Perry football falls on homecoming to East Coweta 

PERRY — Coming into this matchup hot off of their shutout win last week, the Perry Panthers stumbled out of the gate and lost to the East Coweta Indians 31-15 on homecoming night. 

Perry (3-2) sputtered on offense and could never establish a rhythm as the Indians’ defense made their way into the backfield all night. 

East Coweta (3-2) relied heavily on their defense and special teams to pick up the slack as the Perry defense kept their offense in check. 

PHOTOS: See more shots from Friday’s action.

The first half of the game was a stellar defensive performance by both teams as nine punts were exchanged. 

Both teams failed to move the ball until halfway through the second quarter when the Indians strung along a set of plays and kicked a field goal to go up 3-0. 

Four series later, Cullen McDaniels was able to find Kory Pettigrew on three straight passes to move Perry into the red zone, McDaniels tossed a  one-yard touchdown to give Perry a 6-3 lead after the extra point was no good. 

East Coweta returned the kickoff 97 yards to the house at the end of the first half to go up 10-6 before they headed into the locker room. 

Jaiden Coleman blocked an East Coweta punt that set up a Perry field goal early in the third quarter. 

At the start of the fourth quarter, the Indians blocked a Perry punt at the 27 yard line. In the first play of the next drive, Andrew Shoch launched a 27-yard touchdown pass to put the Indians up 17-9. 

Perry answered East Coweta’s touchdown drive with a scoring drive of their own, which culminated with a 36-yard scamper into the end zone by Decorrion Daniels. 

Two series later, Jayshon Stegall ran up the right sideline for a 54-yard touchdown as East Coweta extended their lead to 24-15. 

In a flurry of events late in the fourth quarter, Shoch fumbled and lost the football as Perry recovered it, then on the next play from scrimmage, Chance Gilbert for East Coweta intercepted McDaniels’ pass and took it to the house for a 98 yard pick-six, icing the game for the Panthers.

Perry head coach Kevin Smith spoke of resilience after the loss: 

“Offensively, we did not move the ball in the first half and our defense kept us in the game. My hat is off to coach [John] Small and [East Coweta] – they have a good football team. We lost to a good football team.” 

“We do not ever want to come up on the short end of the stick,” Smith added. “We are going to learn from this loss – this loss is going to make us stronger – and we will be ready next week.” 

UP NEXT 

The Perry Panthers will host the New Hampstead Phoenix (2-3) in a region matchup on Friday, Sept. 27 at 7:30 p.m.