Both teams had a lot at stake in the football regular season finale between Perryville and host Rising Sun Friday night. It was the Tigers who accomplished their goals with a convincing 38-8 triumph. Rising Sun (6-4) won its final five games and six of its last seven to finish with a winning record for the first time since 2009. It was the Tigers' first victory over the Panthers since 2007. Rising Sun's senior class leaves a legacy, having led the program back to respectability following an 0-10 season last fall. For the second straight season, Perryville (4-6) missed out on a playoff berth by losing its last game. "The thing is, if we deserved to be in we would've won [this] game," said Perryville coach Chris Johnson said. "And unfortunately, That didn't happen. We knew we were playing a really good Rising Sun football team. They are playing extremely well. Their coaches have done a great job. Those guys are playing with a lot of confidence over there. Hats off to them and they're building a program. I'm happy for them." Unlike Perryville's season-ending loss to North Harford last year, the only real drama Friday came after the final whistle. Rising Sun scored the game's first 25 points. It did not take long for the Tigers to establish their dominance. Rising Sun received the opening kickoff and needed just four plays to score. Jesse Herrera gained 24 yards on the first play from scrimmage and Joe Jones scampered 28 yards on the second. After a play lost two yards, Maurice McCargo plowed in from four yards out to put the Tigers ahead 6-0. Perryville had a surprise for the Tigers, opening in a "wildcat" offense where running back Zac Zacerous took a shotgun snap from center. Zacerous gained a total of nine yards on the first two plays. On 3rd and 1 from the Panther 48, the snap sailed over Zacerous' head for a 22-yard loss. "The game plan we put in was good," said Rising Sun coach Rich Opp. "I didn't expect the wedge. They ran the wedge. I think they could have hurt us worse with that wedge…I think if they would have kept running that, that would have concerned me." Following a Perryville punt, Rising Sun failed to overcome a penalty and booted it back. On the next Panthers play, Tyler Jones forced a fumble which was recovered by Austin Newby on the Perryville 20. Five plays later, on 3rd and goal from the 9, Elijah Ehrhart scooted around left end for a touchdown to lengthen the lead to 12-0 with 5:13 left in the first quarter. The Tigers extended their advantage to 18-0 in the second quarter. Jack Stewart intercepted a pass in the end zone and returned it to the Rising Sun 37. McCargo scored his second TD of the game on a two-yard plunge. Down by 18 at halftime, Perryville had an opportunity to make it a game late in the third quarter. Rising Sun elected to go for it on 4th and 9 from the Perryville 39, but quarterback Nate McCullough's pass was picked off by Austin Gerhart. Later in the ensuing drive, Zacerous gained two yards on 4th and two from the 16. But on the next play, he was stopped for no gain and quarterback Dominic Gugliotta tossed two straight incompletions, the second one a near TD as RJ Royster caught the ball at the pylon but was ruled out of bounds. On 4th and 10 from the 14, Jesse Herrera and Jacob Gehron combined to sack Gugliotta. Herrera ran four yards for a TD with 9:20 left in the game after gaining 35 yards on the previous play. The PAT made it 25-0. Perryville finally got on the board with 3:51 left in the fourth quarter on a four-yard run by Zacerous. The score was set up by a 36-yard pass from Gugliotta to Pernell White. Ahead 25-8, the Tigers were not done. McCullough hit Noah Juergens on a slant and Juergens raced to the end zone to complete a 52-yard TD. With 2:14 to go play, Wyatt Griffith hauled in a 20-yard scoring strike from McCullough. The two late touchdowns irked Johnson and caused some controversy following the game. (See sidebar). "Guys got to learn that things don't always go your way," Johnson said. "Life is not that way. We all know that. A lot of them come from tough home situations. They're disappointed but life goes on. Tomorrow is another day. We've got to make the best of tomorrow. Every day is an opportunity to make things better." Johnson was pleased with the effort and determination his team displayed this season. "To play meaningful football at this time of year is always good," the Panthers' coach said. "It's a shame here we are 4-5 and have a chance to make the playoffs. You'd like to have a winning record to make playoffs. But Joppatowne one year made the playoffs at 4-5 and won a state title, back in 2002. So worst things have happened. I saw a lot of improvement from our young guys this year. Those kids could've cashed it in when we were 0-3 and 2-5, but they rebounded and responded very, very well. So I'm very proud of them." Not everyone was surprised by the lopsided margin. Stewart, Rising Sun's senior receiver/defensive back, guaranteed a victory in a tweet he posted last week. Following the game, he acknowledged there was some backlash. "I had a lot of Perryville kids talking back to it," he said. "I had a lot of retweets from their fans and it really got them hyped." As for his teammates? "Not too many of them paid attention to it," Stewart said. "The ones that did, we were already confident that we were going to win and it hyped them up, too, because they were proud of me for doing that." Stewart said his confidence stemmed from how well the Tigers had been playing heading into the game. "We won our last four games," he said. "Our