The power of pink did not help the Pirates on Saturday. Although coaches and players were clad in pink in support of breast cancer awareness and the Pirates were able to score several touchdowns, it didn’t matter as Dexter scored in bunches and handed Perryville a 72-26 loss on homecoming at Pirate Stadium.
While the points were nice, it was the five turnovers that did Perryville in, the biggest of which was an interception returned for a touchdown by Logan Josupait which gave Dexter a 21-14 lead in the second quarter. Just a few plays later Dexter intercepted another pass that set up a touchdown by Dexter’s Braxton Greenfield. In a matter of three minutes, the Pirates were suddenly down two possessions.
Perryville football coach Brent Roth felt like that was the biggest play of the game.
“Those were the biggest plays and were hard to overcome,” he said. “We gave it our best shot though.”
The Pirates scored their most points in a game in the last three weeks combined and were outgained on offense by Dexter by a slim margin of 339-303 (280 passing yards for Perryville).
Roth was glad that the offense was able to produce three plays of 59-plus yards on the day.
“We had some plays and used the bag of tricks today,” Roth said. “It seemed like the only things that worked sometimes was the tricky stuff. We wanted to run the ball and we found some things that we liked. When you get behind you can only run the ball so much.
That could be seen throughout the game as Perryville rushed the ball for 23 yards.
Two turnovers created separation for the Bearcats and with the Pirates having to abandon the run game, the Dexter defense attacked.
Camden Riley ran 40 yards after intercepting a pass in the third quarter, setting up a 5-yard touchdown run by Taylor Condict. The touchdown extended the Bearcats’ lead to 55-20.
Lucas Alday scooped up a fumble and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown, in the third quarter, and the Bearcats took a 65-26 lead into the final quarter.
“We can’t have that many turnovers and expect to beat good teams,” Roth said. “They will make you pay like Dexter did tonight.”
It certainly looked as if it would be a much closer game early on when Dexter fumbled the opening kickoff and the Pirates were able to convert the turnover into points on a 22-yard pass from quarterback Rilaynd Graham to Alex Sanders. That gave Perryville a 7-0 lead with 10:45 left in the first quarter.
The Bearcats would respond later in the quarter with a 14-yard run by Kaden Kennedy to tie the game at 7-7. The big play was working for the Pirates early when Sanders was left all alone on the sideline and raced for a 91-yard touchdown and gave Perryville back the lead 14-7 with 11:34 to go in the first half. Sanders led Perryville with five catches for 119 yards and two scored. Justin Wingerter also reached the 100-yard plateau with a pair of catches for 124 yards and two touchdowns.
“The big plays are fun. I’m not going to deny that,” Roth said. “I would also like to have sustained drives that allows our defense to stay off the field and run some time off the clock.”
The Pirates pulled out trick plays late in the game when Cameron Young threw
