Late touchdown lifts Perryville football team to victory over Fredericktown

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Perryville football coach Mike Wojtczuk didn't have any major schematic adjustments for his team at halftime of its game Friday against Fredericktown.

He did, however, suggest one significant change of mindset for his players, challenging them to play to win the second half rather than play not to lose like he felt the Pirates did in the first 24 minutes of the game at Pirate Stadium.

"I thought we were playing back on our heels some, and I thought we came out just a little bit flat," Wojtczuk said. "I don't know if it's a deal of getting hung up on the fact that we were playing Fredericktown and they've always been so much bigger and stronger than us. There's probably several different factors that went into it. They played the first half and I guess they finally did believe that we can play with these guys, and we got it done in the second half."

Perryville scored three second-half touchdowns, including the game-winner with 31 seconds remaining, to defeat the visiting Blackcats 18-13.

The win was the third of the season for the Pirates, who won two games each of the past two seasons. It also was the first time they beat Fredericktown since a district championship win over the Blackcats in 2004.

"It's a breakthrough, but we're still working," Perryville senior Blake Mattingly said. "3-1 doesn't satisfy us. We're going for more and more."

The Pirates trailed 3-0 at halftime and 13-12 at the end of the third quarter.

Fredericktown fumbled on fourth down in the red zone during the fourth quarter and the Pirates began their go-ahead drive from their own 17 with 4 minutes, 41 seconds remaining.

Eleven of Perryville's first 13 plays of the drive were passes, including back-to-back 15- and 9-yard passes from quarterback Brandon Renaud to Connor Stark and Mattingly, respectively, that put the Pirates in the red zone.

"They liked to blitz their linebackers a lot, so we took our receivers and put them right where the linebackers left and threw it to them," Renaud said.

Mattingly followed with two carries to move the ball to the 9-yard line before Renaud capped the drive with a touchdown run with 31 seconds to go.

Renaud's two-point conversion run was stopped short to keep the Pirates' advantage at five points.

"Having a background in running a power game and not being used to these spread offenses and how quickly you can score and the things that you can do with them, this was all new to me -- uncharted waters," Wojtczuk said. "I was worried about do we have enough time? My assistants were constantly, 'Coach, we're fine, we're fine. We've got plenty of time.' It all worked out for us."

The Blackcats' only yardage on their final drive came from a 15-yard face mask penalty on a third-down sack as Perryville held on for the victory.

Fredericktown took its halftime lead on a 22-yard field goal with 9:31 left in the second quarter.

The Pirates' first-quarter drives resulted in a fumble at Fredericktown's 15, a 34-yard touchdown pass called back for holding and then an incomplete pass on the ensuing fourth-down play. They came up inches short on fourth down on their first drive of the second quarter and elected to punt after a high snap flew past Renaud for an 18-yard loss on third-and-1.

"They didn't really do anything to stop us," Renaud said. "We shot ourselves in the foot on almost every drive. We should've went up 20-0 in the first quarter, but we shot ourselves in the foot."

Perryville recovered its onside kick to start the second half but had to punt from midfield.

Fredericktown quarterback Zak Keller had a pass intercepted two plays later to give the Pirates the ball on the Blackcats' 10 and Renaud punched it in from seven yards out to give Perryville its first lead of the night. Stark's PAT missed to make it 6-3 with 9:39 left in the third.

Perryville's defense had Fredericktown on fourth-and-3 from its own 44 and the Blackcats lined up with Keller back to punt.

Instead they snapped it directly to running back Matthew Williams, who picked up a first down with a 12-yard carry to the other 44.

Running back Luke Korokis scored on the next play to put Fredericktown back up 10-6 with 7:30 left in the quarter.

Aaron Mueller returned the next kickoff about 65 yards to the Blackcats 25.

After Mattingly caught a screen pass for a 12-yard gain, the Pirates' retook the lead with 6:50 remaining in the third when Renaud connected with Derek Kirn for a 13-yard strike.

Renaud attempted the two-point conversion run but was stopped short to make it 12-10.

With 2:03 to go in the quarter Colten Jordan made a 32-yard field goal to put the Blackcats (0-4) up 13-12 before they were shut out the remainder of the game.

"Our defense played their tails off," Wojtczuk said. "We took an approach this week that we were going to get as many kids in the rotation that we could. I think we rotated in about six or seven kids at defensive tackle and about four or five kids at defensive end, and I think playing the numbers game with them a little bit kind of wore their kids down up front, so it played into our hand and worked in our favor."

The Pirates (3-1) host Affton at 7 p.m. Friday.

"Coach has got our mindset to where if we win or lose a game we go into next week 0-0. We're not worried about these last few games," Renaud said. "We're worried about next week and being 1-0."

Stark added: "It's always a new beginning.

Perryville 18, Fredericktown 13

Perryville 0 0 12 6 -- 18

Fredericktown 0 3 10 0 -- 13

Second quarter

F -- Colten Jordan 22 field goal, 9:31

Third quarter

P -- Brandon Renaud 7 run (Connor Stark kick failed), 9:39

F -- Luke Korokis 44 run (Jordan kick), 7:30

P -- Derek Kirn 13 run (run failed), 6:50

F -- Jordan 32 field goal, 1:56

Fourth quarter

F -- Renaud 9 run (run failed), :31

P F

First downs 14 17

Rushes-yards 33-143 40-269

Passing yards 207 61

Passes 17-29-0 3-11-2

Punts-average 2-52.5 1-74

Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-1

Penalties-yards 5-40 0-0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing -- Perryville: Renaud 11-45, Blake Mattingly 6-58, Kirn 5-19, Kyle Creason 8-10, Aaron Mueller 3-11. Fredericktown -- Zak Keller 13-115, Austin Dowd 4-1, Matthew Williams 11-54, Korokis 8-90, Will Clark 3-7.

Passing -- Perryville, Renaud 17-29-207-0; Fredericktown, Dowd 2-7-44-1, Williams 1-1-17-0, Keller 0-3-0-1

Receiving -- Perryville, Mueller 4-16, Mattingly 7-115, Stark 5-66, Garrett Dix 1-5, Logan Thaxton 1-5; Fredericktown, Williams 2-44, Brandon Kellholz 1-17.