HILLSBORO — It was almost deja vu all over again for the Perryville Pirates in Friday’s road game against Grandview.
The Pirates (3-2) built an early lead before watching the Eagles (3-2) march down the field, closing the gap as the final seconds ticked away, much like their matchup with St. Vincent in Week 3.
The Pirates lost that game on a Hail Mary, but this time around, Perryville flipped the script thanks to a big effort from sophomore Jacob King.
“We executed pretty well in the first half,” said Perryville coach Brent Roth. “We were up 21-7 with two minutes to go in the game, and [Grandview] went down and scored, got the onside kick and then went down, scored again. Then they went for two and Jacob King came up with a big play and made the tackle with about 40 seconds left. It was a nail biter.”
Roth said his team needs to work on recovering onside kicks. This wasn’t the first time the Pirates were caught off guard.
“We’ve definitely got to work on our on our hands team on those onside kicks,” Roth said, “because that’s twice now this year – the St. Vincent game and now the Grandview game — that we’ve allowed teams to make comebacks in the last two minutes.”
Roth said watching Grandview make their late push had him flashing back to the Pirates’ earlier loss to St. Vincent, but he was glad to see his team handle the pressure a little better this time.
“Luckily, the guys never quit and we were able to hold on,” Roth said.
Offensively for the Pirates, senior quarterback Kayd Luckey had a good night, completing 11 of 20 passing attempts for 159 yards and a touchdown with 1 interception, and rushed for 60 yards on 9 carries. Senior running back Barrett Wheeler rushed for 54 yards and 2 touchdowns, and freshman Josh Gremaud caught 5 passes for 71 yards. Senior Drew Leuckel caught 3 passes for 43 yards and a touchdown.
For Grandview, quarterback Brendan Martin threw for 130 yards and 2 touchdowns, and Brock Poole rushed for 90 yards on 7 carries.
“Grandview executed their game plan to a T,” Roth said. “They had long drives killing the clock.”
Overall, Grandview finished with 400 yards of total offense, 270 coming on the ground. Perryville finished with 296 total yards.
Defensively for Perryville, Leuckel had 6 solo tackles and 8 assists, while junior Korbin Rollet finished with 2 and 8. Sophomore Adrian Mendoza finished with 1 each, along with 2 sacks and a forced fumble. King had 2 tackles, 4 assists, and another forced fumble.
Up next for Perryville is a home game versus Jefferson (4-1). The Bluejays are coming off a 50-20 win over Bayless, who lost 37-8 to Pirates in Week 4.
“We’ve got a big game coming up this week,” Roth said. “It’s going to be our Pink Out game. There’ll be some fundraising going on there with t-shirts and a little bake sale to try to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Come out and wear your pink this Friday. It’s a big game for us versus Jefferson, and hopefully we can raise some money to save some lives.”
Kick off for Friday’s game is scheduled for 7 p.m.
