Sometimes, it's not how you start that's crucial. Perryville's football team demonstrated it's occasionally how you finish that matters most. The Panthers (2-0) clawed out of an early 13-point hole en route to a 21-19 triumph over Largo Friday night in a game played at Rising Sun High School. On the first play from scrimmage, the Lions' Kaleb Washington picked off a Dayvon Montz pass and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown.
Largo's Jayvon Johnson scampered 50 yards for another score, but the extra point attempt was wide. Less than eight minutes into the game, Perryville trailed 13-0. The Panthers didn't panic. "I was just telling them, 'Guys, keep playing'," Perryville coach Chris Johnson said. "They gave up the first touchdown. Dayvon, obviously, wanted that one back. I said, 'Don't worry about it. Everyone makes mistakes. We've got a whole game left and you've got to forget about it and move on.' And he did." Montz scored on a one-yard plunge to pull Perryville to 13-7 with 6:19 left in the first half. "What I like is the fact that [Largo] is a very strong team, a very athletic team, and down 13-0 we didn't blink," said Johnson. "Kept fighting, kept fighting, kept fighting." Meanwhile, the Panther defense was dominating the Largo offense. Perryville tied it with five minutes left in the third quarter when Caleb Robinson galloped 76 yards for a TD on a wraparound draw. "I took my two steps and I was waiting for Dayvon, my quarterback, to get back there because I saw the hole open up," Robinson said. "Once I got the ball, I just ran it. I saw number 9 (Jermaine Flowers) breaking down so I spun off him. I just ran to the open field and scored. It was a game-changing moment." Perryville was penalized for sideline interference on the play and the PAT attempt was short leaving the score 13-13. Just as Largo scored 20 seconds into the first quarter, the Panthers tallied a touchdown 20 seconds into the fourth quarter. Facing a 3rd and 17 to begin the final stanza, Robinson rushed for 22 yards to the Largo 11. On the ensuing play, Timmy Smith sprinted left for the go-ahead TD and then added a two-point conversion to put Perryville in front 21-13. Largo countered quickly. Receiver Jalen Etheridge got behind the Perryville secondary and hauled in a 61-yard scoring strike from Flowers with 8:36 remaining in regulation. The Lions tried to tie it with a two-point conversion run attempt up the middle but the Panthers' defense stood strong. Perryville managed to run more than five minutes off the clock behind an offensive line of John Perkins, Steven Thomas, Cam Rice, Austin Gerhart, and TyeSean Stephenson with help from tight ends Jarrett Hunter and Liam Johnson. "I love running behind these guys," Robinson said. "They're an amazing unit up front. I trust those guys 100 percent." Largo had one final chance, taking over on their own 20 with 3:30 to play. An illegal block nullified a long gain and the Perryville defense forced the Lions to move slowly while the clock wound down. Largo got only as far as the Perryville 44. "The draw play worked well for us and then late in the game our line did a really nice job of pounding the ball," Johnson said. "They knew what was coming and they couldn't stop it. That's kind of nice when you're dominating the line of scrimmage, Early on, [Largo] was dominating the line of scrimmage. As the game went on, I think they kind of got wore down a little bit…That was a game that deserved to go down to the wire. I had confidence in our defense that they'd get it done at the end and they did. They did a goo job, got pressure when they needed to, kept the quarterback (Flowers) in the pocket. We didn't want him to scramble. Hats off to our team. They showed me a lot. They've got a heart of a champion. They're going to fight hard in every game. Doesn't matter if we're up or down, they're going to keep playing football and that's the kind of football team I like to coach." Comments are closed.
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