Perryville looks to get over .500, hosts Grandview on Thursday Night Football

Fresh off a 62-6 win over Bayless, the Perryville Pirates host Grandview on Thursday at Pirate Stadium.

The rare short week is followed up with homecoming Saturday when the Pirates host the Blue Jays of Jefferson on Sept. 30.

"I like the way it almost gives us an artificial bye week," Perryville head coach Brent Roth said. "You get two extra days of preparation in there for your homecoming game."

Perryville beat Grandview 50-21 last season and looks ready to do it again. The Eagles started the season with two wins against teams with a combined record of 0-7, including Bayless, whom they beat 45-8.

Surprisingly enough, despite scoring 62 points, the Pirates believe they could do much better.

"We definitely played good but we also made a lot of mistakes," Sophomore running back Barrett Wheeler said after the game on Friday. "Grandview is going to be way better. They dropped, I think, 41 points on this team, so clean up a bunch of mistakes, we should definitely come out on top of them."

The Pirates have the opportunity to move above the .500 mark with a 3-2 record with a win over Grandview. The Pirates have expectations to finish with a winning record for the first time since 2017.

"We told the kids 3-2 sounds a lot better than 2-3," Roth said. "It's a big win for us to get above .500. I think it's been four or five years since we started out with three wins."

The goals for the Pirates this season are to win the I55 Conference and to host a district playoff game. However, losing to St. Vincent 49-7 on Sept. 8 put the kibosh on those plans for now.

"We really thought we had a chance in the St. Vincent game," Roth said. "St. Vincent controls their own destiny on that portion where if they win out, they're conference champs. But if they lose a game or two, we can be right back."

Wheeler broke out in a big way last week with 118 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries.

"He's still learning," Roth said. "He definitely has great potential and he's got great vision. He's a big, powerful, strong runner and he's got enough speed to pull away. One thing he's still working on is hitting the hole a little harder, a little sooner. There's some times he's waiting for things to open up, and I'd rather him just go."

Roth is hoping to see a 1-2 punch in the backfield with Wheeler and Brett Bohnert, who in limited time has rushed for 119 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries.

"Brett Bohnert has been playing really well behind him, not getting many snaps," Roth said. "He's definitely making his case to get more carries as well."

Senior quarterback Rilaynd Graham only threw the ball 11 times against Bayless, but it led to two touchdowns, one to Chase Richardet for 12 yards and the other to Drew Leuckel for 10 yards. Aside from Wheeler, three other rushers scored on the ground despite not being traditional rushers.

"The jet sweep is something that I've been trying to get going ever since I got the job here two years ago," Roth said. "We got lots of weapons. We're trying to get Kayd [Luckey] involved. We're trying to get Chase involved. We're trying to get Drew involved, and then our receivers on the outside as well, Gavin [Hemann] and Dom [Seilers]."

The season has teetered to both extremes for the Pirates, who are 0-2 on the road by a 104-7 margin and 2-0 at home with a 74-6 margin. Any chance of the Pirates breaking the cycle and finding consistency hinges on their ability to provide protection in the trenches.

"That's our weakness, in my opinion," Roth said. "It's not that they're not capable. It's all been mental errors.

"Even in the jet motion, the jet sweeps, you still need good blocking up front on those things," he said. "We want to get that stuff going, then use it as a decoy at times. It's hard to do anything if you can't get good blocking up front."

Kickoff is expected to take place at 7 p.m.