VENICE — In its first taste of game action since leaving Tallahassee following the 4S state championship last December, Venice played host to Naples on Tuesday night.
The Indians had to overcome a combination of costly turnovers, a 200-yard rushing performance and rally from a 10-point deficit, but pulled out a 27-17 victory.
“We had some first half jitters to start,” Venice head coach John Peacock said. “Once we got those out of the way, we were better. Overall, we did some good things. We played disciplined, and the defense was excellent. We have a good base to build off of, and this is just one phase of it.”
Venice struggled for a lot of the first half on offense, with new quarterback Jayce Nixon under center.
The Indians had one scoring drive in the first half — an 80-yard touchdown drive topped off by a one-yard rushing score from Asharri Charles in the first quarter — and failed to finish a number of drives inside Naples territory.
Twice, Venice had chances in the red zone during the second quarter but failed to capitalize.
The first mistake was a fumble by Nixon inside the Naples 20 that was recovered by the Eagles with 8:10 to play in the frame. The second was a 24-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Matulevich from Nixon that was nullified due to a Venice penalty with two minutes before the half.
Those miscues set up Naples to do some damage.
And boy did it.
The Eagles scored twice during the final two minutes of play. The first was a 70-yard touchdown run by Shawn Simeon (215 rushing yards and two touchdowns), tying the game at seven with 55 ticks left.
The second was a 32-yard field goal by Dariece Collins as time expired shortly after Nixon was picked off by Naples defensive back Eli Chery.
The Eagles came out and punched Venice in the mouth on their first drive of the second half, pushing their lead to 17-7 on a 65-yard touchdown run by Simeon just one minute into the third quarter.
At that point, Venice’s offense finally got in gear behind several impact players.
The best offensive player on the field for Venice was rising sophomore running back Dorien Jones, who scored twice during the second half — once on the ground and once through the air. He would finish the game with 150 rushing yards.
“He ran extremely hard,” Peacock said. “He ran behind his pads in a way that reminded me a lot of (former Venice running back Da’Marion Escort) and how he ran.”
Jones’s 10-yard rushing score made it 17-14 with nine minutes left in the third. Then, Jones did it through the air, grabbing a 12-yard touchdown pass from Nixon to make it 20-17 late in the quarter.
After tossing a pick and losing a fumble in the first half, Nixon was turnover-free, throwing two touchdowns in the second half.
The latter TD toss went to wideout Noah Chieffo from 22 yards out to push the advantage to 27-17 and effectively put the game out of reach midway through the fourth.
For the game, Nixon was 15 of 27 for 177 yards, two touchdowns and the one interception.
“It was hard to explain, because we hadn’t had a day like that in practice,” said Peacock of Nixon’s tough first half. “I think he was just nervous, a little jittery. Once we got that out of the way, he came back and made some really good throws in the second half. He really ran the offense well, with our tempo, in that second half.”
Defensively, the Indians held the Eagles scoreless after the Simeon run in the second half. The Naples running back only rushed for 40 yards the rest of the way.
“We’re tough up front,” Peacock said. “We have some big, strong kids up there. Definitely one of the strongest defensive lines we’ve ever had. That offense is different, so it’s makes it even tougher. That running back is a beast. He’s very impressive.”
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