Offensive lineman scores in Perryville's homecoming triumph, wins seventh game of 2024

With a dominating 49-8 win over Herculaneum on homecoming Saturday, the 7-1 Pirates have established themselves as the best team in modern Perryville history.

The Pirates surpassed the 6-4 2017 team for the most wins in recent history and still have one more game to go before the Class 4 District 1 Tournament, which as the No. 2 seed, will surely host the first two rounds.

“We're trying to go to Festus this year,” Perryville head coach Brent Roth said. “They're the one seed. We fully expect them to be there in that district championship game and we want to go up to Festus and see what we're made of. That's our goal. That's our mindset right now.”

Everyone got in on the action on Saturday for the Pirates. Even an offensive lineman found the end zone.

“It feels great to be finally part of a winning team,” Perryville senior center Eli Hemingway said. “We all put so much work in, and it's paying off.”

Hemingway was given the ball in the third quarter on a goal line run and embodied the spirit of Chicago Bears legend William “The Fridge” Perry, rumbling and stumbling his way into the end zone for a touchdown.

“He's one of our character captains,” Roth said of Hemingway. “He's a good kid, works his butt off, he's given us four years of hard work and effort and just try to reward guys like that that don't always get the football. So it was something that we kind of been practicing all week.”

Roth played a joke on Hemingway in preparation for that play leading up to that game.

“The first time we ran it, we snapped the football into a McDonald's bag and handed it to him, and he didn't even know,” Roth said. “That was kind of a joke, and then we decided to kind of keep it in there. We decided, if we had that opportunity, we're gonna give him the football. So he had three rushes and ended up with a touchdown. So it's a big deal for him on senior night homecoming.”

The joke caught Hemingway by surprise, but he was a good sport about it.

“I didn't even notice that first, and I looked down after the play,” Hemingway said. “I thought it was hilarious.”

Junior running back Barrett Wheeler brought the offensive within yards of the goal line with his final carry of the game, setting him Hemingway’s moment.

“He’s someone who deserves it more than anyone on our team,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler scored three touchdowns on the ground to increase his season total to 17. He credits Hemingway and the rest of the offensive line for his success.

“We wanted to take the life out of them,” Wheeler said. “We wanted to dominate and it started up front with the offensive line. They played great. All 900 of my yards this year are from the O-line.”

The game was over before the homecoming king and queen were crowned, as Perryville established a 42-0 lead at halftime. Cyler Myers scored a touchdown on special teams when he recovered a fumble forced by Dustin Morgan during kickoff. Seniors Dominic Seiler and Evan Hayden each found the end zone on passes from quarterback Kayd Luckey.

“There's only one football to go around. We got a lot of seniors that are very talented, skill-wise,” Roth said. “It's a balancing act trying to spread the ball around while still giving it to your best player.”

Hayden scored his first touchdown of the season, on a year in which he started in fierce competition for the starting quarterback role.

“He's done a great job of not being selfish, not having a bad attitude all the time,” Roth said. “He had an opportunity today and took advantage of it and he'll get more opportunities going in the future too.”

Perryville will travel to Cuba on Friday, Oct. 25 to close out the regular season. The Pirates will aim to continue their momentum into the district tournament.

“Our goal is to win a district championship,” Wheeler said. “We got to stay ready. We got to stay locked in.”