH — Billy Livings Field at the Citrus Bowl was filled to capacity Friday night for the annual Kick –Off Classic game against the Palm Bay Pirates.
The Fighting Indians high powered passing offense scored on their first two possessions and didn’t throw one pass. Vero Beach took to their ground game early and caught Palm Bay by surprise.
“We saw a different look than we expected from them,” Vero coach Lenny Jankowski said. “We were able to get some tempo going offensively and for the first go at it I was pretty pleased.”
It only took Vero Beach three minutes to score. Their initial drive was capped off by a five yard touchdown by junior running back Dan Deusenberry. The Pirates fumbled the ball back to Vero who took possession on the Pirate’s sixteen yard line. Vero Beach was back in the end zone in less than three minutes on a three yard touchdown by senior running back Spencer Chenoweth.
Just before the end of the first quarter Palm Bay gained some momentum when quarterback Matt Wilson connected on short touchdown pass to Twonnie Pollard.
Both teams exchanged punts in the start of the second quarter. Vero Beach took a 21-7 lead when quarterback Carter Stanley threw his first touchdown pass of the game to junior receiver Sean Harvey with 5:07 to go in the first half.
“I’m always going to look at all four of the receivers. They can all catch the football,” Stanley said. “Sean was playing really well tonight.”
Palm Bay answered another Wilson to Pollard touchdown pass with thirty-six seconds to go in the second quarter. Vero capitalized on some pretty good field possession and just before the half senior Arron Kuh kicked a 48 yard field goal to give Vero a 24-7 halftime lead.
Palm Bay received the second half kickoff drove the ball offensively down the field and attempted a field goal that was blocked by Vero Beach and scooped up by sophomore Corvin Moment who took the ball 74 yards for the score.
“Our special teams played well for us tonight,” Jankowski said. “We hit a big field goal and recovered a blocked kick for a score.”
Moment’s touchdown put Vero Beach in front 37-14 with 6:33 to go in the third quarter. Vero Beach quarterback second team quarterback Carson Proctor hooked up with Harvey for the receiver’s second touchdown catch of the game and a 37-14 Vero lead.
“We were able to give both quarterbacks an opportunity tonight,” Jankowski said. “And both of them played well while they were in there.”
Corvin Moment intercepted the Pirates in the endzone to end the third quarter and Vero Beach would start the fourth quarter on their own 20 yard line.
Vero Beach drove 80 yards and scored in less than 90 seconds on a 10 yard run by Spencer Chenoweth. Palm Bay scored on a rushing touchdown with 7:24 left in the game but Vero finished the game strong and subbed in players defensively to record their first win of the 2014 season 44-21.
“We’ll review the film after this and being able to work different guys in played to our strengths,” Jankowski said, All in all we did well. I think we scored four out of five times in the first half. A lot of guys got involved a lot of guys had the ball in their hands, both quarterbacks played pretty well so I’m pretty pleased.”
Vero Beach will host County rival Sebastian River in the Dollars for Scholars game next Friday.
