Perry football dominates St. Pius X Catholic with disciplined defensive effort

PERRY — There’s not a better defensive performance that comes to mind than the one the Perry Panthers just displayed against the St. Pius X Catholic Golden Lions in round one of the GHSA playoffs on Friday.

SPX got the first and the last score of the game, but it was all Perry in between as they won 38-13.

Three observations:

PHOTOS: See more photos from Friday’s first-round matchup.

1. “I understand it now”

The Golden Lions are a team that loves to run the ball and use a triple-option-like offense that can be very tricky if a defense isn’t disciplined. There’s always the threat of a handoff, keeper, sweep, pitch or reverse on any given play with the motion they use, but outside of one play the Panthers didn’t bite.

A 44-yard run with 4:58 left in the first quarter put SPX up 7-0, but after that (and honestly before, too) the Golden Lions’ offense was completely shut down. Perry coach Kevin Smith said two weeks of prep time, and following assignment football to a T is what pushed them over the hump.

“When you play a well-coached team like St. Pius, coach [Chad] Garrison and his staff do an outstanding job, you have to play assignment football,” Smith said. “Dive, quarterback, pitch. Everybody’s got a job to do, and you can’t do somebody else’s job. We were very fortunate to have two weeks to get ready for it, and our kids came out here tonight and executed the plan that we put in.”

There weren’t many productive plays for SPX. Runs up the gut were met at the line of scrimmage at a minimum, when they tried to bounce it outside the Panthers set the edge well, and they didn’t find much success through the air until their final drive.

Their one saving grace was punter Stevie Maloof who had some fantastic punts that forced Perry to drive the field. Though, the Panthers usually made it into the end zone either way.

2. Step forward for the offensive line

Smith mentioned post game that in their final two regular season games they didn’t have enough time in the pocket to throw the ball effectively. He thought that was better against the Golden Lions.

“The last two regular season games teams put us in a position where we couldn’t throw the ball. We couldn’t pass protect. So we had some extra time [tonight], we got better. We made some personnel changes, those guys they wanted it, and they executed,” Smith said.

Ahmad Gordon and Decorrion Daniels were the biggest parts of the offense, especially on the opening drive of the second half that burned six minutes and put Perry up 24-7. However, Reid Ginn threw a couple of bombs in the third and fourth quarters to extend their lead and seal the game.

In the third quarter Ginn found Kiel Sparks on a long pass down to the seven-yard line — Daniels ran in for a touchdown a couple of plays later.

In the fourth quarter Ginn found Daniels streaking down the right hash marks and hit him for a 57-yard touchdown pass to make it 38-7 Panthers with about six minutes to play.

3. Injury scares

Both safety Elijah Joseph and Daniels went down with injuries during the game and did not return. Joseph was able to walk off with assistance, Daniels was not.

Smith assured that both players were held out as a precautionary measure, and they should not are without them next week against Eastside.

UP NEXT

The Eastside Eagles beat Hampton 42-0 on Friday, and that makes them Perry’s next opponent. The Eagles are 9-1 from Region 8-4A and have four rushers with at least 450 yards on the ground. Senior Jayden Barr has 762 yards and 20 rushing touchdowns.

Kickoff is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Panther Pit.