The Perryville Pirates had a good thing going at halftime of Friday’s crosstown rivalry game against the St. Vincent Indians.
Despite coming close at least twice — most notably last season, which ended in a 29-25 loss — Perryville hadn’t won the annual game since 2017, longer than current Indians coach Tim Schumer’s tenure.
On Friday, Perryville led 21-7 after three quarters, then allowed St. Vincent (1-2) to rally and score 20 points in the fourth quarter — including a last-second 40-yard Hail Mary pass from quarterback Wyatt Winkler to receiver Max Wheeler that gave the Indians a 27-21 victory, their first of the season — their ninth in the series against Perryville (1-2) and eighth consecutive.
“It was a hard-fought game,” Schumer said. “Hats off to the Pirates — they played their butts off. It was a great win.” Winkler and Wheeler connected on three touchdown passes, including a short 6-yarder in the first quarter and two fourth-quarter scores, to lead St. Vincent’s offense.
Perryville Coach Brent Roth said it was a rough loss for him and his team.
“It was definitely a heartbreaker,” Roth said. “It’s one of the hardest losses I’ve ever experienced as a player or a coach. Obviously, whenever you lose, there are things you wished you would have done differently. That’s the case here. There were some things that we definitely should have done. It’s definitely difficult.”
Winkler completed 26-of-48 passing attempts for 310 yards and three touchdowns, but was also picked off five times, twice by junior linebacker Dawson Wolk, who leads the Pirates with three interceptions and three pass breakups on the season. The Pirates’ defense held the Indians to one touchdown for three quarters.
Then came the fourth quarter, when everything changed. Perryville didn’t score in the second half, thanks to a solid defensive effort from the Indians, whose offense finally found its stride.
“I told [my guys] at halftime I wanted to go fast on offense,” Schumer said. “I wanted to attack and go, so I think that kind of shifted things towards us. We were able to open some things up, maybe wear them down a little bit, and then, defensively, we stepped up, and that was our key. Our big guys up front on both sides of the ball kind of set the tone for us in the second half.
“These guys don’t give up until I tell them to, and that’s the beauty of this team and other teams I’ve coached. They were with it until the end.”
St. Vincent senior Jack Seabaugh rushed nine times for 49 yards, while Carson House had four carries for 35 yards and a touchdown. The Indians’ receiving corps was led by Case Huber, who had nine catches for 119 yards. Kellan Pitts was 7-60, Wheeler caught five passes for 90 yards and three touchdowns, Andrew Hotop was 3-28, and House was 2-13.
“It’s football,” Roth said. “You’re going to play another football game [on Thursday], so you’ve got to move on. Just like in life, you know, bad things happen that make you stronger and make you a better person. Same thing in football. Bad things happen, you learn from it, come back from it and allow it to make you a better football team. That’s what we’re going to try to do: learn from our mistakes and keep getting better every day.”
Despite the loss, it was still a good night for the Perryville offense. Quarterback Kayd Luckey completed 3-of-12 passing attempts for 70 yards and rushed four times for 29 yards. Senior running back Barrett Wheeler had 27 carries for 155 yards and two touchdowns. Drew Leuckel, also a senior, had eight carries for 49 yards. Sophomore receiver Xzyavier Wilson had two catches for 67 yards and a touchdown, and Leuckel had one catch for three yards.
“I still believe we have a good football team, we’re just not playing real good football right now,” Roth said. “That’s on me as the coach. I’ve got to do a better job preparing for the game and doing the things throughout the week to make sure we’re winning some football games.”
Roth added that his team has a number of things to work on away from the field as well.
“There are also things off the field that we’ve got to clean up as well that people aren’t seeing,” Roth said.
“We’re not doing the little things, and it’s costing us the big things. The plan today is to pare everything down to square one and reevaluate ourselves from the ground up, and fix the things we’re not doing correctly.”
Perryville will get a chance to correct those errors Thursday, when the Pirates host Bayless (1-2). The Pirates are 3-0 against the Bronchos, outscoring them 154-20. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Pirate Stadium in Perryville.
St Vincent will try to carry their momentum into Friday night’s game on the road at Herculaneum. The Indians, who are averaging 23 points per game while allowing 37.3, are riding a nine-game winning streak over the Blackcats, who are averaging 28.7 points per game, while allowing 23.3.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Dugan Memorial Field in Herculaneum.
Republic-Monitor editor Kevin Jenkins contributed to this story. He may be reached via email at editor@perryvillenews.com.
