SPRING FOOTBALL ROUNDUP: Lakeland starts fast, hangs on to beat Venice
LAKELAND — Lakeland High jumped out to a 21-0 halftime lead and defeated defending Class 8A state champion Venice High 31-24 in a spring football game Thursday night at Bryant Stadium.
and the victory was led by Lakeland quarterback and Ridge Community transfer Zach Pleuss’ 14-for-21 with 244 yards and three touchdowns. On the receiving end was Daidren Zipperer, who caught the ball four times for 130 yards and two scores.
Venice got behind early after Lakeland quarterback Zach Pleuss threw a 59-yard touchdown pass to Daidren Zipperer midway through the first quarter and Lakeland's Don’Ares Johnson ran for a 33-yard touchdown early in the second. Pleuss threw another TD pass — a 10-yarder to Tyler Williams — to make the score 21-0 at the half.
Venice finally got on board when quarterback Brooks Bentley hooked up with Dontey Joyner on a 17-yard touchdown with 10:32 left in the third quarter.
But the Lakeland answered with another TD pass — this time, a 35-yarder from Pleuss to Zipperer — with 3:30 left in the third to put the score up to 28-7. Lakeland added a 26-yard field goal from Calum Maldoon with 8:42 left in the fourth.
Venice added 17 fourth-quarter points — an 18-yard touchdown pass from Bentley to Keyon Sears, a Kirill Kotov 20-yard field goal and and a 20-yard TD pass from Bentley to Sears again with 1.7 seconds left in the game.
Brooks threw for 166 yards and three touchdowns and Sears hauled in six catches for 110 yards and two touchdowns.
“There were some good things and some bad things,” Venice head coach John Peacock said. “It’s going to take some time to get everything going, clicking the way we want. This is the first step of it.
"Lakeland’s a really good football team. It’s probably one of the best football teams I’ve seen in a long time.”
Venice takeaways
• Venice did not score until the third quarter, but that doesn’t mean the Indians didn’t have chances in the first half. Driving down the field in the beginning of the second quarter, Venice got the ball near the end zone, but Lakeland's Mike Singleton picked off Bentley in the end zone.
• With 10 new players and five new starters on the offensive line, Bentley still managed to throw a late touchdown pass that allowed Venice to make it a one-score game. An onside kick ended the game. While he wasn’t the most accurate, Bentley was able to scramble out the pocket and flick a few passes for completions that ended up in positive yardage. “He did a great job of running the ball ... tough kid (and) he made good decisions,” Peacock said.
• Another bright spot for Venice was the play of Sears. The smallest player on field had a constant knack for getting open and making some jaw-dropping moves. Sears had four plays of 15 yards or more, which included a running play and his two touchdown catches.
— Robert Magobet
Bayshore 28, Bradenton Christian 7
BRADENTON — Cody Bonis ran for 149 yards as Bayshore High rushed past Bradenton Christian School, 28-7, in a spring football game at Balvanz Stadium.
Bonis scored the first touchdown of the night on a 5-yard scamper to cap a 5-play, 45-yard drive on Bayshore’s opening possession.
The Panthers responded to tie the game at 7-7 on a 72-yard pass from Anthony Nguyen to Graceson Jankovich later in the first period. But the BCS offense remained stalled after that.
The Panthers ran the ball 12 times for seven yards in the first half, compared to a total of 129 yards on the ground for Bayshore through the first two quarters.
The Bruins made it 14-7 with just 22 seconds remaining in the first half on a 2-yard burst by Zekilynn Singleton.
Bayshore quarterback Guyvenson Pierre scored on a 10-yard rollout midway through the third period and Drake Robl provided the final score on a 1-yard plunge.
Nguyen completed 7 of 14 passes for 136 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
Carson Fisher of BCS stopped a potential Bayshore scoring drive with an interception in the second quarter.
Jesus Morales and Bonis collected interceptions for Bayshore and Sawyer Baker and Tyron Huffman recorded sacks for the Bruins.
Bayshore takeaways
• Bayshore ran for a total of 270 yards, but that figure could have easily exceeded 300 yards, if not for five bad snaps that sailed well over the head of Pierre. “We had too many bad snaps,” Bayshore head coach Jamaal Sanders said. “Those are drive killers. We want to run the ball and that put us in a hole. We’re not comfortable when we have to throw for 15 yards on third down. When we were able to get the snaps, we did a good job of running the ball.”
• On how the Bruins use their spring football period, Sanders said, “We use the spring as an evaluation period. Whether we win, lose or draw, we’re going to go back to the drawing board and see what we did well. And see what we did badly. We've got a lot of stuff we need to work on.”
• Overall, Sanders was pleased with the progress the younger Bruins made this spring. “We’re seeing those freshmen and sophomores growing up to be sophomores and juniors,” he said. “They have been doing their job in the weight room. You can tell, it shows.”
