In Florida, in a place called Kissimmee, something interesting happened during a game. Last week, the team called Vanguard played against a really strong team from Miami Central. Maybe because of that, or maybe because they had to play kind of far from their own town of Ocala, the start of this game was slow for Vanguard against a team called Erie from Colorado. But after they took a break and talked with their coach during halftime, the Knights had to work together to do better and not let the other team win unexpectedly.
Vanguard is ranked as the 4th best team in the state according to a list. They managed to get ahead and win the game with a score of 26-20. The thing that secured their win was when one of their players, Josiah Farmer, caught the ball that the other team was throwing and stopped them. This gave the Knights a good start with a record of 1 win and 0 losses.
Knights Still Have Trouble Scoring in First Half
The Knights had some trouble in the first part of the game when they had the ball. Last week, when they played against Miami Central in a practice game before the real season, it kind of made sense that they didn’t score a lot. Miami Central is a really strong team with many talented players. Even though it was a practice game, the Knights did well against them.
But now, in this new game against Erie, things were still a bit tough for the Knights when they had the ball. Fred Gaskin III, who is really good and is going to play for USF later, had a hard time against Erie’s defense in the first part of the game. Erie’s players tried to stop him by sending five or six players to pressure him.
Fred did his best and made good moves sometimes, but the Knights got into trouble a few times because of penalties that made them lose ground. This made it hard for them to keep things going smoothly.
There’s another player on the team now, Matthew Dial, who used to play for Belleview. He’s there to help Fred and the team, but in this game, he tried to throw the ball twice, and both times the passes didn’t work out.
So, it’s kind of like the same problem as before, but this time it’s against a different team. The team’s coach, Edwin Farmer, might decide to use Matthew more during the regular season to help out Fred.
The team from Erie tried really, really hard every time they played.
Imagine being almost 2,000 miles away from your hometown and playing against a strong team like Vanguard. That’s not an easy thing to do for the Erie team.
Even though they might not have been as fast or athletic as Vanguard, they made up for it by putting a lot of effort into every single play. That’s why the game stayed close, especially in the first part.
A player named Blake Barnett, who’s going to play for Kansas State later, is really important for the Tigers. He throws the ball and runs a lot. He did well by running for 78 yards and scoring two times.
But it wasn’t just Blake doing all the work. Other players like Donovan O’Brien, who catches the ball, and Gavin Lusk, who runs with it, also did good things in the game. They all worked really hard and didn’t stop, which was impressive to see.
Vanguard won because they scored the right touchdowns at the right time.
Even in the third part of the game, things weren’t completely clear. Erie’s team (they hadn’t won a game yet) made the score closer by getting a touchdown. They got 2 yards closer to the end zone with a special kind of run by their quarterback, Barnett.
But then, the players named Gaskin III and Mitch Brown from Vanguard made really great plays. They scored two touchdowns that were each 80 yards long.
Mitch Brown, who carried the ball 6 times and ran 100 yards, got the first 80-yard touchdown by running fast down the right side of the field. This made the score 20-13 for the Knights.
And then, Gaskin III made a perfect pass that went 80 yards to a player named Tay’Juan Leslie, who caught it and ran for a touchdown. This made Vanguard’s score go up to 26-13, and that was enough points to win.
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