Park Hills Central hands Perryville football team first loss

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Just 1 minutes, 24 seconds into their game against Park Hills Central Friday night, the Perryville Pirates faced a two-touchdown deficit.

Those first two minutes were a quick preview of what the Rebels would continue to do in their 42-12 victory over the Pirates in an Mineral Area Football Conference White matchup at Perryville High School.

The Rebels recovered their own onside kick on the opening kickoff to take the ball over at the 50-yard line right off the bat. A quick 19-yard run by Brandon Maberry was followed by a 31-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jake Bridges to Brayden Manion.

Manion was left wide open and darted into the end zone as the 30th second of the game ticked off the clock.

Perryville sophomore quarterback Brandon Renaud was then picked off by Bridges, who returned it 28 yards to put the Pirates in a 14-0 hole with 10:36 remaining in the opening period.

"I didn't expect us to make some of the silly mistakes that we made early," Perryvilee Mike Wojtczuk said. "We kind of got in a ... whole, so to speak, early on and had to play catch up from the first 90 seconds of the ballgame. When you put yourself in a bad spot with a team such as Park Hills. ... We ran into a buzz saw tonight. Although there was some positives that we did, the bottom line is when you play a team of this caliber, you can't make those kind of mistakes."

The Rebels, who improved to 3-0 and are ranked No. 6 in Class 3, caught the Pirates off-guard when they capitalized early.

"That was a reality check," Perryville senior running back Austin Mills said. "Because a lot of people just thought that it's Park Hills, and they don't usually train and prepare for us, so we were going to punch them in the mouth. I guess that was a reality check for a lot of people realizing, 'Oh, this isn't going to be as easy as we thought.'"

Park Hills Central went up 21-0 with a 5-yard touchdown run with 5:10 remaining in the first.

It was almost deja vu for the Pirates in the second quarter. There wasn't a Perryville defender near Hunter Strange when Bridges hit him with a pass from 44 yards out that he trotted into the end zone just 1:34 seconds into the quarter.

Bridges then got his second pick-6 of the game, returning a pass he intercepted from Renaud 13 yards to extend the lead to 35-0 1:04 later. "Our execution wasn't up to snuff at times," Wojtczuk said. "I think we lost our focus a couple times. I think the effort was there. I think the effort's always there. ... The other thing that people have to take into consideration is if you look out there on the field it's sophomores and juniors. We're a Class 4 program and when you're playing sophomores and juniors on Friday nights you're going to have those miscues. You've got to battle through it, but the bottom line is you can't dig yourself a hole that quick and expect to come right out of it."

Wojtczuk felt there were some positives for the Pirates to build on in their first loss of the season. They forced five Park Hills fumbles and recovered four of them, including for their first score of the game.

Sophomore linebacker Kyle Hudson recovered a Rebels fumble at midfield and returned it 50 yards to put Perryville on the board with 5:12 left in the third.

Perryville didn't keep the momentum for long because Park Hills senior running back Brandon Maberry took a handoff and broke to the right sideline, freeing himself from multiple tackles en route to a 64-yard touchdown run less than 30 seconds after the Pirates scored.

Renaud, who finished 8-for-22 passing for 81 yards and 25 yards rushing, connected with sophomore receiver Garrett Dix for a 27-yard touchdown in the final minutes to make it 42-12.

"We knew that they were going to be a tough team so we had to get every little pinch of yardage that we could," said Mills, who ran for a team-high 81 yards. "Every down counted."

The Pirates return to action Friday when they face Fredericktown on the road.

"Like I said, it was a reality check," Mills said. "We've just got to come out next week and prepare and don't take it easy on any team thinking that it's going to be easy. Come into it thinking that every team's going to be a team just like this one."

Park Hills 21 14 7 0 -- 42

Perryville 0 0 6 6 -- 12

First Quarter

PH -- Brayden Manion 31 pass from Jake Bridges (Bridges kick), 11:30

PH -- Bridges 28 interception return (Bridges kick), 10:36

PH -- Drew Harlow 5 run (Bridges kick), 5:10

Second Quarter

PH -- Hunter Strange 44 pass from Bridges (Bridges kick), 10:26

PH -- Bridges 13 interception return (Bridges kick), 9:21

Third Quarter

P -- Kyle Hudson 50 fumble return (kick failed), 5:12

PH -- Brandon Maberry 64 run (Bridges kick), 4:46

Fourth Quarter

P -- Garrett Dix 27 pass from Brandon Renaud (conversion failed), 2:35

PH P

First downs 18 10

Rushes-yards 23-250 27-109

Passing yards 166` 81

Passes 8-14-0 7-22-3

Punts 0-0 3-40

Fumbles-Lost 5-4 0-0

Penalties-Yards 8-60 5-30

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Perryville, Austin Mills 12-81, Blake Mattingly 2 (-6), Renaud 9-25, Kameron Fears 3-2, Holden Stortz 1-7; Park Hills, Maberry 5-124, Bridges 2-32, Harlow 3-28, Noah House 2-2, Brayden Manion 3-21, Luke Manion 1-2, Nick Haney 1-14, Tyreece Welch 1-9, Triston Campbell 4-5, Logan Comfort 1-13

PASSING -- Perryville, Renaud 8-22-81-3; Park Hills, Bridges 7-10-153-0, Brayden Manion 1-4-13-0

RECEIVING -- Perryville, Aaron Mueller 2-3, Mills 1-4, Dix 2-42, Kameron Fears 1-3, Stortz 1-29; Park Hills, Brayden Manion 1-31, Brandon Caldwell 2-36, Haney 2-33, Tristan Pyatt 1-9, House 1-13, Strange 1-44