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Excellence in running game lifts Perryville over Windsor
PERRYVILLE. Mo. -- The Perryville Pirates' coaching staff had one mission coming out of the locker room at halftime on Friday.
Run the ball exclusively, mainly behind senior running back Deven Lukefahr.
A late fourth-quarter rally by Windsor was thwarted in the final seconds and Perryville hung on to win 28-20 on Friday night.
The win was coach Brent Roth’s first at the school, and he was understandably happy with his team's performance,
“Our main goal in the second half was to run the ball,” Roth said. “We saw they had been shifting more and trying to take away our tight end. But we had four or five running plays we thought were really going to hit for us, and the first one we called hit, and hit again, and again, so we stuck to that one play. I believe we called that same play about 80% of the time and just kept hammering them with it.”
The Pirates ran the ball 30 times in the second half, racking up more than 120 yards on the ground in the final two quarters. Many of those yards came from the legs of Lukefahr, who scored three rushing touchdowns in the game.
Perryville accumulated a total of 225 yards on 41 carries, as Lukefahr led the running attack with 111 yards on 16 carries for the game, most of which came in the second half.
Ben Hotop carried the ball 12 times for 68 yards, running effectively in the first half.
Tyler Weibrecht had 33 yards on nine carries, while Aladdin Garris had two carries for nine yards. Quarterback Rilaynd Graham carried the ball once for seven yards.
Graham helped put the Pirates on the board in the first quarter, hitting junior tight end Ethan Blythe in the endzone for the Pirates' first touchdown of the contest.
Lukefahr also caught a pass for the Pirates, gaining 24 yards in the process.
“They (Windsor) made it real interesting there late, but I just told my defense to keep your composure and make the tackles and we’ll be fine,” Roth said. “Composure is a big word I've been preaching all week. Just stay calm, we know what we’re doing. I believe our kids did that, and that’s a testament to them.”
Perryville outscored Windsor 21-8 in the second half, and the Pirates dominated time of possession by running the football.
“We tip our hats to Windsor,” Roth said. “That’s a pretty good football team over there and coach Jeff Funston has his boys playing hard. They’re going to win some games this year.”
With the victory, Perryville improves to 1-1 on the season and will host Fredericktown at 7 p.m. next Friday.