offense was mowing down defenses and our defense was mowing down offenses." Juergens said he, too, was confident the Tigers would roll. "I sometimes have uneasy feelings about games, but this one I didn't," said Juergens. "I was just confident about it. We blew out Harford Tech [in the previous game] and I knew we were going to carry that into this game." It was extra special to defeat the Panthers, who had routed the Tigers in recent seasons. Rising Sun last defeated Perryville 32-24 on a rainy night October 29, 2007. "For the past three years I've seen Perryville walk on the field with the powerhouse they've been," said Juergens. "Tyrell (Hollingsworth), Elijah (Johnson), Eathen Griffin, all of them. We got on our field and their field and they've just destroyed us. This is a turnaround season for Rising Sun. We knew coming into the game we had a good chance of winning. And we proved it on the field. I'm proud of my seniors." So was Opp. "Going back to the seniors, it's tough to say goodbye to them, of course," the coach said. "I told the team, coming out 0-3, it showed a lot of character for them to come back and not give up when you're 0-3. I told them if they need a job reference or something to that effect, I'd be more than happy to give them that." Opp says a win over a successful program like Perryville is a building block. "The first year I coached, we got clocked down there," he said. "They were a good football team, a very good football team. Last year, the year before, they were good. It was nice. I'm happy for the kids, the coaches, the players, especially those seniors, Wyatt Griffith in particular, who have gone through three years of very difficult seasons. It's tough. I'm glad for the kids. It was a good way to launch into next year." Both Juergens and Stewart were sentimental after the game. Until this year, Rising Sun's last winning season was in 2009 when the Tigers were 6-3 and captured the Susquehanna Division title. "My brother (Jake) was on that team," Juergens said while choking back tears. "It's very emotional. I grew up watching him play. I'm glad I could bring it here to my school in my senior year, so I could put my name in the history books and in the paper. The winning season was big. I'm going to carry it with me the rest of my life because he was a big influence on me." The season also produced memories that will stay with Stewart. "Honestly, it means the world to me," he said. "I'm so proud. I've never been prouder in my life. It's a great feeling. It's a fantastic feeling." Perryville coach confronts Opp after Tigers tack on two late TDs Rising Sun's 38-8 win over Perryville was marred by controversy.
Panthers coach Chris Johnson was not happy with the Tigers' two late TD passes and let his Rising Sun counterpart Rich Opp know about it following the postgame handshakes. Leading 25-8, the Tigers threw a 52-yard TD pass with 3:22 remaining in the game and added a 20-yard scoring strike with 2:14 left. Johnson made it clear he thought the Tigers ran up the score. "It's disappointing that they would do that," he said.. "We had some really strong teams. We've never been one to throw the football at the end of games or do those kinds of things. We saw them do it [against Harford Tech the previous week] and I was hoping they wouldn't do it but they did. That's the coach's prerogative to make that decision. It's unfortunate. Everybody has choices to make. They think we ran up the score on them [last year]. I know for a fact I did not throw the football on them and we had second and third team in when we were up big. But that's the way it is. I just told Coach Opp I didn't appreciate it. That's the end of it." Johnson said he simply wanted to have a private conversation with Opp after the game. "I pulled him aside to talk to him," said Johnson. "That's all I did. It wasn't aggressive. It was not anything I was trying to do to him, or hurt him, or anything like that. I just wanted to pull him aside away from everybody just to let him know we didn't appreciate what he did. That was it, just like I would put an arm around a football player or whatever." Opp was asked for his version of the event. "I don't know," he said. "I don't know how to describe it. Can you give me another question?" Asked specifically what Johnson said or if he believed the Perryville coach behaved inappropriately, the Tigers' coach declined to discuss it. "I don't want to field those questions," Opp said. "I'll answer anything under the sun but I don't want to talk about that." Opp was asked, given time to reflect on the game's final minutes, if he regretted having his team throw in the final minutes. "I don't know," he said Opp. "It was 31-8 (at the time of the final Tiger TD). It was 49-14 (actually 49-13) last year." Asked if he thought Perryville ran up the score last season, Opp said, "It was 49-14. I'll leave it at that." Last year, Perryville scored a touchdown in the final two minutes but it came on a six-yard run by a reserve running back. Questioned if the passing plays were called by him or his assistants, Opp responded, "They called it and we ran it." He said offensive plays calls don't necessarily have to go through him. "I don't want to go dirty laundry," Opp said. "I'll put it this way. I have trust in my offensive coordinators. I'm very conscientious of what goes on. There's a fine line between me being a vulture and overlooking too much. A fine line. So no, not everything goes through me. I run the defense." Comments are closed.
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