PERU — A shutout victory in a rivalry game is one thing. Two of them in one season is something special.
The Peru Nighthawks (9-0) did just that Friday at the Apple Bowl, winning the Section VII Class B football championship with a 41-0 win over the Beekmantown Eagles (4-5).
“We’ve worked so hard for this all year long,” Peru junior running back Brody Blaise-Smith said after leading the Peru rushing offense with 100 yards that night. “Last year, we couldn’t get the job done, and this year it just feels amazing.”
The win marked the second time the Nighthawks have kept the Eagles off the scoreboard this season, following up on their 42-0 road win in the regular season.
“It’s the best feeling,” Peru senior quarterback Jake Frechette said.
It was a complete reversal of fortune from last year when the Eagles defeated the Nighthawks 31-6 and 33-0 to win the CVAC and Section VII titles.
Peru head coach Ryon O’Connell credited his assistant coaches for creating successful defensive gameplans but said this performance really stems from a preseason team meeting, in which the players established exactly what they expected of one another.
“Last year, they took it to us,” O’Connell said. “We needed to be more focused this year.”
That focus was challenged in the buildup to this game, as the bye week forced the team to stagger days off and change up what they were doing to avoid it getting monotonous. O’Connell said he was proud of how the team worked in preparation this week and all season.
“They’ve done everything we’ve asked of them all year long,” O’Connell said. “They don’t miss practice — they’re prepared. I can’t ask any more from them.”
That hard work was complicated this week by seasonal illness affecting several members of the team, forcing them to sit out of practice. O’Connell said he didn’t consider that “missing practice” because it was clear they were ill, and he was proud of how the team worked through that adversity.
“We did have a number of kids sick,” O’Connell said, “but they did a good job, came in prepared.”
All of that, in addition to the cold and rainy weather, came into play as the Nighthawks had a slow start to the game, something O’Connell admitted was a trend in recent weeks they have to stop if they want to continue advancing in the NYSPHSAA Class B playoffs.
While Peru scored on its first drive of the game, with Wyatt Bridges running for 47 yards on the second play and scoring a one-yard touchdown run three plays later, the game stalled after that with the 7-0 score unchanged midway through the second quarter.
“We came into this game a little cocky,” Frechette said. “Once we found out they were staying in this game, we just had to put the pedal to the metal and go.”
O’Connell likened it to a “cat and mouse game,” in which the coaches try to get a feel for what the opposing defense is doing and then adapt their play calls accordingly.
In the final few minutes of the half, the Nighthawks turned up the heat with a pair of quick scores. Frechette’s 31-yard pass to Isaiah Hendrix set up another one-yard touchdown run by Bridges. A punt block by Trent Taylor, recovered by Caleb Starke, set up a 21-yard touchdown pass from Frechette to Hendrix a few minutes later for a 21-0 halftime lead.
Frechette ran the ball in for a touchdown on the opening drive of the second half, and Peru’s second drive ended in a chaotic sequence that led to another score.
A pass from Mason Starke was intercepted by Beekmantown’s Lucas Beauregard at the goal line, but Beauregard fumbled the ball before he could be tackled, setting up the Nighthawks for a one-yard touchdown run by Blaise-Smith on the next play.
The scoring pace slowed in the fourth quarter, much of it spent with the teams exchanging scoreless drives. A 34-yard touchdown run by Peru’s Deacon Giroux was the final change on the scoreboard.
Prior to that, Beekmantown nearly got on the board when quarterback Troy Finley’s pass got to George Ciolac in the endzone, but the senior receiver could not control it, and it fell incomplete.
In total, the Peru defense had an interception and two fumble recoveries, which forced the Eagles to punt the ball four times and turn it over on downs a further four times.
As Section VII champions, the Nighthawks advanced to the NYSPHSAA Class B state tournament, starting with a sub-regional against Ogdensburg Free Academy (9-0).
The Blue Devils won the Section X championship with a 30-0 win over Potsdam in the final and a 54-0 win over Franklin Academy in the semifinal. Defensively, they have recorded four shutout wins and allowed multiple scores in two games while scoring an average of 46 points themselves.
O’Connell acknowledged that OFA’s strengths are in their size and physical play, and said that, while Peru will need to use the run game to keep the OFA defense honest, the Nighthawk passing game will be a crucial element to any winning gameplan.
“They’re going to run the ball,” O’Connell said. “We’re going to have to slow it down and take advantage of what they give us.”
The sub-regional will kick off at 6 p.m. Friday at Potsdam High School.
—
Peru 41, Beekmantown 0
PCS 7 14 13 7 — 41
BCS 0 0 0 0 — 0
First Quarter
P- Bridges 1 run (Garrow Kick), 7:30
Second Quarter
P- Bridges 1 run (Garrow Kick), 5:04
P- Hendrix 21 pass from Frechette (Garrow Kick), 2:42
Third Quarter
P- Frechette 8 run (Garrow Kick), 9:05
P- Blaise-Smith 1 run (xp missed), 2:45
Fourth Quarter
P- Giroux 34 run (Garrow Kick), 2:37
Individual Stats
Rushing
B- Lapier 20-104; Brodi 7-35; Ciolac 7-26; Finley 7-(-50); Totals: 41-115.
P- Blaise-Smith 14-100, TD; Bridges 5-47, 2TD; Frechette 2-(-3), TD; C Starke 1-45; Giroux 1-34, TD; Porter 1-19; Team 3-(-6); Totals: 27-236, 5TD.
Passing
B- Finley 0-5-1-0.
P- Frechette 8-16-0-107, TD; M Starke 0-1-1-0; Totals: 8-17-1-107.
Receiving
P- Taylor 3-44; Hendrix 2-52, TD; Carpenter 2-9; M Starke 1-2.
Interceptions
B- Beauregard
P- C Starke