The Perryville Pirates fell to 3-4 with a 44-21 loss against Potosi Friday night.
The Pirates were without usual starting quarterback Lucas Buchheit, who suffered an injury late in last week’s game, a loss at Jefferson.
In his place was sophomore Nolan Behrle, who completed 15 of 24 pass attempts for 253 yards and 2 touchdowns. Behrle connected with four different Pirate receivers in his 15 attempts. Joshua Gremaud was the top receiver with 111 yards on three catches, and a touchdown.
Bryce Weber caught Behrle’s second touchdown, and totaled 48 yards on six catches. Xzayvier Wilson totaled 89 yards on five receptions. Jacob King caught one pass for 5 yards.
Wilson recovered a fumble on defense as well.
Perryville head coach Brent Roth said he was impressed with how Behrle stepped up into a leadership role on such short notice following the injury to Buchheit.
“I think it begins with him just being a great kid and a hard worker,” Roth said. “He shows up to all of our weight room stuff in the summer and he’s there every day of practice doing whatever he needs to do. He honestly has been more of a wide receiver for us all summer, he started playing some JV quarterback out of necessity. I don’t think he necessarily liked doing it, but he did a great job and he didn’t complain. Now he has his opportunity to do it at the varsity level and he came in and played really well. He managed the game and was able to throw the ball very effectively. I really think he came in and filled the shoes quite nicely.”
The Pirates had success through the air but struggled on the ground, only totaling 71 rushing yards in the game, 60 of which came from Joshua Gremaud.
Jasper Burress-Johnson had the Pirates lone rushing touchdown in the game, and totaled 12 yards on 8 carries.
Roth said the game came down to a shift in momentum at the end of the first half.
“We were down 14-18 at that point and we were driving down and had the ball down inside their 20 down in the red zone and went for it on fourth down and weren’t able to convert or finish that drive off,” he said. “And then the next play, they turn around and run like an 80 yard touchdown. So you go into where you could have easily had the lead at half to down two scores. So that was kind of the difference maker in the game, I think.”
Perryville has one home game remaining on the schedule. This Saturday afternoon Pirate Stadium will see Herculaneum come into town for the 2026 homecoming game. Roth said it will be important for his team to limit distractions to play well on the special occasion.
“We always tell them the big event for homecoming is the football game, that’s where everybody ends up going after the parade and everything like that, so you guys are the main event,” Roth said. So don’t let those distractions stop you from going out and playing an effective game. Not to mention, it’s a conference game for us so it’s very important for us in our district seeding. So just trying to balance having fun and letting them be kids and enjoying everything that homecoming has to offer but also remember that we’ve got a job to do right in the middle of all of it. And we got to do that job.”
Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. following the homecoming parade. The Homecoming queen will be crowned at halftime.
