Lebanon
The Lebanon High safety was watching Kennett junior quarterback Brett Miller’s eyes, which scanned Lebanon defense on first and goal late in the fourth quarter of Friday’s game, with the Raiders desperately holding onto a seven-point lead. Miller locked eyes on his target and cocked back to throw a strike into the end zone.
But Perkins was quicker, stealing the throw in stride, running left to right. He ran 86 yards the other way before being brought down near the Lebanon sideline. On Kennett’s ensuing drive, after a failed Lebanon field goal, Perkins broke up another long throw by Miller on fourth and long with seconds remaining to seal a 27-20 Raiders victory.
“They were just running drags across the middle of the field,” Perkins said. “My job is to cover the middle of the field. I read the quarterback’s eyes. He was looking in the middle the whole time. … He was looking at the guy the whole time, so I just stepped up right in front of him.”
It seems desperation was the perfect cure to Lebanon’s ills, knowing a third loss this early in the fall would make things very difficult for its playoff chances. The Raiders are now 3-2.
“We just didn’t have hype, we didn’t have the energy we needed,” Perkins said. “This week, we got together before the game as a team and we just said we have to bring everything we have.”
Lebanon coach Chris Childs insists that his team’s offense is much more than an opposing team’s one-dimensional scouting report. Though when Ryan Milliken is your starting running back, it’s hard not to rely on his speed and shiftiness on nearly every play.
But Lebanon’s offense on Friday was an illustration in diversity. Raiders quarterback Caleb Broughton found Perkins for 63 yards on two plays for the game’s opening score just 1 minute, 56 seconds into the first quarter. It only took one play for Milliken to find the end zone on Lebanon’s next offensive drive, a 47-yard run with his signature fluidity against Kennett’s secondary.
“We hit that big one first, that was kind of a tone-setter,” Childs said. “Two passing plays, we scored real quick.”
It was clear that Kennett’s defense was ready for Lebanon’s change of pace. The Raiders scored 14 points in its first five plays and 19 points in 13 offensive plays in the first half, including a 76-yard kickoff return from Perkins for Lebanon’s final score of the half.
“I think we kind of caught them off-guard a little bit,” Childs said. “I think everyone is thinking we’re a run-heavy offense. When we came out in spread, I think we caught them off-guard.”
But Kennett’s offense, led by Miller and a corps of tough running backs, was a well-oiled machine, scoring 20 points in the first half to take a one-point lead into halftime. Most of its damage was done on the ground by a committee that included senior Tanner Brown, Aaron Lamar and Trey Snowden, who combined for more than 100 yards.
Both teams exchanged touchdowns in the first half until the Raiders forced Kennett to turn the ball over on downs with 5:08 remaining in the second quarter. Lebanon held the Eagles scoreless over the game’s final 29:08.
“Shutting them out in the second half was key,” Childs said. “Our kids were starting to fly around, they were getting after the ball. It’s something we’ve been working on, something we’ve been talking to them about. They really started to pick it up tonight.”
Lebanon, taking advantage of Kennett’s habit of giving up the big play, scored the game-winning touchdown with three plays in the third quarter. Perkins, taking over at quarterback in the second half, found Broughton on a 33-yard catch and Milliken darted 21 yards into the end zone. Perkins followed it up with the 2-point conversion.
Friday’s game marked a turning point for Childs’ team, which was outscored 76-14 against John Stark and Hanover over the past two weeks. Perkins said the team was quiet over the last 14 days, as the Raiders started searching for answers in the wake of back-to-back lopsided losses.
But with two defeats already on their resume, the Raiders have forfeited the right for any margin of error in NHIAA Division II. Childs just hopes his team can build on Friday’s win now that the landslide has subsided.
“We’ve been banged up,” Childs said. “We’ve been shuffling kids around so much that we haven’t gotten a lot of continuity. Week five, I hate to say it, this is the first time since preseason that we’ve had our whole O-line together. … Defensively, they’ve really started to bring it.
“We were 2-2. People were telling us we’re in reverse, everybody had us down. … This was definitely a tone-setter for us to hopefully turn this around.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.