After its 49-8 win over Herculaneum in its Saturday homecoming, the 7-1 Pirates have become the best Perryville team in many years.
“It’s been kind of an argument because the records don’t go back far enough,” said coach Brent Roth. “We're kind of setting our focus towards district play now. We've got one more game this week that we've got to take care of, and then we’re on to the playoffs, but we’ve got more work to do.”
Talking about the game against Herculaneum, Roth said, “We executed pretty well. It was definitely fun. We kind of spread the ball around. We got some of our seniors in because it was senior night, too. We got some of our seniors touchdowns and had a little trick play in there for a couple of seniors.
“Eli Hemmingway, our nose tackle on defense, got in the end zone. We handed the ball off a couple of times. It was a good time. Offensively, I think we only ran like 32 plays. They went on big plays, and the defense played well. Just all around, it was cool.”
Recalling the traditional delivery of the game ball by Air Evac helicopter, Roth said, “The helicopter was there. It was a great crowd and just a good day.
Speaking of trick plays, Roth was still chuckling about a joke played on Eli Hemmingway leading up to the game.
Roth chuckled as he recalled a joke played on played a joke on Hemingway leading up to the homecoming game.
“I would always ask him what he had for dinner,” Roth said. “Typically, it was cheese pizza or McDonald’s chicken nuggets or something like that. We were going to put this formation in where we were going to hand him the football. We snuck a McDonald’s bag in the huddle at practice. Then we snapped the football into the McDonald’s bag and then turned around and handed it to him in the bag. I don’t think he realized what was happening until he started walking back to the huddle. It was definitely something I’ll never forget. I thought it was just a fun moment to lighten things up.”
The Pirates have definitely come together as a strong and resourceful team.
Asked about the team’s unity, Roth said, “It's kind of which came first, the chicken or the egg? Are we winning more games because we're having fun or are we having fun because we're winning more games? When you win, winning cures a lot of things, so we’ve got to keep doing that. They’re very talented, so I’m very fortunate to be a part of it.”
Roth noted several players that were a big part of Saturday’s win.
“Barrett Wheeler had three touchdowns in the game,” he said. Kayd Luckey was seven for seven. Eli Hemingway got the touchdown, which was cool and exciting for him.
“I thought that, defensively, Kaleb Huber played a really good game and Korbin Rollet, as well. Both of those guys at linebacker played really well.
Perryville travels to Cuba on Friday to close out the regular season, with the Pirates doing all they can to keep doing what they’ve been gunning for all season — a district championship.
