Patrick Henry opens season with loss to Dorchester, victory over Beaufort Academy
Coach Peeples looking for Patriots to take a step up after a couple of subpar seasons
Estill – After leading Patrick Henry Academy to the SCISA Class A state championship in his first season as head coach in 2023, Joe Gray Peeples has seen the Patriots struggle the past two seasons.
PHA went 4-7 in 2024 and just 2-9 last season. However, Peeples believes Patrick Henry is going to take an upward turn this season.
The Patriots are off to a 1-1 start. They lost to Dorchester Academy 26-8 before rebounding with a 23-8 triumph over Beaufort Academy.
“When we were 4-7 we just couldn’t quite finish,” Peeples said. “I epected a little fall off. Injuries were a big deal last year. They really hurt us.
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“We wanted to try and narrow the gap to where we were last year to this year. We lost a lot of games by big scores last year, and we want to let the other teams know that we were in a football game tonight and give them all they can handle.”
That will start on the offensive side of the football. The Patriots will have brothers Luke Sobey and Kai Sobey doing most of the work running the football. Luke is a senior and is a 3-time state champion in his weight class in SCISA wrestling. Kai is a sophomore who is a runner-up in his wrestling weight class.
“We think that’s going to be what everything is telling us to do,” Peeples said of running the football. We’ve got eight linemen (on a 24-man roster), and we think all of them can play, including the freshmen. When you’ve got that and you’ve got the Sobeys, that’s telling you to run the football..”
Patrick Henry hasn’t been dominant running the football so far though. Kai has 99 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries, while Luke has 47 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries.
Freshman Aiden Johnson is starting at quarterback He has completed 6 of 16 passes for 103 yards and a touchdown. Kai Sobey has three catches for 20 yards while Owen Shaffer, a transfer from Hampton County High School, has two catches for 77 yards, one of them Johnson’s TD pass.
“Aiden’s our guy at quarterback,” Peeples said. “You’re going to have a lot of ups and downs with a freshman, but we feel like je can throw the football pretty well. He’ll be able to keep people out of the box and keep them honest.”
Claude Terry is the defensive coordinator this year. Peeples felt good about him calling the defense entering the season, and the Patriots have done nothing to change his thinking.
“We’re going to be a lot more aggressive on defense,” Peeples said. “We’re going to send folks and have people not knowing where they’re coming from.”
