Veterans cruises past Perry

PERRY -- Veterans was its own worst enemy for most of the night Friday at Herb St. John Stadium, but the Warhawks just had far too much firepower for Perry and cruised to a 35-7 GHSA Region 2-AAAA victory.

"We overcame a lot of our own mistakes," Veterans head coach David Bruce said. "We played hard, and that's the most important thing. We took another step forward on the journey we're trying to go on, but we've got to clean up a lot of mistakes. We were sloppy (Friday), and we can't beat a good football team doing that. We're going to enjoy this, but we're going to iron out the mistakes on Monday."

The sloppiness that Bruce was referring to came in the form of nine penalties for a total of 95 yards, but the mistakes proved of little consequence.

Isaiah Gray returned the first Perry punt of the night for a 56-yard touchdown and once quarterback Logan Byrd ran for his own 61-yard score in the second quarter the flood gates spilled open.

Veterans (4-3, 3-0 Region 2-AAAA) led 21-0 at the half and 35-0 after three quarters.

Running back Desjuan Harris had three touchdowns on the night and rushed for 159 yards on 22 carries.

"Desjuan Harris, I can't say enough about him, and then you've got the two-headed attack with Logan Byrd," Bruce said. "When we're clicking on offense we're pretty good, so we just have to limit those penalties we had. They're just unnecessary.

The Veterans win sets up a huge showdown when they host Mary Persons next week for the lead in the Region 2-AAAA standings. Both teams are currently tied at the top with a perfect 3-0 record.

Perry dropped to 1-7 overall and 0-4 in the region.

"Mary Persons is an outstanding football team," Bruce said. "We've got our work cut out for us, and we know it. We're just going to get to work on Monday and see if we can't come up with a plan to try and compete with them."

This story was originally published October 16, 2015 at 10:25 PM with the headline "Veterans cruises past Perry ."