Ste. Genevieve overpowers shorthanded Perryville football team

STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. -- The Perryville football team ran into a perfect storm Friday night as its injury problems continued to mount and Ste. Genevieve celebrated homecoming with a dominating performance.

The Dragons played a perfect first half -- scoring on every possession and keeping the Pirates from accumulating a first down -- en route to 72-6 victory.

Ste. Genevieve (5-2) improved to 4-0 in the MAFC White Division and has just one more league game remaining -- the season finale against Park Hills.

Perryville (1-6) fell to 1-4 in the MAFC White with its third consecutive loss and 18th loss in its last 19 games.

The Pirates were down 34-0 after one period and 53-0 at halftime.

"We had a lot of people out, but that's no excuse," said senior Wyatt McAfee, who was Perryville's leading rusher with 83 yards. "We were dead the first half after the first drive, just like last week [in a 52-0 homecoming loss to Maplewood-Richmond Heights]. We've got to get that out of our system."

The Pirates gained just 33 yards in the first half, while Ste. Genevieve racked up 269 yards passing in the first half alone.

Dragons senior quarterback Brendan Weiler completed 13 of 14 passes for that yardage. He tossed six touchdown passes -- four to senior Derek Brown and two to junior Adam Schwent.

Ste. Genevieve added a touchdown on a 66-yard run by sophomore Brendan Dallas, who also returned a kickoff 92 yards for a score during the third period, and it scored on a 40-yard interception return by sophomore Clayton Naeger.

"They've got a lot of weapons," Perryville first-year coach Mike Wojtczuk said. "Coach [Bob] Stolzer did a nice job doing the best he could trying to keep the score down. Those guys do a nice job. They have a classic program, and they're going to go places."

The Dragons had their best scoring output since a 70-46 victory against Fredericktown in 2008, the only other time since 1998 when they scored 70 or more points.

"Our kids executed well from early on," Stolzer said. "We built a very comfortable lead in a hurry and that enabled us to play everybody."

The Pirates also played plenty of players, including a group of freshmen who weren't even on the varsity roster.

The rushing of one of those freshmen, Matthew Keller, who picked up 48 yards on five carries in the fourth quarter, was one of the positives for the Pirates.

Another was the punting of sophomore Alex Plunkett, who averaged 40.7 yards on three punts in the second quarter, including a 50-yard kick.

Perryville opened the second half by marching 74 yards for a touchdown after a first half with no first downs.

The TD broke a streak of 10 scoreless quarters for Perryville since its 35-34 victory against Potosi.

McAfee rushed for 59 yards on seven carries on the drive. He carried 21 times in the game after leading Perryville in carries and yardage last week as well.

"Wyatt McAfee has done a nice job the last two weeks getting some hard-fought yards," Wojtczuk said. "He's running like a mad man. He's like a man on a mission. I think he's finally realized he only has a few games left in his high school career, and he's going to make the best of it.

"He did some nice things, and we just hope he stays healthy and continues that the next three weeks."

"We showed some heart in that third quarter," McAfee said, "and went down and scored that one touchdown. We've just got to keep working at it. None of us are giving up, I know that."

Senior Cody Call delivered a similar message to his teammates during the postgame huddle.

The senior had to step into the quarterback role when junior starter Chris Zahner left the game in the first quarter with an injury. Call threw an interception in his three passes, and Perryville completed zero of six passing attempts in the game.

Call had taken only about a dozen snaps in practice situations a couple weeks ago.

"He stepped in there and, in my opinion, did a heck of a job leading this football team tonight," Wojtczuk said. "My entire backfield was down at one point. I'm not making excuses. It is what it is. It's the nature of the beast, and we've got to adapt and overcome.

"We need to remember what this feels like, but we need to put it behind us and move on. We've got to come out next week and get a week better."

Call stood before his teammates following Wojtczuk's speech and delivered some words of his own.

"I just told them we need to keep our heads up, keep our pride, come out these next three weeks and grind it out because there's no reason we can't put a few more W's on the board," Call said.

The Pirates host Sikeston on Friday to begin Class 4 District 1 play in a rugged district that also includes Farmington and Central. The teams are a combined 17-3.

Stolzer, a veteran coach, could sympathize with the Pirates' long-term task.

"I've talked to Mike; he's a great man and a very hardworking football coach," Stolzer said. "I know he's put in a lot of time to try to get things going, and they're going to have to give him support down there. He's struggling to implement his system, and people just need to be patient. You can't build a successful program overnight. It takes time, and if they'll stay with it, he'll bring some success to the program."

Perryville 0 0 6 0 -- 6

Ste. Genevieve 34 19 7 12 -- 72

First Quarter

SG -- Derek Brown 40 pass from Brendan Weiler (Clayton Naeger kick), 10:38

SG -- Brown 41 pass from Weiler (Naeger kick), 7:28

SG -- Brown 48 pass from Weiler (Naeger kick), 5:38

SG -- Brown 2 pass from Weiler (kick failed), 2:27

SG -- Adam Schwent 23 pass from Weiler (Naeger kick), :20

Second Quarter

SG -- Schwent 32 pass from Weiler (Naeger kick), 10:22

SG -- Gabe Meyer 37 run (kick failed), 4:40

SG -- Brendan Dallas 66 run (kick failed), 1:59

Third Quarter

P -- Devin Blandford 5 run (run fail), 3:35

SG -- Dallas 92 kickoff return (Kyle Figge kick), 3:19

Fourth Quarter

SG -- Matt Drury 23 run (kick fail), 8:08

SG -- Naeger 40 INT return (kick fail), 5:37

P SG

First downs 12 6

Rushes-yards 40-153 15-114

Passing yards 0 269

Passing 0-6-1 13-14-0

Fumbles-lost 4-2 1-1

Punting 8-199 0-0

Penalties-yards 3-25 2-15

Individual statistics

RUSHING -- Perryville, Wyatt McAfee 21-83, Jonny Pruiett 5-3, Devin Blandford 6-20, Cody Call 4-(-1), Kyle Welch 1-1, David Welker 1-0, TEAM 1-(-6), Robert Brewer 2-5, Matthew Keller 5-48; Ste. Genevieve, Brendan Weiler 3-(-4), Jacob Billings 1-1, Brendan Dallas 3-70, Gabe Meyer 3-30, Matt Drury 3-20, Josh Humbolt 2-(-3).

PASSING -- Perryville, Chris Zahner 0-3-0-0, Cody Call 0-0-0-1; Ste. Genevieve, Brendan Weiler 13-14-269-0.

RECEIVING -- Perryville, none; Ste. Genevieve, Adam Schwent 5-76, Derek Brown 6-154, Luke Palmer 1-9, Dan Lurk 1-30.