For the first 46 minutes of last Saturday night’s high school football game in Miami, it seemed like the start of an evening to remember: Around town, in clubs and sports bars, it seemed all of the Vero Beach community was in a state of euphoria at the prospect of the Fighting Indians winning their first state championship in 44 years.
Then in the final two minutes of rapidly rising nail-biting apprehension, as hundreds watching the live game streaming on TV saw their team’s eight-point lead dwindle to six, the euphoria yielded to increasing levels of apprehension.
And as the scoreboard clock at Pitbull Stadium turned to 0:00, the apprehension yielded to panic. St. Mary’s had tied the game on a closing-seconds Hail Mary pass. When St. Mary’s successfully kicked the extra point a few minutes later, the panic turned to dejection.
“What a heartbreak!” moaned one fan at the watch party at Cap’s Pizza, one of the gathering places around Vero where fans had packed into watch parties to view the championship game being played 150-miles away. “Can you believe it?” exclaimed another.
While a variety of places held watch parties around the area, including the Quail Valley River Club, Riverside Café and Mulligan’s on the island, most of the diehard fans who did not make the trek south to Miami watched in sports bars on the mainland including Big Shots on U.S. 1 and What-a-Tavern on Royal Palm.
But Cap’s Pizza on 27th Avenue, which had been streaming all Fighting Indians games live through their 14-0 march to the state championship final, has consistently attracted the most loyal local fans. “Can you believe it?” said one of Vero Beach High’s supporters as the game ended.
At the Quail Valley River Club, about 70 members and their guests watched the game in McKeever’s Pub where large-screen TVs had been set up, and it had been all smiles early in the evening as Vero jumped out to a 21-3 lead at halftime.
Cameron Barnes, a former Vero Beach High School and St. Ed’s student, led the cheers at Quail Valley when his cousin, No. 11 Efren White, scored the game’s first touchdown. “He made me proud and Vero made me proud,” Cameron said.
The final score was obviously a downer for Fighting Indians fans, but those leaving Cap’s Pizza – which had printed up special T-shirts for the championship game – still had those as mementos of a team that was undefeated in its regular season and came oh-so-close to winning it all.
(Staff writers Stephanie LaBaff and Mary Schenkel contributed to this report)
