The second half belonged to Perry, but Derrick LeBlanc Jr. made sure the game was Hamilton’s when it ended Friday at Jerry Loper Stadium.

In a game that turned from a three-touchdown deficit in the first half to one that wasn’t decided until the final seconds, Hamilton ended Perry’s rally on LeBlanc’s fourth sack to help the Huskies to a 30-22 win in 6A non-region action.

“The whole defense has a motor that doesn’t stop,” said LeBlanc, who came around the left edge to drop Perry’s Kael Snyder on fourth down and 14 from the 27-yard line. “We stepped up. We had a lot of sudden change, but we didn’t put our heads down. We stayed positive and someone had to make a play.”

It was LeBlanc on Perry's final offensive play to seal it after looked like Hamilton (3-0) was going to win handily with a 21-0 lead at the half partly due to Perry's two turnovers in Hamilton territory.

The 6-foot-1, 232-pound defense end is a difficult matchup without a double team as he has 7.5 sacks through three games and 28 career sacks in 27 games.

“It’s a collective effort but Derrick is definitely different up front,” Hamilton coach Kellen Dixon said. “He caused problems and he’s always in the backfield. I am happy for the young man, but it takes a lot of other guys for him to be great and do the things that he does.”

They needed all of LeBlanc’s sacks, along with first half turnovers by Mitchell Raner (fumble recovery) and Kacey Allen Jr. (interception) as Perry used several big plays to erase the deficit in the second half.

Perry (2-1) used a trick play (Jaylen Singleton connected with fellow wide receiver Amos Augistine for a 82-yard touchdown pass), quarterback Kael Snyder dragged defenders into the end zone after Hamilton fumbled a kickoff deep in its own territory, and Singleton had a 85-yard kickoff return for a score when it looked like the Huskies put the game way with an 80-yard drive with 2:40 left for the 30-22 lead.

The Pumas had a chance to take the lead after Hamilton went 3-and-out up 24-19. Snyder broke lose for a 52-yard run before being pushed out of bounds by Zach Van Zee.

The Hamilton defense gave up a short run and forced two incompletions and Perry settled for a field goal from Colton Crawford to close within 24-22 with 8:49 remaining.

“The offense let some points on the field,” Snyder said. “We made some mistakes but we had a chance to win it at the end."

Hamilton’s offense was in the midst of identity struggle with record-setting wide receiver Roye Oliver III having only played the first two series after missing the first two games with a leg inury.

And yet quarterback Jax Sculley, the offensive line and the specialty players like Sha’keer Phipps and Jeremiah Jones went on a 80-yard drive that took more than six minutes off the clock to extend the lead to 30-22.

“The drive was great,” Dixon said. “We know who we are. We talked about how we call plays. We tried changing it up a little bit to see what works. It was a competitive game. I give it to Perry and Coach (Jeremy) Hathcock. His guys played tough. It was a physical game, but the offense was able to get a long-sustained drive when we needed it.”

The drive started with an emphasis to run as Jones, the backup, picked up tough yards along with Devante Roebuck to set up Sculley’s big strike to Phipps.

“I told the offensive line and everybody to calm down in the huddle,” Sculley said. “If we just play our game, we’ll go down and score. And we did.”

The junior quarterback went through two progressions, was pressured to his left and found Phipps, who changed his route once Sculley was on the move to beat one defender, and tip toed the sideline before stepping out of bounds. One play later, Jones had a carry to the left boundary, paused, made a cut inside to sneak past one defender and carried another into the end zone.

“The first two reads weren’t there and we’ve been working on the scramble drill this week,” Sculley said of the pass to Phipps. “He saw I was going outside so he cut back on his out route, I threw it right there and he made a great catch.”

Perry responded with another extensive drive against one of the state’s top defenses as Snyder took the Pumas inside the Hamilton 30 after the drive started with a remarkable catch by sophomore Zane Snyder, who came tumbling down after being sandwiched between two defenders, and stayed on the field for a bit.

The Pumas had four shots inside the Hamilton 30 before were unable to tie it.

It was a defeat, but Perry still took some positives in the first big test under first-year coach Jeremy Hathcock.

“We had nothing to lose as a team and we fought to the end,” Kael Snyder said. “We had some mistakes on offense that cost us, but I am really proud that we battled to the end. We now feel like we hang with any team in the state. We went blow for blow with one of the top teams in the country.

“In my time at Perry we haven’t done anything close to this. It’s been a tremendous amount of difference from an IQ level and the mindset to go beat any team in the state.”

Hathcock, who is with his fourth team in four years, saw an attribute that can’t be taught with Xs and Os so he feels like the Pumas will be competitive with anyone this year.

“We fight and we’re proud of the way they fought,” Hatcock said. “I don’t want to take anything away from Hamilton, but our defense played an unbelievable game; good enough to win, but we made so many mistakes. We never quit so if we clean up those mistakes it will be good.”

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