VERO BEACH — The Indians and Pirates coaches use this first game as a test. The Vero Beach High School football team hosted its first official game against the Palm Bay Pirates Friday night at the Citrus Bowl.
“Both of us wanted to play against each other to see where we were,” Vero head coach Lenny Jankowski said. “Palm Bay has a very athletic junior running back in Sekai Lindsey and we wanted to test our young defense against their running game.”
Vero Beach received the opening kickoff and on their first series quarterback Dalton Stokes fumbled the ball and Palm Bay recovered on the Vero 12 yard line. With 10:31 to go in the first quarter Pirates running back Latravious Brown took the ball into the end zone from four yards out to put Palm Bay up 7-0 on the home team. Stokes told the offense that the score was on him.
“I told the guys not to get upset, that was my fault and we we’ll get it back,” Stokes said.
Just about three and half minutes later Stokes’ promise came true when Vero running back Jason Pierre scored on a 2 yard run that tied the game at 7-7 with 7:03 to go in the first. Vero scored again just before the end of the first quarter on a 30 yard touchdown pass from Stokes to Will Dawkins.
“We were able to get behind the defense on that one right before the end of the quarter,” Dawkins said. “We saw some film on them before the game and we knew we could find some holes in the defense.” Vero Beach led 14-7 at the end of the first quarter.
Several of Vero’s key defensive players were lost to graduation and a fairly new group has stepped up to fill the vacancies.
Vero Beach defensive back Andrew Stirrat made a leaping catch and picked off a Pirate pass in the second quarter to set the tone defensively. Offensively in the second quarter Vero pulled a play out of their bag of tricks on a double reverse to receiver Ryan Hiser who threw the ball to Will Dawkins for another Vero score just before the half. Hiser has transitioned this season from quarterback to receiver and is happy with the move.
“I still have a quarterback’s mindset and know where the best holes are out there,” Hiser said. “Because Dalton and I were both quarterbacks and have played together since we were kids, we kind of know what the other guy is thinking.”
Coach Jankowski said the nontraditional play was perfect for the moment. “It’s a play that we have been working on in practice and we thought we could catch them sleeping before the half. Hiser is a talented athlete that can throw and catch and we are going to take advantage of what he can do on the field.” Vero led at the half 21- 7.
In the third quarter Vero Beach tested its new kicker Jason Rivas. Rivas was called upon to hit a 42 yard field goal with 2:04 left. Rivas booted the ball through the uprights effortlessly to put Vero out in front 24-7.
Rivas’ luck didn’t hold out in the fourth quarter when he had a punt blocked into the end zone with 3:48 to go in the game. Palm Bay’s Twonnie Pollard fell on the ball for the score. The Pirates point after attempt failed and Vero would hold on to win 24 – 13.
Coach Jankowski said he was pleased with the win but said there is still some work to do. “We played pretty well tonight. But we aren’t going to settle for this effort against other teams,” Jankowski said. “We will look at the film tomorrow and see that we need to work on some things to get ready for Sebastian.”
The Fighting Indians will host Sebastian River next week for their annual Dollars for Scholars game.
