Perryville and Fallston were tied at 7 late in the first quarter when Perryville quarterback Joey Thomason went down with an injury and Davontae Clore sprouted up from the bench.
“In that moment, the team needed a player to step up,” Clore said.
Clore had rotated in with Thomason in games earlier this season, but Thursday was supposed to be all Thomason. That plan changed quickly, but Clore’s offense didn’t skip a beat.
Perryville rallied after losing its starting signal caller to throttle the visiting Fallston, 28-13, using a pick-six and kickoff return score on top of a Clore touchdown to move to 6-1 on the season.
“He just stepped up when we needed him,” Perryville coach Sean Sandora said. “That’s what seniors do.”
The senior entered after his team struggled to move the ball in the early going. Perryville’s only score through four drives was his brother Devin’s kickoff return touchdown. The Clore-led unit scored on two of its next three possessions to enter halftime up 21-7.
The Panthers stalled from there, but a turnover-filled third quarter that saw five total takeaways kept Fallston from erasing their lead. It came in part from Clore, who didn’t let a temporary benching discourage him.
“I kind of just keep it the same, stay humble and support Joey or whoever else was in at quarterback,” he said. “Keep everybody’s energy up on the sidelines.”
Perryville’s offense was aided by an equally impressive defensive effort. The Panthers picked off Fallston quarterback Mike Griffin Jr. three times, all in the second half, and forced two fumbles. And on special teams, a blocked extra point and a 70-yard kickoff return for Perryville’s first score of the game stymied Fallston further.
The last of the three interceptions belonged to defensive lineman Travis Leek. A teammate batted a Griffin pass into the sky. Leek corralled the rebound and wasn’t chased down on his way for the punctuating score.
He made a similar play in Perryville’s win last week but was caught before he crossed the goal line. So Sandora promised the defense free pizza if they scored a touchdown. With that in mind, there was no one stopping Leek this time.
“‘No way this is me. This is me again?’” Leek said he thought in the moment. “All week I’ve been saying I’m gonna score. Watch No. 55 in the end zone.”
Thursday was Fallston’s third loss of 2024. The Cougars scored 56 and 38 points in their previous two games, a trend that Perryville ended. But despite the defeat, Fallston sees growth in its young quarterback.
Griffin, just a sophomore, is growing more comfortable with each start. He was inserted after Fallston lost its season opener to Bel Air and has led impressive offensive outputs this season. Coach Keith Robinson entrusts Griffin with calling checks at the line of scrimmage to audible out of the called play, a responsibility hardly given to most signal callers.
“With each game under his belt, he just has more and more confidence,” Robinson said. “He’s the smartest quarterback I’ve ever had.”
But Griffin couldn’t keep up with his counterpart Thursday, who entered off the bench to lead his team to their sixth victory of the season. Davontae Clore remained humble, but his brother let his larger ambitions be known.
“I’m very confident both of our quarterbacks,” Devin Clore said. “I’m so confident. I don’t think we’ll even lose. I think we can go all the way.”
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