PREP FOOTBALL: Venice reaches halfway point of season unscathed after thriller over Cocoa

VENICE — Venice football has had to weather a few storms throughout the first half of its 2024 campaign, and yet, the Indians are still undefeated at 5-0.

Venice got to that mark behind another gutsy offensive performance against one of the best teams in the country last Friday during the 54-51 thrilling win over Cocoa (3-2).

“It really was a great high school football game,” Venice head coach John Peacock said. “For a lot of the first half, it didn’t look too good. We had injuries, and [Cocoa] wasn’t making any mistakes. Their quarterback was unbelievable, and their receivers made big plays all night long. We played a really good football team [Friday].”

Venice faced its largest deficit of the season late in the first half against the Tigers — trailing 28-14 — needing something to go its way to stay in the contest.

The Indians once again — as they’ve done throughout the season to this point — made the necessary plays on offense to keep up.

Following a Jayce Nixon (17-of-27, 279 passing yards, three touchdowns) to Ryan Matulevich (seven catches, 75 receiving yards, one touchdown) touchdown connection that made it 28-21 at half, Peacock came out of the locker room with something up his sleeve.

With the Venice defense struggling against Cocoa’s high-octane offense, the Indians looked to shake things up on special teams.

Venice tried four onside kicks throughout the second half with kicker Brunno Reus, recovering half of them.

The first one at the start of the third frame was the most important, because less than a minute later, a once 14-point deficit had evaporated down to zero.

“[Brunno] really did an awesome job for us with the onside kicks,” Peacock said. “We’ve obviously been working on it all year, and we have a specific onside kick unit that has guys like Al [Oliver] and Landon [Marsters] on it. Brunno kicks the ball toward the middle of the field there, and our guys go make a play. We weren’t stopping Cocoa all night, so we figured we’d have a chance to change the game around and swing the possessions with an onside. That’s why I did it.”

Neither offense let up following the 28-28 gridlock early in the third.

Tied at 51 a piece with under two minutes to play, Venice’s game-winning drive was full of clutch moments that winning teams are accustomed to making.

A 14-yard screen pass on third and 15 helped setup a 19-yard run on a fourth and one — both plays courtesy of running back Dorien Irving-Jones. Later, a chunk-play pass from Nixon to wideout Malakai Corbett to put Reus in a much more manageable position for a field goal.

Then, finally, Reus’s 21-yard field goal that sailed through the uprights with four ticks left on the clock.

Fittingly, Venice’s 54-51 victory was sealed on the last play of the game thanks to a timely interception from two-way player Winston Watkins Jr..

Those are plays winning teams make.

This was the third game of the season where Venice found itself tied with its opponent in the fourth quarter.

The Indians could’ve lost to Bishop Verot, Miami Northwestern or Cocoa, but always had an answer in each and every game. That’s a sign of a really, really good football team.

“We’ve played some really, really tough teams, and it’s really been a battle every week for us,” Peacock said. “We’ve played the top of the top in almost very division here in our state, and we’ve come out on top. Our schedule slows down some at times now, so hopefully that’ll help our defense build some confidence. We have confidence in our offense obviously, but I think we’ll start to see some confidence start to show on defense as well.”

While games against 7A-8 foes Lehigh (0-4), Riverview (2-3) and Sarasota (3-2) shouldn’t pose any problems for the now nationally-ranked (19th on MaxPreps) Indians, contests against IMG Academy National (6th nationally) on Oct. 4 and Clearwater Central Catholic (51st nationally) on Oct. 18 could threaten Venice’s quest for a 10-0 regular season.

This week, though, Venice’s game with Lehigh down in the Fort Myers area is still on as of now, despite the threat of Hurricane Helene. Kickoff with the Lightning is slated for 7:30 p.m.

The Lightning have lost all four of their games this season by an average of 33.5 points per contest, getting outscored 173-39 during that span.

For reference, Port Charlotte dismantled Lehigh on Sept. 6, 66-0, playing mostly junior varsity players in the second half.

Expect Friday’s game to be used as a chance to rest a lot of Venice’s starters and reset before IMG Academy arrives at Powell-Davis Stadium the following week.