The Weekend Blitz: Havre de Grace at Perryville, 7 p.m.

Perryville (3-4) enters after close back-to-back losses to Edgewood and Patterson Mill, with the Panthers falling by less than a touchdown in each of its two losses. Havre de Grace (0-7) is still without a win this year. Perryville has won its last two meetings over Havre de Grace, including a 7-6 victory at home to start the season in 2019 and a 21-14 overtime win on the road last year.

Panthers senior Zach Ayers pointed to Perryville’s seven-point road win last year as a perfect example of why records should be thrown out the window in the matchup. Perryville entered the game facing a Havre De Grace squad that was undefeated.

“It just shows how records don’t matter, it’s probably the biggest game, the battle of the bridge,” Ayers said of his team’s win a season prior. “We can’t look at their record. We can look at their film, but we can’t judge them off just their film, we have to play like we know we can.”

The Perryville senior recalled the week of practice leading up to last year’s victory, being one of the most focused weeks of practice he has been a part of with the Perryville program.

“Everybody was hype, everybody was screaming, everybody was locked in. There was no goofing around, it was just straight football,” Ayers said. “Records at that point had subsided, it was just this game.”

Perryville’s 14-10 loss at home against the Huskies last week came with another successful game on the ground for the Panthers. Ethen Gunter rushed for 138 yards on 24 attempts and a touchdown. Ayers noted Gunter is nearing 1,000 yards rushing on the season and credited the offensive line for getting the Panthers’ running game going. Head Coach Sean Sandora also pointed to the line play as an offensive x-factor.

“You have to give some credit to our linemen, they’ve been blocking very well. They got challenged that week of Edgewood and they’ve stepped up to the challenge and been doing pretty well the last couple games,” Sandora said.

The Panthers offense turned the ball over three times in the loss. Sandora said limiting turnovers on offense and keeping big plays on defense at a minimum is key as the final two weeks of the season near.

“Many of the games we’ve lost this year it’s been due to either a breakdown with penalties, the Rising Sun game and special teams or it’s we turn the ball over,” Sandora said. “We just have to have the ability to get better as a team and realize that we are our own worst enemy at this point right now.”

Tonight’s matchup will provide an opportunity for Perryville and Havre de Grace seniors to get one last try at one each other, while underclassmen get to experience the rivalry for the first or second time. More importantly, it will once again provide an answer to which team will earn bragging rights of the coveted Susquehanna Bowl.

“They’ve been rivals with Havre De Grace since rec football, they do it every year,” Sandora said of the rivalry. “It’s just exciting because both communities come together and pull behind each team and it’s a really loud crowd with a lot of energy.”