By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

ELKTON, Ore.– It was just one of those games that they wished they had a do-over.  Perrydale knew they were better than how they played on the road against Elkton, but just the little things of the game caught up to them.

The Elks zone defense created turnovers and threw the Pirates into a limbo as Elkton took advantage of it on the transition into their offense.  

There were moments, in the first half especially, that the Pirates had their chances to do more.  Cutting a 12-4 deficit 16-11 and down 25-19 at the halftime break.  But couldn’t duplicate those short bursts into the second half with the Elks turning a 23-19 halftime game into a 39-23 lead by quarters and going into the fourth thanks to that defense of theirs.

Perrydale’s defense settled in, keeping the spread to about that 13/14 point range going into the midway of the fourth quarter down 43-30.  The shots weren’t falling, but they kept Elkton back in check after their tough third quarter as they look to bounce back after the start of their four game non-league stretch. 

“We were very proud.  The third quarter, we only scored four points or something like that so the third quarter was kind of a let-down, but the third quarter and the timeout, we had to come as a group and come into the fourth quarter stronger.  We still had a chance to win the game, we still had to go out and compete defensively and offensively throughout the whole game.  But the fourth quarter we did step up and that gave us confidence moving forward,” said Connor Graber.   “We just got to find a way to move across the top the three-point line and our bigs down low, we got to find the openings down low at the center of the key as well.  Just movement, we got to stop standing and keep moving around and find an opening in that zone.”

Graber hit five three’s and had a team-high 17 points for the Pirates as the 1A school embarked on a four-game non-league stretch before finishing up Casco League play with four league games.  Overall a good test for the squad from in between Dallas and Amity to prepare for league playoffs and possibly a 1A State Playoff push here in a few weeks.

“This game was a challenge to us because we knew they were higher up in the rankings in State, so we knew the challenges that we had that it’ll make us stronger.  Even if we lost, we knew it was going to make us stronger, so it just gives us the confidence going into those games are the ones that are going to count at the end,” Graber said.  

Kamren Poulson contributed six points for Perrydale in the defeat.  Andrew Allen led the Elks with 16 points and Cash Boe had 12 points for Elkton in their home victory.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald