Last season football had many challenges with starting quarterback graduate Dane White being injured after the first game, losing seniors, and forfeiting two games because of the spread of COVID on the team. With all the adversities the team faced last year they were not able to win any games. But on Sep. 3rd, the team won their first game in over a year against Desert Vista. The team won 35-28 against Desert Vista. 

This season presented uncertainty about how the team would perform after losing all of their games last year. “Desert Vista is returning all their players, which is a great first test,” said Head Coach Preston Jones about how the first game will set up the rest of the season. 

Although the team struggled with losing seniors the year before, they did not struggle with losing seniors this year. Not as many players graduated last year, so the team did not have to fill the spots of graduating players. “We’ll miss last year’s seniors, but we have a big senior class this year. They got a lot of experience last year, and some of them have been playing since sophomore year; we’re really excited about their experience,” said Head Coach Preston Jones. With most of the team already playing together from last year there is already a stronger team bond. “I just do whatever to help the team win. We just need to stay focused and keep improving. We have a brotherhood in our team, and we only have one goal, and that is to win,” said Senior Wide Receiver Hunter Martinez. 

At the first quarter of the game against Desert Vista, Desert Vista was up 7-14. In the second quarter, Perry had tied the score 14-14, but by halftime, the score had gone up to 14-21. In the third quarter, Perry scored two touchdowns, raising the score to 35-21. After a change of possessions, and several penalties, Perry ran out the clock and won 35-28. “I think we could have improved late in the game…Our defense did really well; we got a lot of stops. Our offense just played very well as a team…” said Martinez about how the game went overall. 

The first game of the season started off with a win for the team, but there are still nine more games left in the season. The next game is the rivalry game against Basha, on Sep. 10th.