Panthers rely on defense to down Blue Streaks
By Keno Sultan
Stark County Prep Press writer
www.starkcountypreppress.blogspot.com
PERRY TWP.--Last season, the Perry Panthers were feeling blue two times in three weeks, the second time resulted in the end of their season.
Friday night at Wakefield Stadium, the sun shone down on the Panthers.
Relying on a feral and stout defense that resulted in three takeaways in the form of interceptions, Perry was able to put behind them a stinging last-second loss to Warren Harding and made life miserable for the visiting Lake Blue Streaks in the Federal League opener for both schools and came away with a 17-7 victory in front of a capacity crowd.
After last week's loss to Harding, Perry fourth-year head coach and former standout Zach Slates wanted to see his legion of Panthers return to the Perry football he grew up watching that became ingrained in him as a Perry Township resident. He got his wish in a stellar way.
"This feels good. It's good that our kids fought it out and played for four quarters and toughed out the win," he said.
Nothing went wrong for the Panthers as they were bolstered by a tone-setting 45 yard touchdown run in the second quarter from running back Kyson Walker, who totaled 118 yards on the ground for his efforts and was also aided by Connor Shephard and his 71 yards rushing and an insurance touchdown in the form of an eight-yard run with 1:50 left to conclude the scoring.
Perry High School kicker Brock Huggins brought the Perry sideline and crowd to their feet in the second quarter as he successfully kicked a school-record 50-yard field goal to boost the Panthers lead to 10 before the intermission.
On the other hand, Lake's offense was mired in futility for three quarters. Quarterback Alex Quior was harried into three interceptions on the evening that put the brakes on several Blue Streak drives. It was pretty lucid according to head coach Dan DeGeorge that Lake was not the team that commenced the season 3-0 and not so much the Panthers defense but the ineptitude of Lake's offense had a lot to do with that.
"We made too many mistakes tonight. Perry was much cleaner than we were and they hit some big plays offensively and we didn't. So there were two good defenses tonight but we made too many mistakes tonight and they deserved to win," a subdued DeGeorge said.
Lake's only touchdown came in the fourth quarter on a 10-yard scamper from Ty DeGeorge with 7:03 left in regulation. Lake had the momentum on their side and a potential chance to mount a drive for a tying field goal or a game-winning touchdown.
However, the Panthers showed their grit when they embarked on a drive that took over six minutes off the clock and multiple third down conversions that allowed them to salt away the life of the contest and Lake in general, a drive that will have made former Perry coach and Slates's defensive coordinator, Keith Wakfield proud.
Perry takes a step toward a 20th league title with an early 1-0 record but will be immensely tested by Canton McKinley, who downed GlenOak 35-6 to open up league play. Last season, the Bulldogs had everything go their way in a 43-6 caging of Perry and when asked if he wants to see an angry Perry team next week on the road, Slates didn't buy the notion of his team being angry about last year's result other than to play the football he grew up in under the tutelage of Wakefield.
"We have to play every day the same way and get better every day and every play," Slates said.
For Lake, the margin of error is none. It is hard for a two-loss team to win the Federal League outright let alone share the title. If they are going to stay relevant in the chase for the crown, they will have to rectify the mistakes that caused their setback and have a much better showing at home against an 0-4 GlenOak team.
"Sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way. We have to be more consistent and not turn the ball over," DeGeorge said. "We have to learn from it, fix our mistakes and the goal this week will be to go 1-0."
Last season, Lake had Perry feeling blue two times in three weeks. Friday night at Wakefield Stadium though, the sun rose for the Panthers.
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