North, Island Coast, Verot claim football wins
FOOTBALL
North Fort Myers 33, Fort Myers 30: The Red Knights’ defense came up with two sacks on Fort Myers’ final drive to secure the victory. North (5-1) held a 26-7 lead at halftime, but had to hold off the Green Wave’s second-half surge. Kirtis Denham rushed for two first-half touchdowns on runs of 80 and 6 yards. Adrian Scott caught touchdown passes of 29 and 25 yards from Caedon Conn. Conn also connected with Byron Flemming on a 68-yard score. It was the 57th time North and Fort Myers played the Battle of the Caloosahatchee.
Island Coast 32, Lemon Bay 26, 2 OT: Gervaris Leaphart’s 6-yard touchdown run lifted the Gators (3-3) to victory. It was Leaphart’s third TD of the game, following first-half runs of 80 and 20 yards. Island Coast fell behind 20-12 with 2:59 to play, but pulled even on Keenan Moore’s 25-yard TD catch with 1:14 remaining. Leaphart added the two-point conversion to send the game into OT. Kennari Shorter’s 10-yard TD catch gave Island Coast a brief lead in the first overtime. Lemon Bay would force a second OT, only to be stymied by the Gators’ defense to set up Leaphart’s game-winner.
Bishop Verot 34, First Baptist of Naples 28: The Vikings (4-2) rallied from a 21-14 deficit in the third quarter to hand First Baptist (4-1) its first defeat .Carter Smith hit TD passes to Leo Berman and Marquan Young to pull ahead 26-21. DeShon Jenkins ran for a touchdown, then added two points on a catch from Smith. In the first half, Smith ran 34 and 3 yards for touchdowns. Bishop Verot’s 34 points were more than FBA had allowed in its first four games combined (20).