Perryville hangs on for homecoming win

Perryville football coach Brent Roth was probably thinking of the Charles Dickens novel, “A Tale of Two Cities,” while he was watching Perryville’s annual homecoming game unfold.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” penned the well-known author.
Perryville definitely saw both sides of that statement on Saturday.
It took six first-half turnovers and a goal line stand in the final minutes for the Pirates to walk away with the 22-20 victory over Herculaneum at Pirate Stadium on homecoming.
Roth even somewhat quoted Dickens when describing his thoughts about what was the wildest and most entertaining game of the season. However, he did put it in football terms.
“It was a tale of two halves,” Roth said. “We dominated in the first half and they took it to us in the second. I don’t know if Herculaneum didn’t wake up in the first half or we got tired late in the game. It was probably a combination of the two, but it was two completely different teams. It was all heart and effort from our guys to close the game out.”
However, the wins come for his team at this point of the season, Roth will take them, but he was honest when describing what turned out to be the final defensive stand for the Pirates. With Perryville hanging on to a 22-20 lead with seven minutes remaining in the game, Herculaneum senior Lucas Bahr caught a long pass down to the nine-yard line and then senior Mike Moloney caught a swing pass on second down and stepped out at the one-yard line.
“I thought he scored and I was preparing to call the defense for the two-point conversion,” Roth said. “I even told Coach Hotop that it would be a big stop for us if they didn’t get the two points and I looked up and I saw it was still third down.”
Wyatt Schremp and Adam Hotop made the stop on a run up the middle on third down and Cooper Hudson and a host of Perryville defenders stopped Moloney behind the line on fourth down.
“Those were just huge plays,” Roth said. “The defense sucked it up and dug deep to make the plays that saved the game for us.”
The game didn’t get any less exciting from there as Herculaneum was called for pass interference on 3rd and 5 on a pass over the middle to Ethan Blythe that kept the Pirate drive alive as they tried to run out the clock. Herculaneum was also called offsides on 4th and 1 later in the drive that effectively ended the game.
It was those type of mistakes that plagued the Blackcats from the first drive of the game.
Perryville jumped on top with a 50-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Rilaynd Graham to Devin Seabaugh on the first play of the game to go up 7-0 just 15 seconds into the game.. It was the only pass that the Pirates completed in the game.
“We took a shot on the first play and it worked out,” Roth said. “We had been practicing that play all week. I had been pestering Graham and Seabauagh to make it count and it paid off.”

From there the Perryville defense was opportunistic.
A low snap on a punt on the next Herculaneum drive resulted in a fumble and Perryville recovered on the 14-yard line. Perryville made the turnover count with a field goal by Ty Peeler for a 10-0 lead.
Ben Hotop recovered another fumble after a big hit on Herculaneum quarterback Jackson Dearing jarred the ball loose with eight minutes left in the first quarter. Hotop scampered in for a 26-yard score a few plays later and Perryville was ahead 16-0. He accounted for 59 yards on 15 carries
Alex Sanders intercepted a tipped pass that stopped a promising drive and a second low snap on a punt was recovered by Kaden Morrison with 3:10 left in the first quarter at the 14 yard line resulted in points as Sanders scored from 12 yards out to give Perryville a 22-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Sanders had 20 yards on four carries.
That was all the points that Perryville would muster for the game
Chase Richardet earned an interception and Barrett Wheeler recovered a fumble in the second quarter as Perryville led 22-6 at the halftime break.
From there it was nearly literally all Herculaneum.
The Blackcats had the ball for nearly six minutes and capped the drive with a two-yard run by Moloney to narrow the margin to 22-12. The Blackcats picked a 3rd and 23 and two fourth downs on the drive.
Moloney had another two yard run to start the fourth quarter and the Blackcats converted the two-point play to pull within 22-20.
Until the final drive that chewed up the final five minutes, Perryville had run just six offensive plays in the second half (two drives that both ended with punts)
“That was a tremendous job by our defense because our offense put them in some bad spots,” Roth said. “That is unacceptable by me because we have to be able to move the ball by any means necessary. They negated our run game by blitzing everyone and get a good job of adjusting at half.”
Roth was happy to get the win on homecoming.
“This could be the last time we play on this field this season,” Roth said. “For the seniors to win on homecoming is huge for the community and the program. It is a good day.”
Roth noted that the team is still fighting for a district home game. Perryville (3-5) currently is in fifth behind Farmington with one game to go in the regular season. Perryville will travel to St. Pius (6-2) on Friday with one last chance to improve their seeding.