The Perry Pumas beat Hamilton for the first time last year with a 55-21 win. They followed that up in a back-and-forth game in the playoffs against the Huskies, edging them out 63-60 in overtime.
It was a bit of deja vu on Friday with a 65-63 win over the Huskies in a matchup between two of the top programs in 6A.
If it wasn’t initially evident, both offenses showed up to play. The first punt of the game came with 9:01 left in the second quarter.
Quarterback Brock Purdy totaled seven touchdowns. While Hamilton had stellar performances out of running back Jawhar Jordan (six touchdowns) and quarterback Tyler Shough, the defense stepped up when it was needed in the second half, slowing down the Huskies and shutting down Hamilton on their final drive.
“Well, what I’m so proud of is we were behind most of the game and we talked about our kids all week,” Perry head coach Preston Jones said. “We said the mental tough team was going to win. We knew they had a great team. We knew we were going to have a tough time stopping them. They were going to score their points, they have a lot of talent, well-coached, We said this is going to be a battle and will come down to mental toughness.”
For Purdy, who has 41 total touchdowns on the year, having the team go through their playoff run last year is helping their more experienced roster thrive in 2017.
“That’s high school football,” Purdy said. ” That’s what it’s all about. That’s what we dream of playing games like this. Props to Hamilton, they played an amazing game. Their offense is really, really good I’m so proud of our defense for making a couple stops like that and just capitalize on it. Our offense, we trusted our gameplan the whole time.”
Hamilton quarterback Tyler Shough, who is a good friend and former teammate of Purdy, also orchestrated the Hamilton offense on Friday night.
“He had a great game, beautiful deep balls, hitting his check downs and things like that and getting out of pressure,” Purdy said. “I’m so proud of him and his team they fought and we fought that’s all you can ask for in high school football.”
Now, Perry hopes to use this experience to help them in their playoff push next month.
What’s Next
The 8-1 Perry Pumas wrap up their regular season with the Basha Bears next Friday.
