The Pirates were looking to sneak up into the top half of the Class 4, District 1 tournament with a victory over St. Pius on Friday in the last regular season game.
The Lancers had other ideas.
Turnovers haunted the Pirates as they fell to St. Pius 27-18 at St. Pius High School.
“It was a tough loss because I felt like we outplayed St. Pius,” Perryville football coach Brent Roth said. “We weren’t able to get enough offense going in the second half to win the game.”
St. Pius jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, and Perryville battled back scoring 18 points in the second quarter alone. Ben Hotop had a short touchdown run, while Cameron Young added two touchdowns.
The Pirates had a punt block that was returned for a touchdown called back because an inadvertent whistle, although the Pirates were still able to score on that drive. Hotop led the way with 109 yards on the grounds and that one touchdown on 19 carries, he also blocked the punt that was called back. Alex Sanders added 51 yards on 12 carries in the contest.
“Ben has been playing good all year and he seemed to kick it into another gear,” Roth said. “Good to showcase what he is capable of.”
Roth noted that Pius made some adjustments at the half going to a five front, and stifled the Pirate run game and offense as Perryville did not score in the second half. Perryville also had five turnovers in the contest that stopped a comeback (four interceptions, one fumble)
“Some of those touchdowns that St. Pius was able to get was because we set them up with short fields,” Roth said.
St. Pius iced the game late in the third quarter with a three yard run by Dabari Moss to create the final margin.
It was the final game of the regular season and the first season for Perryville within the I-55 conference. Perryville went 3-3 within the conference with wins over Bayless, Herculaneum and Grandview. Roth would have liked more wins, of course, but feels good about being in the I-55.
“Being the biggest school in that conference, you would have a little better record, but we played with everybody,” Roth said. “All those games between those schools were close and competitive. It’s definitely good for us to have made that change, but we now have to find ways to win those games, rather than just compete.”
Perryville finished the season at 3-6 and earned the fifth seed in the Class 4, District 1 tournament, which begins Friday. They will face a familiar opponent in fourth seed Farmington (3-6).
Farmington ended Perryville’s season in 2021 and from 2015-2017. However, most of those matchups were in the 1-8, 2-7 matchup. The two teams meet with identical records this season.
“Farmington isn’t quite the same caliber of team that they were last year when we faced them,” Roth said. “I feel it’s one that we can be competitive in and I think our guys are still positive and feel like we have a good chance of going in there and getting a win. However, even though they are down, we need to play a clean game.”
