Familiar playoff foe for Braden River Pirates: Venice Indians

Music comes pumping through the speakers of Austin Oberlin’s vehicle parked at one end of Braden River’s football practice field.

It’s to simulate the expected colossal crowd and noise emanating from Powell-Davis Stadium at Venice High on Friday night.

That’s where Braden River’s football team finds itself heading for a Class 7A-Region 3 semifinal.

It’s the third straight year the Pirates and Indians are locking up in the playoffs, despite the Florida High School Athletic Association’s playoff overhaul for this season that was expected to curb early-round playoff rematches from the regular season.

It’s also the last chance for Braden River’s senior class to battle their south Sarasota County rivals.

For four seniors – center Brendan Bengttson, running back Deshaun Fenwick, defensive lineman Chase Knopf and defensive back Tyrone Collins – it’s the sixth and final meeting for the quartet in their varsity careers against Venice.

“We need to be more organized,” Bengttson said. “Everybody needs to be in sync. ... Everybody has to do their job at the same time.”

Collins was on the sideline during this year’s regular-season contest but didn’t play as he was healing from a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered during the offseason.

In his absence, Venice’s top passing target, wide receiver Jaivon Heiligh, torched the Pirates secondary with eight receptions for 184 yards and two touchdowns.

“He’s getting targeted 15, 20 times a game,” Braden River head coach Curt Bradley said. “We’ve got to do different things. We can’t just do the same things over and over again and expect different results.”

Collins, who played on the same 7-on-7 team with Heiligh in the offseason, made his return the week after the Venice game – and the defense has only improved.

“We know we have a good matchup between me and him,” said Collins, who is committed to the University of Missouri. “So he’s going to do what he’s got to do and I’m going to do what I’ve got to do.”

Prior to this season, the home team won each game after Venice’s addition to District 11 in 2015. And the winner in the regular-season matchup also won the playoff rematch before falling in the state semifinals to perennial power Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas.

If this year’s winner gets through to the state semifinals again, they’ll get a home game against whomever emerges from the Aquinas region after having a higher playoff points average.

In the first 2015 game, former Braden River star Raymond Thomas took the first play for an 80-yard touchdown run. Paul Wiggins intercepted Venice quarterback Bryce Carpenter to seal the 10-point victory.

“That game my sophomore year, Raymond Thomas was an absolute animal,” said Fenwick, who is committed to the University of South Carolina. “He was probably the best player in this whole vicinity.”

Thomas, who tore his ACL the week after, was sidelined when Braden River’s stout defense blanked the Indians 17-0 in the playoff rematch.

Last season, Venice’s running game, behind Matt “Speedy” Laroche’s Sarasota County-record season for rushing yards, ran circles around the Pirates with a seven-point regular-season victory and a 64-point outburst in the playoff game for a 22-point win.

“My sophomore year, I was a child,” Fenwick said. “I was playing against some big, big boys. It was fun. Winning was fun. Next year coming in, I was a lot better but our team just wasn’t as good as Venice was. So it didn’t feel the same. There was a lot of hurt. Losing to them last game, that hurt even more. I was like, ‘I can’t keep letting Bryce Carpenter beat me.’ ”

The teams played another instant classic with the Pirates possessing the ball inside Venice’s red zone in the waning moments of the 2017 regular-season meeting. Penalties pushed Braden River into two failed Hail Mary heaves with time running out and Venice earned a six-point win that buoyed the Indians to a district title and the region’s No. 1 seed for the playoffs.

That game began with Fenwick uncharacteristically fumbling at the goal line on the opening drive.

“I put that game on myself, because I score that touchdown, I feel like we win that game,” Fenwick said.

So here we are again.

Braden River and Venice.

Round six.

And for the seniors, a last chance to write their own chapter in the area’s newest rivalry.

“This is my last high school game, so I’m going to give it everything I’ve got ... that’s how I’m looking at it,” Fenwick said.

This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Familiar playoff foe for Braden River Pirates: Venice Indians."