Bradenton Christian takeaways
• After previously serving as the team’s defensive coordinator, Scott Paravicini, 28, spent his first game as head coach of the Panthers on Thursday. “There’s a lot to learn,” Paravicini said. “We’re a really young football team. I’m a young head coach and we’re a young football team.”
• Paravicini echoed Sanders’ sentiments when it came to his approach to spring football. “We’ll go back to the drawing board and fix the mistakes,” Paravicini said. "We’ve got a long time before we play again, so there is a bright future.”
• Paravicini wasn’t exaggerating when discussing the youth of his team. He had some eighth-graders on the field against Bayshore. “It was good just to get them some experience,: he said. “They have been playing at the middle school level, and to jump to varsity football is completely different.”
— Jim Brockman, correspondent
Lakewood Ranch 28,
Seminole Osceola 26
LAKEWOOD RANCH — The Lakewood Ranch High football team completed a successful spring with a 28-26 victory over Seminole Osceola Fundamental High.
Down 20-14 at halftime, the Mustangs scored the only touchdown of the third quarter to take their first lead of the game and capitalized on a fumble recovery to pad the lead to 28-20 in the fourth quarter.
Lakewood Ranch then held firm on a potential game-tying 2-point conversion in the final seconds to pull out the victory.
“Gotta make it exciting, right?” Mustangs coach Rashad West said.
Led by former Southeast High and Lakewood Ranch High assistant Cody Montgomery, the Warriors drove 70 yards in 2 minutes, 5 seconds to get within 28-26.
The 2-point conversion attempt was an adventure, as the Mustangs jumped offside to put the ball at the 2-yard line before Osceola was flagged for a delay-of-game penalty moving the ball back to the 6.
Dylan Letaw broke up the pass attempt with help from Jaden Munoz preserving the victory.
“It’s good for the defensive kids to have some success, for sure,” West said. “It was good for the team to have some success. Thank God we have six, eight weeks (before we) play again, so we’ll fix it.”
West lamented two interceptions and a lost fumble that led to 13 Warriors points.
“We turned the ball over too much and had too many stupid penalties,” West said. “We’ve got to clean that up and be a little more disciplined. That’s not who we are. We’ve got to be better.”
Kevin Everhart scored rushing touchdowns from 7 and 3 yards out and caught a 34-yard pass where he shifted from the right side to the left side with some fancy moves.
Caleb Rhodes, the fourth quarterback employed by the Mustangs, threw a 9-yard pass to Nick Sinacore in the fourth quarter. Dylan Besse made all four of the PAT kicks.
The teams did not play special teams as the ball was placed on the 30-yard line to start drives and punts where they were fielded.
Lakewood Ranch went 3-6 last year, 0-4 in Class 8A-District 12. This year the Mustangs are in Class 4A Suburban-District 13 with Manatee and Palmetto.
Lakewood Ranch takeaways
• All four of the Mustangs quarterbacks played. Mejia Sebastian started and went 6-for-10 for 62 yards and two interceptions. Colin Hait followed and completed all three of his passes for 47 yards. Clayton Dees took over in the third quarter and went 2-for-9 for 41 yards, but rushed for 23 yards, including a clutch 26-yard scamper on a fourth-and-5 play and Rhodes played the fourth quarter and completed 5-of-6 passes for 58 yards. “I like that we’ve got it on film, so we can watch it and evaluate,” West said. “But I was happy to get them all in.”
• Defensively, Vincent Jovanoski had a fumble recovery that led to the final touchdown. Cameron Caudill, Thomas McCue and Yahir Diaz all had multiple tackles for a loss and Everhart broke up a pass in the fourth quarter.
• What's next for the Mustangs? “Summer starts here June 6. We’ll get these kids back in the weight room and learn what we are doing and get ready for the fall,” West said. “We’ll throw some 7-on-7, but it’s just about us and what we do. We’ve just gotta get better.”
— Dennis Maffezzoli, deputy sports editor
Port Charlotte 54, North Fort Myers 36
PORT CHARLOTTE – Edd Guerrier rushed for 217 yards and three touchdowns as the Pirates rolled past the Red Knights in a spring football game at the Pirates Cove.
Guerrier also caught a pass for 61 yards.
Justice Becerill had two touchdowns on the ground, while rushing for 48 yards on three carries. Ike Perry also had a rushing score.
Port Charlotte quarterback Bryce Eaton completed 5-of-11 for 94 yards and a touchdown to Jamal Streeter, who had three catches for 33 yards. Eaton also finished as the second-leading rusher with 92 yards on six carries and a touchdown.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: SPRING FOOTBALL ROUNDUP: Lakeland starts fast, hangs on to beat Venice
