SportsAugust 15, 2015
Perryville football team displays progress at jamboree
The Pirates scored three of the four touchdowns posted in the four-team event, which gave fans a glimpse of the teams with the start of the high school football season just seven days away.
PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- There was no score kept and the Perryville football team still owns an eight-game losing streak, but the Pirates clearly wore the look of winners after Friday night's jamboree at St. Vincent High School.
The Pirates scored three of the four touchdowns posted in the four-team event, which gave fans a glimpse of the teams with the start of the high school football season just seven days away.
Senior Blake Mattingly rushed for two touchdowns and junior Kyle Creason rushed for a third on the night as the Pirates exuded excitement from the opening snap against Scott City that carried through against Potosi and St. Vincent.
Perryville won its first two games of the 2014 season before going winless the rest of the way.
"Before we started the night we said, 'What's past is past,'" said Perryville fifth-year coach Mike Wojtczuk, whose teams have compiled an 8-42 record over his first four seasons. "'We can't do anything about the past, but we sure can do something about the future.' I think we took a big step tonight."
Creason has made the move from wide receiver to running back and is part of a three-prong rushing attack that moved the football on most of its 12-play possessions.
"We're trying to prove we're a new team," Creason said. "We don't want to come out as the old Perryville Pirates, as the ones who go out there and get beat the first half, then finally come back but it's already too late. We're a new team. We start and we finish."
The Pirates used back-to-back runs by sophomore Derek Kirn and Mattingly to cover about 35 yards for the Pirates' first touchdown against Scott City.
Perryville, a Class 4 team with has 56 players on its roster in grades 10 through 12, overpowered Class 2 Scott City, which has 39 players overall.
"They're going to have a pretty good squad this year," said Scott City coach Jim May, whose Rams will host the Pirates in Week 9 of the regular season. "I knew that coming in. I knew lining up against them right out of the gate was going to be a tough matchup as big as they are and as physical as they are. I knew it was going to be a good test for us that we needed."
Mattingly displayed an impressive burst of speed when he took a handoff, broke for the right sideline and dashed 60 yards down the right sideline against Potosi.
He credited junior Connor Stark with paving the way.
"Connor really stepped up and pinned that guy on the inside and I was able to break it out," Mattingly said.
The long jaunt was part a big evening for a player who rushed for 121 yards and scored two touchdown his entire junior season.
"We knew Blake had it in him. We've seen spurts before," Wojtczuk said. "He really stepped up his game tonight and really played the way we knew he was capable of playing. He took a big step tonight."
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Mattingly said the Pirates' outing was a reflection of a program that is more united and that has grown in numbers over his four years.
"We worked hard. We did everything we could to get to where we are here," Mattingly said. "We've probably have had one bad practice this whole season. School got out and we got right into practice. Everybody worked hard and got where they needed to be. I know we had a bunch of people in the weight room."
Creason scored on about a 28-yard run against crosstown St. Vincent, a Class 1 school and the smallest squad in the jamboree.
Against St. Vincent, the Pirates had a sack of Indians quarterback Joe Whistler by linebacker Lucas Ponder and an interception by defensive back Logan Thaxton. Perryville nearly had a couple more against the Indians.
"My general impression was rust," St. Vincent coach Nathan Rowland said. "We were about as rusty as I've ever seen a team come out. We had a really poor practice yesterday mentally, and it carried over to today. They need to get their heads on straight because the defending state champs are coming in Friday night, and if we play that rusty, who knows what the outcome of that will be."
Rowland was referring to Class 1 state champion Valle Catholic, which defeated the Indians in the opener and closer of a 4-7 campaign last season.
Just as concerning for Rowland was a knee injury sustained by junior lineman Blake Hennemann in the final plays of the night against Perryville. Hennemann had an ice bag strapped to his knee after the contest and was assisted by teammates to the post-jamboree huddle at midfield. Junior lineman Layne Hlavek also sustained an undisclosed injury.
"That is our basic only concern coming into this thing, to get out of this practice with as little injuries as possible," Rowland said. "We had two contributers get a little dinged up and we hope they can go."
St. Vincent and Scott City will meet in the second week of the season, and matched JV teams in their 24-play sequence.
The Rams followed the JV exhibition with a strong finish against Potosi, rotating junior quarterbacks Braden Cox and Ty Wilthong. Cox made a pair of 15-yard runs against the Trojans and completed a 13-yard pass to Nick Bickings in his time against Potosi.
"We wanted to get some live action and let these guys get their feet wet," May said. "That first game against Perryville you could tell we were a little tentative, but the last game against Potosi we got a little burr in our side and played real hard, and that's promising for us. We're not going to be big and overpower you, but I tell them that they'll have to be the most intense and outwork everybody. If they'll work hard like that, we'll have a chance to be pretty good."
The Rams, coming off a 4-6 season, will open the season Friday at Herculaneum.
May was happy his team came away healthy, as was Wojtczuk, whose squad will open at home against Sumner.
"The biggest thing we wanted to do tonight was have a good showing and come out healthy," Wojtczuk said. "And other than just a few bumps and bruises we felt like we did that tonight. But we felt like we had more than just a good showing. We felt like we really took some big strides tonight and hope that carries over to next week's practice, the excitement and enthusiasm, and carries us right into the game against Sumner."
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