Peach County downs Perry with third-quarter explosion

FORT VALLEY — Head coach Kevin Smith has completely turned the Perry football program around since his arrival, and with that came a flip in their rivalry with Peach County.

After going 1-23 against the Trojans from 1992-2017 the Panthers won three straight under Smith when the game was added back to the schedule in 2022. On Friday Peach County blitzed Perry in the third quarter and scored on four straight drives to put them away 27-6 and snap the streak.

Three observations:

Third quarter explosion

Neither the Trojans or Panthers reached the end zone in the first half of Friday’s game, but coming out of the break Peach County scored every touchdown in the game in one period.

Ashton Barton and Zion Hudson scored two a piece:

Barton took the first two — a 12-yard and one-yard run — while Hudson took two passes past the secondary for 54 and 96 yards.

Hudson was wide open for the 96-yard reception, and a missed tackle on the left sideline allowed him to take the other one to the end zone.

“They connected on a couple of long balls and that hurt,” Smith said. “We missed a tackle out here on the screen on Hudson when he went. We had a guy there, missed a tackle. You gotta tackle him, he’s a difference maker.”

Inexperience kills the offense

Before the season it was clear there would be growing pains on the offensive line and at receiver. Those were made more apparent against a quality opponent like Peach County, who pressured the quarterback consistently and played tight coverage down the field.

Perry was locked out of the end zone after putting up 46 points and over 500 yards of offense last week, and though the opponent is a big difference, the Panthers hurt themselves, too.

“They were a lot better on defense than the team we played last week. We didn’t execute,” Smith said. “Early in the game we had some guys open down the field and we didn’t hit them. We couldn’t get it to them or we dropped it.”

The most costly drop was in the third quarter when Reid Ginn hit the receiver square in the chest at the end of a 24-yard pass to the end zone.

The offensive line failed to protect Ginn or create run lanes for Decorrion Daniels and Kam Oliver on several occasions, too. Ginn is a pocket passer, not someone you want throwing on the run all game.

Daniels had some great runs, but couldn’t shake the swarm of defenders that came after him every play. Smith knew there would be moments like this as the Panthers gain experience, and right now improvement is his biggest focus.

“I thought our offense tried to get some things going, we got a little youth over there,” Smith said. “We just gotta get better…If you lose on the field in a battle, you want to lose to somebody that’s good…We were sluggish I know, we were sluggish last week coming out of the half.”

Can’t capitalize enough

A big help for Perry’s offense last week was the five interceptions they pulled down. It gave them that many more opportunities to score, and the Panthers generated more of those against Peach County.

Perry forced three fumbles on special teams in the first half but only got six points out of it.

The first blocked punt put them on the Trojans’ seven-yard line but they had to settle for a field goal. That was the best chance they got to score all night (besides the dropped touchdown pass), and Smith knew it wasn’t good enough.

“In a game like this you gotta get seven, not three,” Smith said. “We got a young offensive line and we got some young receivers out there that doesn’t have a lot of experience. We just got to keep getting better, we’re our biggest enemy right now…One win doesn’t define who we are. We’re going to learn from this game and we’re going [forward].”

UP NEXT

Perry will head over to Freedom Field for their matchup with Houston County on Friday, Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m.

Peach County will host Berkmar on Friday, Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m.