Sam Vaulton makes impressive Venice football debut in rout of Palisades: 3 takeaways
LOS ANGELES -- Spectators at Venice High on Friday night were treated to some Southern charm. Gondoliers quarterback Sam Vaulton, a transfer from Tennessee, made his long awaited debut against Palisades and tossed four touchdown passes in a 36-0 Venice win. Before every shotgun snap Vaulton took, he'd yell out "180 GO!" in a smooth Southern drawl displaying his Tennessee roots.
"It felt good to be back out here and hit somebody," Vaulton said Friday.
Below are three takeaways from the game.
GAME PHOTOS | FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS
VENICE CAN PUT THE CITY 'ON NOTICE'
Gondoliers head coach Angelo Gasca was impressed with his team following their blowout rivalry win and frankly, how could he not be? Lynale Moore, Donald Moss Jr., J. J. Thurman and Jaboree Thornton all caught touchdowns from Vaulton in the victory and defensively, Venice recovered two Palisades fumbles and had multiple sacks.
Venice plays Garfield a week from Saturday and Gasca told his team in their postgame huddle that if they can win that game then they'll put the City on notice.
Garfield took down Wilson 63-6 on Friday. Next week's game will be one of the highlights of the shortened City Section football season.
VAULTON AND VENICE PASSING GAME LOOK SOLID
With Narbonne no longer being a dominant force in City Section football, the race for the Open Division championship in normal seasons will be much more competitive, like we saw with Birmingham's title run in 2019. One of the prerequisites for making an Open championship push is having strong quarterback play and on Friday night, Vaulton backed up our preseason assessment that he's the top QB in the Section.
As mentioned before, he threw four TD passes and rushed for a fifth. Vaulton did it against a Palisades team that is clearly having a down spring, but the Dolphins defense was better than their offense on Friday -- Venice still had to work to score.
Since the playoffs are canceled, Venice won't get an opportunity in the postseason this spring, which is too bad because with Vaulton and the Gondoliers' talented receiving corps leading the charge they look like a team that could compete with Birmingham, San Pedro and Banning.
PALISADES IN REBUILDING MODE
Palisades head coach Tim Hyde is starting more sophomores than seniors this spring, something he's never had to do before. He's also relying on some freshmen, another first. This year's Palisades team looks a lot different than their 2018 and 2019 teams that beat Venice.
One bright spot for the Dolphins on Friday was junior running back Daniel Anoh. He helped get Palisades into field goal range at the end of the first half and looks like an exciting prospect for the fall.
