Getting closer but not close enough to retain the Susquehanna Bowl. Unfailingly optimistic Perryville coach Chris Johnson remains confident his squad is poised to become a solid football team. But the inexperienced Panthers were not consistent enough to defeat a more polished Havre de Grace team Friday night as the Warriors came away with a 23-7 triumph over their cross-river rivals. "We're improving as a team," said Johnson. "Right now, this was a hard one for them because they knew they were in it and had a chance to win and could've won. [Havre de Grace] has a lot of speed. They have a lot of good players. But we're kind of closing that gap and I feel like as soon as we get that gap closed, we start winning and we're going to get hot. It's just they got to get that first win under their belts and I think we'll start to roll." Perryville made a game of it into the fourth quarter. Trailing 14-0, the Panthers got on the board when quarterback Dominic Gugliotta hit Jared Brustman for an 18-yard TD pass with 6:21 left in the third quarter. The Panthers got the ball back after stopping Havre de Grace on a fourth down play but went three-and-out. The Warriors marched down to the Perryville two before booting a 23-yard field goal to up the lead to 17-7 with nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. The Panthers threw an interception on the next play from scrimmage and Havre de Grace took advantage. Quarterback Jack Eberhardt tossed a 22-yard scoring strike to Chris Harris to put the visitors ahead 23-7 with 7:12 to go. "I told them not to hang their heads," said Johnson. "We've still got seven games left. Next week we've got Harford Tech. They're struggling. That's a team we have a good chance of beating. But again, we just need to continue to get better. I told them, as I've told my other teams before, that it doesn't matter about the other team. What matters is about us and who we are. We take care of our staff, it doesn't matter what they're doing. So we've just got to take care of our house and do the little things correct. We're a young team and we're going to continue to get better. That was a tough one." Brustman had five carries for 16 yards. Gugliotta completed 8 of 15 passes for 122 yards. Eberhardt hit Harris from 27 yards out for the only touchdown of the first half. Perryville intercepted two passes in the second quarter to keep it a one-score game. Bailey Armour picked off a pass but fumbled the ball back to Havre de Grace during the return. The Warriors drove down the field before the Panthers' Chris Wenck intercepted a pass in the end zone. Havre de Grace fooled Perryville on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter as Ombre Glover took a pitch, rolled right, and then threw downfield to a wide open Isaiah Jackson for a 55-yard touchdown. Just like that, Havre de Grace led 14-0, a big deficit for a Perryville team that has scored a total of two touchdowns in its first three games. "Offensively, we got to score," said Johnson. "We can help our defense by moving the ball on offense. And that's what we need to do, move the ball on offense. We've got to have consistency. Your best defense is having a good offense, driving and wearing the other team down and keeping the ball. They can't score if you have the ball. When you have the ball they can't score unless you give it to them. So we need to get better on offense. I think defensively, we're improving every week. It's up to me. I don't know what to do as far as maybe getting back to the drawing board and figure out some plays that work better with the talent we have and do that kind of stuff. Sometimes you try to fit a square peg in a round hole. But I think we'll get it. I think we're going to get there. In fact, I know we're going to get there." The location of the Susquehanna Bowl was the topic of a heated discussion between Perryville coach Chris Johnson and a Havre de Grace assistant coach following the game. Two Havre de Grace coaches approached Johnson while the Panthers coach was talking to a group of his players in the end zone. The Warriors coaches asked for Johnson for the trophy and Johnson was not happy they interrupted his discussion with his players. As the coaches argued, several Havre de Grace players came back onto the field and several Perryville players followed suit. Coaches from both teams were able to get between the two teams to prevent a more serious incident. "I feel bad about what happened here at the end," Johnson said. "But I just didn't appreciate him coming up kind of cocky and arrogant and asking for the bowl. And I said ask for [Perryville principal] Chip [Helm] or [athletic director] George [Rash] because they always bring it down. The time they won before (in 2013) we brought it right to them. I'm taking care of these other things. I didn't even think about it." Dominic Gugliotta tosses an 18-yard touchdown pass to Jared Brustman for Perryville's lone touchdown. (Video by Raissa Moore)
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