Perryville struggles in homecoming loss

Disappointed. Embarrassed. Upset.

Those are likely just a few of the feelings that went through Perryville football coach Rick Chastain's head as he watched his Pirates fall 20-0 Saturday at the hands of previously winless Park Hills Central on homecoming day at Perryville.

"We're just not a very good ball club," Chastain said. "Instead of getting better this last week, we haven't progressed like we should have. I'm really disappointed in that fact."

After winning its season opener against Windsor, Perryville has now lost four straight games. Over the past three weeks the Pirates have not scored more than 14 points and have been outscored by 14 or more points in each of those games.

"At this point in our football season, we're going to have to improve a great deal just to be bad," Chastain said. "A lot of work's ahead of us."

A standing-room only crowd on Perryville's 49th annual homecoming game had little to cheer for from the onset. Perryville fumbled on each of its first two possessions of the game.

Perryville came up with a defensive stand at its own 2-yard line to finish the first quarter, but even that could not get the team fired up. After another lackluster offensive possession in the second quarter for the Pirates, Park Hills struck the knockout blow with a huge pass play. Ronnie Calvird hit a wide open David Barker up the middle for a 60-yard touchdown pass with less than three minutes in the half.

Park Hills coach Kory Schweiss said the pass play came from a hole in Perryville's defense he saw watching film from the Perryville-Ste. Genevieve contest.

"We just put that in this week," he said of the pass play.

The second half saw much of the same frustration for the Pirates. A fumble recovery on a punt was nixed as the Pirates were called for holding early in the third. Trailing 12-0 later in the quarter, Perryville's Matt Unterreiner returned a punt deep into Rebels territor, but the Pirates were penalized for too many men on the field, which gave the Rebels a first down and the ball back.

"Crucial penalties at crucial times by people we count on," Chastain said. "Your leaders cannot make mistakes like we made."

The fourth quarter was much of the same for Perryville. The Pirates had two more turnovers, one leading to Park Hills' last touchdown. In all, the Pirates had four turnovers. Perryville's offense was limited to 36 yards rushing and only 54 yards passing.

"There's going to have to be a lot of character checks this week," Chastain said. "There was a lot of finger-pointing today."