Football Preview: Venice Indians vs. Lehigh Lightning
The Venice Indians will venture away from home to face off against the Lehigh Lightning at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Venice has five straight wins, Lehigh has five straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Venice's upcoming game probably won't be as stressful as their last, when they took on another nationally ranked opponent: Cocoa, who was ranked 27th at the time (Venice was ranked 19th). Venice came out on top in a nail-biter against Cocoa on Friday, sneaking past 54-51.
It was another big night for Dorien Irving-Jones, who rushed for 226 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 7.3 yards per carry, and also picked up 36 receiving yards and a touchdown. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards. Jayce Nixon was another key player, throwing for 279 yards and three touchdowns.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Venice was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 290 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 268 rushing yards in four consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, Lehigh had to suffer through a 41-13 loss at the hands of North Fort Myers. While losing is never fun, the Lightning can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida football rankings (they are ranked 324th, while the Red Knights are ranked 160th).
Venice's victory was their 14th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 5-0. As for Lehigh, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-4.
Everything came up roses for Venice against Lehigh in their previous meeting back in November of 2022 as the team secured a 39-0 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Venice since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
