Ocala Vanguard gets a big night from Fred Gaskin in win over Belleview

BELLEVIEW, FLORIDA- Twelve points has been the difference between Ocala Vanguard being an undefeated team and 4-3.

Coming off a 62-8 thrashing of Tavares on Friday night, the Knights looked to continue being back on track when they went on the road to face the Belleview Rattlers. Bad thing for the Rattlers was the Knights were still in a scoring frenzy from last week.

Ocala Vanguard received a nice night from quarterback Fred Gaskin, completed 9-of-11 passes for 106 yards and four touchdowns, leading the Knights to a 41-0 victory over Belleview at Brent Hall Field on Monday night.

With the victory, Ocala Vanguard locked up the Class 3A-Suburban, District 5 championship. The Knights had already owned wins over Leesburg and Tavares, respectively. The Knights have out-scored their last two opponents 103-8. 

“Confidence boost definitely,” Gaskin said about winning the district title with two games to go. “And because this district championship gives our school the 20th title. This is kinda like a history thing for the team. We got it done.” 

With the Knights (5-3) picking up from where they left off last week, they didn’t waste much time getting going. Gaskin, who ended up exiting the game just before halftime due to an ankle injury, hit Joshua Rembert on a 27-yard touchdown pass to put the Knights up 7-0.

Gaskin started off the game sizzling in the passing game, completing his first eight passes for 99 yards and three touchdowns. His second score went to wide receiver Lenard Hill on a 19-yard pass to give Ocala Vanguard a 14-0 advantage. Before the first quarter ended, the Knights added one more score on a 19-yard touchdown from Gaskin to Rembert to go ahead 21-0.

Belleview (3-4) never got anything generated on offense behind freshman quarterback Matt Dial, who was under heavy duress all night long by Ocala Vanguard’s front seven. The Rattlers only had a handful of positive plays the entire first half.

It looked like the Rattlers would only go into halftime down 28-0, but Knights’ backup quarterback Jamil Watkins got in on the action and threw a 27-yard strike to Dallen Ponder, giving Ocala Vanguard a commanding 35-0 lead at intermission. By halftime, Belleview only has 42 yards of offense compared to Ocala Vanguard’s 204.

Up 35-0, the entire second half would end up going under a running clock. Despite the Knights playing several backups, the Rattlers were not able to get themselves back into the game. 

The Knights improved their record to 5-3 on the year and the Rattlers fell to 3-4. Ocala Vanguard will face Carol City next week at home and Belleview will take on Eastside at home on Friday night.

“This was different. This was my first Monday night game,” Ocala Vanguard head coach Edwin Farmer said. “The preparation was different. We actually had to make sure we practiced on Sunday morning. Our kids were ready to come back and watch film on Sunday morning, work on what we needed to work on and play a pretty good game here tonight.” 

Andy Villamarzo can be reached at andyvillamarzo@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @Andy_Villamarzo.