Searcy wins shootout over Siloam Springs

SEARCY 49, SILOAM SPRINGS 42

SEARCY — With Searcy and Siloam Springs struggling to stop each other’s offenses most of Friday night, it came down to a defensive play in the end.

Searcy’s Christian Delgado intercepted a Landon Ellis pass with just more than a minute remaining, and the Lions held on for a 49-42 victory in the opening round of the Class 6A playoffs at Lion Stadium.

Searcy (9-2) advances to next Friday’s quarterfinal game at defending 6A champion Greenwood (9-1), while Siloam Springs’ season ends at 5-6 under first-year coach Brandon Craig.

It was the Panthers’ first trip to the playoffs since 2014.

The Panthers trailed most of the night but rallied in the second half to take a 42-41 lead on a 20-yard touchdown run by Ellis with 9 minutes, 49 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. The play was set up after Corbin Collins recovered a Searcy fumble.

Searcy answered with a scoring drive to take the lead 49-42 with 6:37 left on a 14-yard touchdown pass by Tanner Leonard.

The Panthers ended up with three more chances to tie the game.

A fourth-down pass to Gage Weaver came up inches short of the first down for a turnover on downs.

Ellis was intercepted inside the red zone on the next possession as the clock ticked near a minute left.

Siloam Springs got one last play with three seconds remaining and tried a short pass with several throwbacks, but the play fell short.

“It’s a tribute to our seniors and their leadership and what they’ve done throughout the course of the summer and all the way through fall camp and everything they’ve been through to not quit,” Craig

said. “We were down and could have easily thrown in the towel, but they just kept fighting. We found a way to put some points up and keep pace for a little while, but we just ran out of gas in the end.”

Searcy had its offense clicking early.

Lions running back Tony Young ran for 78-yard and 38-yard touchdowns in the first quarter, and Peyton Wright threw four touchdown passes, including a 68-yard TD toss to Tim Williams.

The Lions finished with 575 yards of offense as Wright completed 19 of 32 passes for 292 yards.

Young finished with 13 carries for 167 yards but left the game early in the second half. Johnson Guthrie came in and rushed 17 times for 81 yards for Searcy.

“Maybe a little too stressful for everyone involved, but it was a fun football game,” said Searcy coach Mark Kelley. “We definitely didn’t feel in control because Siloam did an amazing job of moving the football. Really tough team — they did a great job.”

Kaiden Thrailkill ran 32 times for 137 yards and three touchdowns for Siloam Springs, topping 1,500 rushing yards for the season.

Ellis completed 21 of 32 passes for 264 yards and rushed for 92 yards. The Panthers finished with a season-high 493 yards of offense.