The Lehigh Lightning will square off against the Venice Indians at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Lehigh has struggled recently with five losses in a row, while Venice will arrive with five straight victories.
Two weeks ago, 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 323rd, while the Red Knights are ranked 160th).
Although Lehigh took the loss, they still got scores from Johnny Ash and Sean Battle.
Meanwhile, it was close, but on Friday Venice sidestepped Cocoa for a 54-51 win.
Venice found their leader in underclassman 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 Irving-Jones 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. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Cocoa only rushed for 138.
Lehigh's defeat dropped their record down to 0-4. As for Venice, they pushed their record up to 5-0 with the victory, which was their 14th straight at home dating back to last season.
Lehigh was dealt a bruising 39-0 loss at the hands of Venice in their previous matchup back in November of 2022. Will Lehigh have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more football content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
