As far as Perryville football coach Chris Johnson is concerned, this was much more like what he's accustomed to seeing. An improving offensive line and a stout running game led by fullback Zac Zacerous propelled the Panthers to a 32-18 triumph over visiting Harford Tech Friday night. It was Perryville's first win of the year and snapped a six-game losing streak dating back to last season.
"We've been hungry all this time," Zacerous said."We've been getting better and it's a big monkey off our back to get this first win." After jumping on top 12-0, the Panthers allowed the Cobras to tie the game at halftime. The coach acknowledged Tech outworked his team in the second quarter. That's when Johnson had another heart-to-heart talk with his offensive line. "I really challenged my linemen in the second half," Johnson said. "I said, 'The first two drives, you looked like the lines of old. Then as soon as (Harford Tech) starts getting something positive and they start playing harder, you guys are not playing with the same intensity'. I challenged them. I said, "What is it going to be? Because it comes down to your effort. If we can't move the ball we're going to lose, so you've got to step it up.' And they did. They came out in the second half and we were able to get some turnovers and we were able to get some drives together and put the game away." Perryville's Bailey Armour recovered a fumble on the first play from scrimmage of the second half. After a false start, Zacerous rumbled 39 yards for a touchdown to give the Panthers an 18-12 advantage. After Tech threw an incomplete pass on 4th down from its own 40 on the first play of the fourth quarter, Perryville added to its advantage. Zacerous carried five times for 27 yards on a seven-play drive which was capped by a one-yard sneak by quarterback Dominic Gugliotta. Ben Savick's PAT put the Panthers ahead 25-12 with 7:59 remaining. Perryville got the ball right back when Joe Perry recovered a fumble. With 2:49 left, Perry pounced on a fumble in the end zone with 2:49 to go to lengthen the lead to 32-12 and seal the deal. Offensive linemen Teryl Cain, Joe Rinehart, Cullen McCoy, Garrett McMinn, and Déjon Wright paved the way for Zacerous to finish with 140 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries. "The first two drives were good," said Zacerous. "They were really good actually. I had holes for days. They shut us down after that. We came back after halftime, coach talked to us, and the holes just opened again and we were off." Early on, it looked like the Panthers may win in a rout. Jared Brustman gained 29 yards on the game's first play, but was injured and could not return. Five plays later, Zacerous scored from eight yards out to make it 6-0. Tech turned the ball over a total of four times and that doesn't even include a costly mistake on the first drive. The Cobras snapped the ball over the head of the punter and Perryville took over on the Tech 27. Zacerous gained a combined four yards on two rushes before barreling his way to a 23-yard touchdown. "We got on the board first," Zacerous said. "It gave us a lot of momentum and once we got rolling it rolled to the second drive and we scored again there." Harford Tech seized the momentum on a long kickoff return and scored on the next play. Cullen McCoy recovered a fumble on the Perryville 13 to thwart one Tech drive but the visitors tied it with four minutes left in the first half. In what Johnson says is a sign his experienced squad to starting to mature, the Panthers regrouped at intermission and dominated the second half to notch the elusive victory. "It's been awhile," said Johnson. "We lost a couple heartbreakers toward the end of last year, that one to North Harford [in the season finale] was really tough. Each game we saw improvement. I really felt like when we got up 12-0 we kind of let up a little bit. They returned the kickoff. They end up scoring. And then we lost our fire. It's part of being a young team. Again, just because you're up 12-nothing doesn't mean the other team is going away. It takes one play to get the momentum back. When you're young, momentum affects you both positively and negatively in a big way. The more mature teams understand when a good thing happens, let's go get another one. When a bad thing happens, let's get it back. (Young teams) tend to ride the highs and lows a little more than they should. So it's part of them maturing and understanding. It's a good learning lesson." The Panthers persevered despite losing their leading rusher Brustman. Two other Perryville players – Ben Savick and Chris Wenck – stayed in the game despite being far from 100 percent. "I've got to take my hat off to Ben," Johnson said. "He played sick and was throwing up. He kept coming back out and making plays. He's got a heart of a lion. And then Chris Wenck's out there playing on a bad knee. He's another guy who won't step off the field." Perryville hosts Patterson Mill Friday night at 7. Comments are closed.
|
Categories
All
Archives
December 2018
|