Turnovers haunt Pirates on homecoming

The Perryville football team has been on a roll at home this season. The Pirates won three straight games within the friendly confines of Pirate Stadium and looked primed and ready to add another one to the win column Saturday.
Until the turnover demons took over.
Mistakes and miscues haunted Perryville in the second half as they fell to Jefferson R-7 28-26 on Saturday during the annual homecoming game.
The Pirates were up 19-7 at the half and committed four turnovers in the second half, and five for the game, that Jefferson R-7 took advantage of and turned into points nearly every time.
“Turnovers stink because you never want to point the finger at people,” Perryville coach Brent Roth said. “I think Rilyand (Graham) was taking it pretty hard. It was not all on him. We could have blocked better, or we could have called different plays. We all have to keep our heads up. The turnovers are what ended up killing us, so it’s a hard one to swallow.”
The first of those turnovers came midway through the third quarter on a long pass that set up Jefferson inside the 20 yard line. A nifty trick play left Max Schnitzler wide open along the sideline for a 80 yard touchdown to bring the Bluejays within 19-14. Fumbles, and a failed halfback pass brought down what was a promising game for Perryville as Jefferson went ahead 28-19, before a six yard touchdown catch by Barrett Wheeler sealed the final score as Perryville couldn’t get the ball back.

“We have to understand that we all made mistakes today and have to own up to it and move on,” Roth said.
The loss also left to the wayside a tremendous defensive effort as Jefferson could not run the football. The Bluejays ended with just two yards on 28 carries. However, quarterback Kole Williams threw for 361 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.  
“This was the definition of a bend, but down break defense,” Roth said. “We were having a tough time getting off the field on third and fourth down. They were able to throw it on us because they have a good quarterback. We were able to handle their run and we didn’t get beat up over the top much except for their trick play.”
The game started out well for the Pirates as they marched right down the field on their opening drive that ended with a six yard touchdown run to go ahead 6-0 with 9:50 left in the first quarter. The good play continued as Drew Lueckel had a long run and was questionably pushed out of bounds at the one yard line.
The Pirates fumbled on the next play and the Bluejays recovered, and eventually took the ball down the field and scored on fourth down to go ahead 7-6.
After that Perryville responded with a27 yard run by Kayd Luckey and a 15 yard touchdown run by Graham near the end of the first half to go into the break up two scores. Gavin Hemman intercepted a pass to end the half.
Perryville will take on New Madrid County Central at 7 p.m. this Friday.