Venice has good start and finish in loss to nationally ranked St. Frances
VENICE – The Venice High football team had a decent start and an OK finish under the bright ESPN2 lights.
In between, St. Frances Academy showed why they are ranked as one of the top five teams in the country.
The Panthers scored 27 unanswered points in the second and third quarters and went on to a 34-17 victory over Venice in front of a soggy crowd at Powell-Davis Stadium.
Setting the tempo early, Venice (1-2) held the ball for the first 5 minutes, 31 seconds of the game, settling for a 35-yard field goal by Kirill Kotov to open the scoring.
“The game plan was to control the tempo and shorten the game,” Venice coach John Peacock said.
A combined sack by Damon Wilson and Jack Huber ended St. Frances’ first drive on downs at the Venice 16-yard line.
But the Panthers (3-0) went on a long 13-play march to score on a fourth-and-9 play from the Venice 10 to take the lead at 7-3, an advantage they did not relinquish.
Fourth in the recent MaxPreps rankings, St. Frances added a touchdown with 2:41 left in the first half, scored on an 80-yard run on the first play of the third quarter and got a 63-yard scoring run less than 5 minutes later to make it 27-3.
A 31-yard pass from Brooks Bentley to Keyon Sears set up a 9-yard touchdown pass from Bentley to tight end Fin Jones. Bentley also connected with Sears for the two-point conversion to make it 27-11 with 4:07 left in the third.
The Panthers then went 80 yards in 12 plays, plus one big Venice penalty on a fourth-and-4 that extended the drive, to make it 34-11.
Venice got an 18-yard scoring pass from Bentley to Ryan Matulevich, and then stopped St. Frances’ final drive to end on a high note.
“We played better,” Peacock said. “We had to play close to a perfect game and execute our game plan and play well. And we didn’t.”
Venice plays host to Sanford Seminole (3-0) at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 23 at Powell-Davis Stadium.
“We’ve gotten better in this four-game span,” Peacock said, including the fall kickoff classic against IMG National. “We might be 1-2 right now, but we’re in a good spot where we are as a football team. If you can be in a good spot being 1-2, we’re there.”
Venice takeaways
• Venice came out with the trickery right from the start. On the first play, Bentley tossed back to Elliot Washington, who fired the football down the field just out of the reach of a wide-open Sears. “The first play of the game is a walk-in touchdown and we missed it,” Peacock said. “If you’re gonna win a game like that, you’ve got to make those plays.”
• Bentley went 14-for-28 for 114 yards and the two touchdowns. He also rushed four times for 23 yards. Alvin Johnson led the rushing attack with 45 yards on 19 carries.
• Peacock said he thought “the defense played well at times. We did give up some big plays that hurt us. We’ve got to figure out why we came out flat in the third quarter.” St. Frances rushed for 407 yards and passed for 87. The Panthers had 15 plays of 10 or more yards. “They competed,” Peacock said. “They stood in the paint. Giving up the big ones hurt us. If a couple of things go our way, it might be a different outcome.”
• The teams did not participate in a post-game handshake in the middle of the field. “We haven’t lined up in a line yet,” Peacock said. “If people want to shake hands, we shake hands. If they don’t want to shake hands, it saves a lot of possible incidents. I don’t believe in it. People don’t shake hands in the NFL and line up in lines in college and there’s a reason because of it. And there’s COVID going around too, so we don’t want to catch COVID.”
St. Frances takeaways
• The Panthers, who were rarely penalized in their first two games, were hit with 13 accepted penalties.
• Senior running back Durell Robinson had more than 100 yards in the first half and finished with 123 yards on 17 carries. Junior running back Dejuan Williams led the Panthers with 154 yard on 12 carries. Williams picked up 108 yards on four carries in the third quarter.
• St. Frances plays IMG Academy National on Nov. 18 in Baltimore.
Dennis Maffezzoli is the deputy sports editor for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and chief reporter for Sarasota Herald-Tribune and HTpreps covering Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties. Support local journalism by subscribing.
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Venice has good start and finish in loss to nationally ranked St. Frances
