The weather had been terrible all day, with moderate to heavy rain and winds that gusted strong enough at times to make walking difficult, much less playing football.
Despite all that, a strong Pirates team could handle playing in the lousy weather, but the Grandview Eagles never could find a way to move the ball, resulting in a 32-0 win for the Perryville team Friday on their home turf.
Without a doubt, the star of the game was PHS junior running back Barrett Wheeler, who scored four touchdowns. Halfway through the 2024 season, he has already made 10 rushing touchdowns. He scored seven times in the 2023 season.
Even though the first quarter was scoreless for the Pirates, quarterback Kayd Lucky was able to break off a 20-yard run and allowed Wheeler to make his first score of the game.
The Pirates repeatedly passed the ball to Wheeler, getting him into the end zone in the second quarter, adding an incredible 26 points to the scoreboard.
The score quickly became a 12-0 lead. After a poor snap from the Grandview center on the next drive was recovered in the end zone by Dominic Sieler for another Perryville touchdown.
After a key pass to Chase Richardet on fourth and eight, the Pirates pushed Wheeler through the rest of the way, scoring on a six-yard run that put Perryville up 20-0.
Wheeler made his third and fourth touchdowns during the Pirate’s last offensive drive of the first half and first drive of the second half.
“Man, it was definitely interesting,” said coach Brent Roth. “You know, obviously, the weather and playing in the mud, I think I definitely made it more difficult. We weren't able to do much variety offensively. It was pretty much handed off up the middle. So, it was fun. Guys had fun sliding around in the mud. You couldn't see anybody's number by the end of it, but it was a cool experience. I figured it would be kind of messy.
Roth said it was obvious that Barrett Wheeler was the star of the game.
“He had four touchdowns in the game,” he said. Wheeler had 164 yards. Then Kayd Lucky had 64 rushing yards as well. You know, none of that happens without a good line blocking in front of them. Defensively, everybody played pretty well. Kaleb Huber ended up with eight tackles. Corbin Rowley, a sophomore, stepped in for one of our seniors who's out, and he ended up with eight tackles as well. Dominic Seiler recovered a fumble for a touchdown, so the defense played exceptionally well. The weather helped but we ended up holding Grandview to negative seven total yards. So even in a muddy game, that's still very impressive.”
The Pirates have a 4-1 record with four games left in the regular season and only one left to play at home. This week, the Pirates will travel to Jefferson on Friday and then on Oct. 11 to Alton, Ill., to play Marquette Catholic. The team’s next and final home game of the season will be on the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 19 against Herculaneum, PHS’s homecoming.
