Perryville FB future is looking bright, despite loss to Bootheel-power

NEW MADRID – As the Perryville High School football team struggled to contain the explosive New Madrid County Central offense (and who doesn’t?) on Friday, it may have been difficult to envision the Pirates having a bright future. However, if you step back and analyze the situation that third-year coach Brent Roth finds himself in, things are absolutely trending upward with his program.

“I think that we have grown up fast,” Roth said of his team.

The Pirates will face former Perryville coach Blane Boss, who now guides the program at Herculaneum, on Friday at 7 p.m. in Herculaneum, and a win over their former coach will give Perryville its fourth victory of this season. That number would be the most in four years for the program, which has just seven seniors this fall.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys,” Roth said. “We’re playing a lot of sophomores, and even our juniors didn’t play a lot of varsity football last year.”

That is where this program is showing strength.

The Pirates may just have a handful of seniors participating this season, but Roth has a roster of 18 juniors, 15 sophomores, and 16 freshmen.

“We have had to mature and learn quickly,” Roth continued. “We’ve done that and gotten better each week.”

That growth was evident on Friday, even through a 47-12 loss to the Class 2 No. 10-ranked Eagles, who are unbeaten through seven games.

With less than four minutes remaining before halftime, the Pirates had the ball on the Eagle four-yard line and were threatening to tie the game at 13.

“It took us a little while to get going,” Roth said of his offense, “but, we were moving the ball.”

At that point in the contest, Pirate senior quarterback Rilaynd Graham threw a pick in the end zone, which swung the momentum to the hosts and Perryville never recovered.

“We’ve got to get better in the red zone,” Roth said. “That is two weeks in a row that we have turned the ball over on the one- or two-yard line.”

That is part of the growth process of having a young team.

“That is on me as a coach,” Roth continued. “We have to do a better job in practice of practicing finishing off drives.”

The Pirates must be doing something constructive in practice because they are enjoying their most productive season – on both sides of the ball – in several years.

Offensively, Perryville is averaging one touchdown more per game than a year ago while defensively, Roth’s kids are giving up fewer than 30 points per game for the first time since 2019.

“I think this (game) gave our guys a lot of confidence that we can hang with a quality team,” Roth said.

Not only is the number of athletes participating a bright spot for the Pirates and their future but the fact that Perryville halfback Barrett Wheeler, who threw a touchdown pass on Friday out of the Wildcat formation, is only a sophomore.

“Barrett’s got speed,” Roth said of the burly back, “he can run away from some people, but he can run you over too.”