Senior quarterback Kayd Luckey completed 12-of-17 passing attempts for 178 yards and 3 touchdowns, while senior running back Barrett Wheeler rushed for 181 yards and 2 touchdowns — including one on an 85-yard run just before the half — and scored another on a 52-yard reception to spark a 56- 14 Homecoming victory over the Cuba Wildcats on Saturday at Pirate Stadium in Perryville.
Led by Luckey and Wheeler, the Pirates (6-3) built a 42-0 lead by halftime, triggering a running clock and giving the varsity some well-deserved time off in the second half.
“The guys executed well today,” said Perryville coach Brent Roth, citing three penalties and one poorly executed play as his team’s only mistakes. “If you only have four real errors, that’s hard to do in the game of football when you have to try to get 11 guys to do the right thing, especially when they’re high school kids. We executed very well.”
Sophomore Xzyavier Wilson caught 4 passes for 67 yards and 2 touchdowns, and freshman Joshua Gremaud caught 3 passes for 18 yards and 1 touchdown to round out the Pirates’ first-half tally.
Roth said Saturday’s game — and their level of execution in the first half — allowed his team to have a little fun.
“That was kind of our whole thing,” Roth said. “We wanted to make sure we were rolling into the playoffs with a positive feeling. We really emphasized our pregame preparation, because last week we did not do a good job of preparing for the game. We were kind of dead in the locker room and it carried over to the field, so we wanted to makes sure that we brought energy into the game and that we took note of what we did so that we can replicate that down the line here in the playoffs.”
During Saturday’s second half, the Pirates turned to their junior varsity lineup, which did give up 2 touchdowns to the Wildcats, but still managed to score two of their own against a varsity squad, led by freshman quarterback Lucas Buchheit, who completed 3-of-6 passing attempts for 37 yards and 2 touchdowns, including an 11-yard pass to freshman Chevy Stark.
Rounding out the numbers from Saturday, senior Drew Leuckel had 1 carry for 19 yards, junior Dawson Wolk had 3 carries for 34 yards and a touchdown and caught 3 passes for 36 yards, and freshman Jasper Burress-Johnson rushed 4 times for 58 yards.
With Saturday’s victory, the Pirates secured the No. 2 seed in the Class 4, District 1, playoffs, where they will host seventh-seeded Windsor in Friday’s first round. The Owls (4-5) are coming off a 46-6 victory over Bayless (1-8), which lost 37-8 to Perryville in Week 4. Perryville holds a 7-4 record against Windsor, dating back to 2012, including a 26-8 PHS victory in last year’s playoffs.
Roth said playing on Saturday is always a concern, since it represents a change in routine, but that he’s confident his team will be ready.
“It’s just a little different,” Roth said. “We’re creatures of habit. Like, next week, we’ve got to play a game, but we don’t have school. That scares me more than a Saturday game because the guys don’t have to wake up and go to class; they get out of their routine, and they sleep in.
"That stuff worries me a little bit, just like you don’t want to be distracted with everything else going on with Homecoming. But we were able to stay focused, and I think that’s a credit to our senior class and their maturity."
