For Perryville football, week 1 didn’t start well, and never really got any better. Oakville scored on its first offensive play and rolled from there, handing Perryville a 55-0 loss on Friday in the season opener.
“They were a well-coached team and they beat us up in the trenches,” Perryville coach Brent Roth said. “It was a tough night for us and for many of our guys it was their first action of varsity football.”
Oakville gained 403 yards of offense on the night with 295 of that on the ground. Oakville was led in the rushing attack by junior Ethan Venable who had 7 carries for 208 yards.
“He’s not a guy that’s going to juke you out of your shoes,” Roth said. “He’s just a powerful running back that is a load to bring down.”
Perryville turned the ball over just once on a fumbled snap that went through the legs of quarterback Rilyand Graham. That was the only turnover the Pirates had all night.
“We took care of the ball well,” Roth said.
He also had praise for his senior quarterback.
“Graham had as good of a game as you can have in something like that,” Roth said. “He was able to complete some passes on the run.”
Graham went 6-10 passing for the game. Roth said the biggest issue was up front.
“We didn’t have any time to do anything,” Roth said. “Even with our run game. As soon as we handed it off, they were in our backfield. Some of it was their defensive line going up against some of our sophomores. But there were some mental errors in there as well. Whether we wwere blocking the wrong guy. When you’re facing a really good defensive line, if you take one wrong step, then they go by you.”
Roth said there were many positives to take away from the game. That included Ben Huber who had eight tackles and a sack for Perryville defensively
“There were mistakes that were very fixable, and I thought we never gave up,” Roth said. “We were keeping our heads up and trying to get better all game.”
Roth said it was tough to get blown out in the first game after some positive things going on in the summer and the offseason workouts.
“In the jamboree we left feeling very confident,” Roth said. “Then Oakville takes the first play to the house and things never really got going. We can’t let it simmer too long and regroup this week.”
Perryville will take on Windsor in week 2. The Owls defeated Herculaneum 7-6 in week 1.
“This early in the season, you never know how good teams are,” Roth said. You have to assume Windsor is going to clean some things up that they didn’t do well last week, just like us.”
