Perryville ousted

STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. -- Running back Adam Schwent carried the Ste. Genevieve Dragons football team to a Class 3 state final appearance last season.

While this year's Dragons (7-4) do not have a back that comes close to the dominance of Schwent, the combination of Taylor Huck, Kellen Stolzer and Tanner Wolk did the job on the ground for Ste. Genevieve on Wednesday night in a 20-7 sectional win over visiting Perryville.

"We're not a one-man show," Dragons coach Bob Stolzer said. "They start keying on one player, we got other players to go to."

Huck led the rushing attack with 126 yards on 30 carries, while quarterback Wolk chipped in with 122 yards on 17 carries and scored all three Ste. Genevieve touchdowns on the ground.

"We could not stop the running game. They just wore us down up front," Perryville coach Rick Chastain said.

Ste. Genevieve's rushing game was showcased on its first drive of the second half. The Dragons went 80 yards on 18 plays to push the score to 14-0 and effectively put away the Pirates (5-6) with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Wolk finished the drive with a 1-yard run after 8:30 had ticked off the clock. All 80 yards came on the ground.

"They had the ball a ton tonight," Chastain said. "I give them a lot of credit. They were physically in better shape tonight."

Wolk's third score -- a 54-yard run -- came just three minutes into the fourth quarter to push the lead to 20-0.

Any dreams of late comeback ended for the Pirates on their next drive. Perryville went for a fourth-and-1 at its own 37 but failed on a run attempt by Matt Unterreiner.

Perryville was able to avoid the shutout with the help of an 82-yard pass play from quarterback Cory Buerck to Clinton Rice. Shortly after the Pirates had intercepted Ste. Genevieve in their own end zone, Buerck hooked up with Rice to get to the Dragon 3-yard line.

Buerck carried it in on a quarterback keeper from there.

Chastain said despite the loss he was pleased with the way the season came out.

"All in all, I'm very pleased with our year. We came from nothing to something this year," he said.

An onside kick after Perryville's touchdown failed, and Ste. Genevieve was able to generate several first downs on the ground to run down the clock.

While the Dragons had few problems running the ball, Perryville got nothing going from its ground game. Unterreiner, who has rushed for more than 1,300 yards this season, was held to 42 yards on 13 carries.

Unterreiner had only two yards on four carries after the half. With all of Ste. Genevieve's yards on the ground, Perryville's offense was not on the field long enough to get much going.

"It's always been my philosophy the longer your offense is on the field, that's your best defense," Stolzer said.

After a scoreless first quarter, Ste. Genevieve finally broke through in the late going of the second quarter.

Wolk turned a broken play into a 13-yard scamper into the end zone with 2:09 remaining in the half. Kellen Stolzer's extra point put Ste. Genevieve ahead 7-0 at halftime.

Perryville had a couple of chances to bring Wolk down on the third-and-goal play, but the quarterback managed to break several arm tackles on his way to the score.

"That hurt a ton right there," Chastain said. "They executed and we didn't. We missed a lot of tackles there. You can't arm tackle like that."

Buerck led Perryville's passing attack with 142 yards.

Buerck and star back Unterreiner are two of several big seniors who played their last game for the Pirates.

Chastain said he'll miss his seniors but hopes the program can continue to progress.

"We'll reload and see what we can do," he said.