COLUMBIA – Purvis coach Perry Wheat will take an ugly win over a pretty loss every time, and that’s exactly what he thought about last week’s 24-14 win over West Marion.
Purvis’ defense had seven takeaways, but the offense could only turn that into a couple of touchdowns and a field goal. One of the three touchdowns came from a fumble recovery, multiple drives ended due to penalties derailing any success and one field goal try was missed.
Wheat says he thinks his team left at least 14 points on the field, but again, he’ll take the win.
“Yeah, it was good to win,” he said. “Any time you win, it’s good. Winning is always better than a loss. Sometimes you’ll win and look at the film and see you didn’t play well, and sometimes if you play a pretty good opponent, you might play pretty good and not get the win.
“We’re trying to evaluate and keep working to get the best people on the field and find the right scheme. It’s a process right now, and I think we’ve made a little stride. We just have to keep working.”
The Tornadoes (1-1) are still trying to get some of their new players to gel with each other, as they only brought back one starter on the offensive line and handful on defensive players. While they have a ton of talent returning to the skill positions, Wheat says it’s a little more difficult to learn the assignments on the offensive and defensive lines.
This week’s opponent, Columbia Academy (1-1), is very big at the line of scrimmage. Sophomore quarterback Ras Pace is completing 57 percent of his passes for a little more than 200 yards a game with four touchdowns a couple of interceptions. Senior Aaron Thomas has 18 receptions, 15 more than any other player, for 281 yards and all four touchdowns have been thrown to him.
Purvis has really good skill players, too, but Wheat thinks the weather could affect both teams ability to use them.
“They’re going to get a big push (on the offensive line), and it’s concerning with the weather conditions like it is,” he said. “We may be better in the skill positions, but with the weather like it is, we may struggle a little bit with getting the ball outside to the receivers.”
Defensively, Columbia Academy allowed 28 points to Silliman Institute and PCS scored a whooping 42 on the Cougars, too. Wheat believes that doesn’t tell the entire story, though.
“They have allowed a bunch of points, but it was mostly big plays,” What said. “They got hit on a fake punt, they got hit on the screen, but they play good defense. They’re aggressive, they load the box up and they try to take away what you do best. I think they’re well coached on both sides of the ball.”
