It was unlikely the Venom would top a 95-point effort from the week before. And they didn’t. But they tried.
Raleigh stayed perfect by rolling to a 71-0 road victory over Maryland Stingers, again clearly outclassing a DII foe to run their record to 4-0.
Wing Holly Zoeller (who later moved to outside center) kicked off the scoring in the fifth minute and would score two more first-half tries that helped Raleigh stake a 33-0 lead at the break. Inside center Jennifer Larrimore led the team with four tries, three in the second half.
Despite the lopsided score, the Venom again started a bit sluggish and were not as sharp in this game as they’d have liked.
Forward of the match Jessica Cornett propped despite a dislocated thumb, contributing a number of hard runs to break the gain line.
Kameran Lee earned back of the match honors, keeping Raleigh organized as it played without regular fly half Chelsea Garber.
Lee, wing Janee Cadlett, prop Lisa Jackson and lock Jessey Newman also pushed tries across for the Venom, the latter two both in the final few minutes.
The Venom take this week off — the Vipers play NoVa at home Saturday at 2 p.m. — before both teams head to Pittsburgh for games on Oct. 19.
– Kyle Jahner