The Venice Indians will venture away from home to challenge the Lehigh Lightning at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Venice has five straight victories, Lehigh has five straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Venice's upcoming contest 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 skirted past Cocoa 54-51.
Dorien Irving-Jones continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 226 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 7.3 yards per carry, and also picking 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 204 rushing yards in eight consecutive matchups dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, Lehigh was beaten by North Fort Myers 41-13 two weeks ago.
Although Lehigh took the loss, they still got scores from Johnny Ash and Sean Battle.
Venice's win was their 14th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 5-0. As for Lehigh, their loss dropped their record down to 0-4.
Friday's match might be decided in the trenches. Venice has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 317.8 rushing yards per game. It's a different story for Lehigh, though, as they've been averaging only 92.3. How will they fare against such a dominant running game?
Everything came up roses for Venice against Lehigh in their previous meeting back in November of 2022, as the squad secured a 39-0 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Venice since the team 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
