With playoffs around the corner, football, 4–5 overall, will be going head-to-head against the Fairfax Lions, 6–3, on Senior Night tonight at 7:30 P.M.
“Every team in our league has familiarity with Venice,” coach Angelo Gasca said. “But we know Fairfax and that creates some predictability in each other.”
Gasca believes that everyone in the Western League sets their sights on defeating Venice whenever possible.
“Our team is ready and we’ve been preparing, trying to build for the end of the year and playing our best football,” Gasca said.
With the regular season coming to a close on Senior Night, Gasca still hopes the team will maintain their momentum.
“We just have to keep working hard to get better,” he said. “We have to continue to improve. We have one more game and then we’ll be going into the playoffs.”
“I don’t know where in the heck we’ll be seeded, but we’ll take wherever they put us and do the best we can to extend our season for as long as we can,” he said.
With the matchup against Fairfax being Senior Night, Gasca hopes for a victory driven by senior contributions.
“Despite it being one year, our seniors have contributed very much to our success,” he said.
Gasca highlights seniors Amir Smith, Richard Navarro, Xavier Terry, D’Anthoni Coleman, Francois Jones Jr, Nicholas Welch and Kenyon Alexander in their contributions to the teams success.
“We would like our seniors to go out the right way with a home victory.”
Tonight’s game may just be the last home game of the season.
“We might not even get a playoff home game, which is very unusual for us,” he said.
Last Friday, the Gondoliers lost to the Palisades Dolphins in an intense 28–24 match-up.
“Congratulations to them,” Gasca said after the game. “It was a tough, hard-fought game. And, they hung in there and won the game.”
“There’s nothing else to say except congratulations, and we’re moving on.”
Gasca believes that there was still an opportunity to win the game against Palisades. At one point in the second half, they were down four points on Palisade’s 10-yard line until Palisades drew an interception.
“We tried to throw a fade to Amir Smith, our best player, and our quarterback got hit and the ball went up in the air and that was all she wrote,” Gasca said.
Gasca said that Smith, a co-captain, “is as good as any player in L.A.”
Smith scored three touchdowns in the matchup against Palisades “and made a lot of huge plays.”
“He’s our leader. He’s our best player. And he played like it tonight. And maybe the best player in the whole city,” Gasca said.
