Perryville debuted its new artificial turf surface Friday night. Head coach Chris Johnson didn't set foot on it in the first half. Following the previous week's lopsided loss, Johnson elected to call plays from the pressbox. Johnson enjoyed his new vantage point immensely as he watched the Panthers christen their state-of-the-art playing field with a 45-0 romp over Morrisville (Pa.). "I did that for pretty much my entire career until I became a head coach," Johnson said. "And I just feel like I needed to go up there to get a better perspective of what's going on, what they're trying to do to us defensively. Getting away from the emotion of it a little bit helps me to think more clearly about what my next call is going to be. So I tried it out to to see if I could do it. It's been a long time. There's part of it where I missed the sideline, but at the same time it was nice being up in the box and able to focus. I had binoculars watching the line. If somebody messed up I could tell so-and-so you have to go here or go there. So I'll probably do that next week [at Rising Sun] as well."
The Panthers' artificial field of dreams was a real pain in the grass for Morrisville. Perryville scored early and often, storming out to a 39-0 halftime lead. The Panthers needed just 65 seconds to jump on top as quarterback Dayvon Montz found Timmy Clark all alone down the left sideline for a 49-yard scoring strike. After a Billy Boyer interception, Caleb Robinson scampered 35 yards for a TD to make it 14-0 just 2 minutes, 43 seconds into the game. Montz scored on a one-yard plunge to lengthen the lead to 20-0 with 3:22 left in the first quarter. Clark scored from 12 yards out with 5:30 remaining in the second quarter to up the advantage to 26-0. Billy Boyer tallied two touchdowns before the break. He caught a 21-yard TD pass from Montz with 1:06 to go. "It was a tunnel screen," Boyer said. "I scored on it in a scrimmage. In my head, I figured it was going to work. The corner wasn't ready. It was just great blocking by the line to leave it open." Then on the final play of the half, Boyer returned an interception 40 yards for a score. He was able to hang on to the ball despite colliding with teammate Emarion Hampton. "I didn't see him honestly," Boyer said. "I just went for the ball. Then I just saw green field and a touchdown." With a running clock to start the second half, the score remained 39-0 until Hampton scored on a three-yard burst with 1:35 left in the game. The Panthers (3-1) were coming off a potentially demoralizing 52-6 loss to Havre de Grace in the Susquehanna Bowl. "We watched the film on Monday (Sept. 22)," said Johnson. "And as we watched the film I showed them we lined up wrong on defense practically the entire time. I said 'Guys, How much of it was them and how much of it was us?' And they said, 'We screwed up'. And I said, 'Yeah, you did'. The kids came back and worked really hard in practice. I'm really proud of them. They again showed their resiliency. Even [against Havre de Grace] when things weren't going well, they never stopped playing. They kept playing hard…Our goal is to continue to work hard in practice and get better." Said Boyer: "We had a lot of anger [stemming from the Havre de Grace game]. We were very upset the way it turned out and we wanted to come out and show something this week and we did." Perryville's performance served as a recrudescence following the disheartening defeat and was a fitting celebration of its refurbished stadium which included a shiny new scoreboard and came at a cost of $1,000,020 paid for by the county and Project Open Space funds. "I can't thank the county enough for all the people who pushed this through," Johnson said. "I'm very thankful because we've had some injuries because our practice field is worn out. To have a beautiful field like this I think is safer for the kids and I also think it's something to be really proud of. I can't thank the county enough for what they provided us." "I loved it," Boyer said. "I honestly loved it. It's way better than our field before. It feels great out here. The team, the coaches, the fans, and just everyone around us, the whole Perryville system, this was for them." Comments are closed.
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