Football: Venice survives another crazy ending to stay unbeaten in Western League

Just call Venice the “Cardiac Kids.”

A week ago, freshman Luca Diamont threw his fourth touchdown pass with 17 seconds left to rally the Gondoliers past Westchester, 27-26.

Then on Friday night, in a 21-21 tie against Hamilton, Venice got the ball on its own 29 with 36 seconds left. Diamont completed passes to Eric Gaines, Asamm Burroughs and Steve Asante. Eddie Escobar made a 31-yard field goal with 0.8 seconds left for a 24-21 lead.

Then the Gondoliers had to survive a Hail Mary pass from Hamilton to win.

Coach Angela Gasca’s team is 5-3 overall and 3-0 in the Western League.

Equally intriguing was how Hamilton tried to come back following the field goal.

Venice got called for an excessive celebration penalty following the field goal that was attempted with 5.4 seconds left. There was 0.8 seconds left after the clock was stopped following the field goal.

On the kickoff, Hamilton caught the ball and immediately went down, leaving 0.1 seconds left on the clock. Then the Yankees attempted their Hail Mary. It was the second time this season that Venice survived a Hail Mary at the end to win.

“I hope we don’t have to find out if we can do it three times,” Gasca said.

Venice is on course to play Palisades for the league title in two weeks.

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