Perkins piles up points, but falls at Elyria Catholic

ELYRIA — Perkins was positively explosive in the second quarter of its Week 2 game at Elyria Catholic. The Pirates erupted for 35 points to take a 35-27 lead, but couldn't hang on to the ball after the intermission in a 68-42 loss Friday to Elyria Catholic at Dan Reaser Stadium. "They are a good team," Perkins coach Jalen Santoro said of the Panthers. "They had a solid game plan and some playmakers. They did their thing, but we have to tackle better. If we take care of the football, it's a different ballgame, but you're not going to win too many games when you turn it over the way we did." Elyria Catholic coach Brian Fox, a Huron graduate, left the field impressed with Santoro and what he's done with the Pirates in just two seasons. "That's a good team," he said. "That guy is building something great. He impressed me. He had me reeling and thinking I didn't have any answers. It's so much fun playing teams I'm more familiar with, but I can't begin to tell you how impressed I am with what he's built. "Halftime ended and so did the feeling of an avalanche hitting us. We were not even close in holding our ground, but it didn't seem that bad. We were just making mental mistakes and needed to regroup and get playing." The Panthers (1-1) knotted the score on a 25-yard pick-six by Tony Grasso on the first play of the third quarter, then turned a Perkins fumble into a 30-yard Levi Ellis run to take a 42-35 lead. Another Pirate fumble to open the fourth quarter led to a 22-yard Brady Cook touchdown strike to Jake Kenneally, with a 24-yard pick-six by Thomas Niederst opened up a 55-35 Panther advantage. Perkins got seven back on a 2-yard TD reception by Kaiden Weyer, but EC's Tavion Thomas capped a four-minute drive with a 7-yard scoring run and a third Perkins fumble turned into a 1-yard Nick Thoman run with 29 seconds left to play. For the game, Perkins' Logan Lesch was 20-of-28 passing for 324 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. Colin Nemitz grabbed seven passes for 144 yards and Jayden Rowe had seven for 119 yards. "We have a lot off great pieces on defense, but we were all over the place," Fox said. "Our heads were spinning. They have special players and the coach has them playing the right way. I can't say enough good things about them." Elyria Catholic got on the scoreboard first when Cook hit Colin Ginley on a fourth-and-13 pass for 31 yards and a score, capping a 14-play, 72-yard drive. Perkins started to get its offense rolling on its next possession, moving all the way to the EC 5 before the quarter ended on a defensive pass interference call. On the second play of the quarter, Lesch and Rowe connected on a 6-yard scoring toss to knot the score. It took the Panthers just over two minutes to get the lead back on a 5-yard Ellis run. The score was set up by another fourth-down completion by Cook, this time with JJ Metzinger for 33 yards. Nemitz answered by returning the ensuing kickoff 87 yards to tie the score at 21 with 8:22 left in the second, then was back in the end zone just over two minutes later when he hauled in a Lesch swing pass and raced 55 yards for the score, giving the Pirates a 28-21 lead. Ginley and Cook hooked up on a 21-yard scoring strike with 1:13 left in the half, but Perkins kept a 28-27 lead by blocking the extra-point kick. Nemitz returned the following kickoff 46 yards to the EC 44, which Lesch turned into a touchdown strike to Wyatt Nemitz. Sam Oddo converted his fifth straight conversion kick of the quarter, allowing Perkins to take a 35-27 lead in at the half. Ellis led the Panthers with 196 yards rushing on 21 carries, while Cook was 15-of-21 passing for 200 yards and two scores. Ginley had five catches for 87 yards and Kenneally grabbed four for 43. "We're making a lot of mental mistakes right now and that's one thing we obviously need to clean up," Santoro said. "That's where we struggled tonight and it showed. It was just a lot of simple mistakes, but the good thing is they are all fixable." Perkins 0 35 0 7 — 42 Elyria Catholic 7 20 14 27 — 68 EC—Colin Ginley 31 pass from Brady Cook (Rylie Hutsenpiller kick) P—Jayden Rowe 6 pass from Logan Lesch (Sam Oddo kick) EC—Levi Ellis 5 run (Hutsenpiller kick) P—Rowe 34 pass from Lesch (Oddo kick) EC—Ellis 71 run (Ian Woodward kick) P—Colin Nemitz 87 kick off return (Oddo kick) P—C. Nemitz 55 pass from Lesch (Oddo kick) EC—Ginley 21 pass from Cook (kick blocked) P—Wyatt Nemitz 44 pass from Lesch (Oddo kick) EC—Tony Grasso 25 INT return (Ellis run) EC—Ellis 30 run (Woodyard kick) EC—Jack Kenneally 22 pass from Cook (kick failed) EC—Thomas Niederst 24 INT return (Woodyard kick) P—Kaiden Weyer 2 pass from Lesch (Jon Normington-Slay kick) EC—Tavion Thomas 8 run (kick failed) EC—Nick Thoman 1 run (Woodyard kick)