Benton gets going early to top Mountain Home
BENTON 35, MOUNTAIN HOME 7
BENTON — There was no looking ahead for Benton on Friday night.
Senior quarterback Garrett Brown threw for 410 yards, and sophomore running back Donovan Pearson provided a back-breaking touchdown run early in the fourth quarter as the Panthers overcame a gutsy effort from Mountain Home to grab a 35-7 victory in 6A-West play on a chilly evening.
Junior running back Casey Johnson added a pair of rushing touchdowns for Benton (5-2, 4-0), which broke out to a 21-0 lead but had a tough time putting away the Bombers on homecoming night at Panther Stadium.
Mountain Home (3-4, 1-3) remained close for most of the next two quarters, thanks to some bullish running from tailback Gage Hershberger and drive-sustaining plays from quarterback Bryce McKay.
But the Panthers’ defense honed in on the two over the final two quarters and used big plays from Brown and Pearson to bust the game open.
Now, Benton can turn its attention to next week’s showdown at Greenwood, which remained unbeaten after dismantling Russellville 48-10.
“This is the game that you hate as a coach,” Benton Coach Brad Harris said. “Everybody talks about that trap game, and you’re looking at Greenwood. We’ve got kids that were talking about it this week, that’s just natural, but they weren’t trying to overlook [Mountain Home]. I knew they were much improved, and we had to play well.
“We got off to that fast start early, then had a dip offensively. Mountain Home did a good job, though, because they hung around and hung around. We were never really able to quite separate from them until later on there in that third quarter.”
That separation started with Brown, who finished 28-of-45 passing and threw two touchdowns. Senior wide receiver Trevor Standridge caught 4 passes for 116 yards, that included a 52-yard score in the third quarter that gave Benton a 28-7 advantage. Junior wide receiver Cameron Harris added 5 receptions for 115 yards and a 2-yard touchdown while fellow junior wideout Andre Lane chipped in with a team-leading 9 catches for 63 yards.
Hershberger carried 32 times for 140 yards for Mountain Home, which snapped an 18-game conference losing streak last week against Van Buren before running out of steam Friday.
Johnson’s 2-yard touchdown and Harris’ score gave Benton a quick 14-0 lead by the 7:57 mark of the first quarter. The Bombers did put together a 17-play, 72-yard drive following Harris’ touchdown, but they were stopped a yard short on 4th-and-1 inside the Panthers’ 10. Benton would later punt on the ensuing drive but recovered a Mountain Home fumble on the return. Johnson added a 2-yard score two plays later to give Benton its 21-point lead.
The Bombers got on the board with 9:40 left in the second quarter on a 50-yard touchdown pass from McKay to senior wide receiver Logan Walker to trim its deficit to 21-7. Mountain Home mounted another drive deep drive inside Benton territory before halftime only to turn the ball over on downs at the Panthers’ 27.
After Standridge’s third-quarter touchdown pushed Benton’s lead back to 21, the Bombers drove 74 yards in 16 plays, but Benton senior defensive back Chris Bronson picked off a McKay pass in the end zone to end the threat.
On the very next play, Pearson sprinted up the middle for an 85-yard touchdown run with 11:04 remaining in the game to effectively end Mountain Home’s chances.
“We put [Pearson] in after Johnson kind of rolled his ankle, and he made a big play for us,” Harris said. “I was proud of our defense as well because that’s a really good Mountain Home team. [McKay] has been running it on everybody they’ve played, but we did a good job of keeping him caged in and not letting him consistently beat us with his legs. So this was a good win for us.”