Panthers ride RB Norberg, pound Patriots

SILOAM SPRINGS 23, MARION 13

MARION — The Siloam Springs Panthers are playing their best football of the season when it matters the most.

The Panthers rode a bruising offensive effort of 44 car- ries and 251 rushing yards from senior running back Jackson Norberg and Harrison Losh kicked three field goals as the No. 6 6A-West seed Panthers upset No. 3 6A-East Marion 2313 at Patriot Stadium.

“Coach told us, ‘Record doesn’t matter,’” said Siloam Springs lineman Mariano Dominguez, who played on both sides of the ball. “We’re in the playoffs. It’s just about who can be the toughest team and go out there and pound the other team into the ground.”

Norberg and the Panthers’ offensive line pounded away at the Patriots (6-5) for most of the night.

Norberg rushed for 174 yards on 27 carries in the first half and the Panthers (5-6) led 10-0 at halftime. Marion cut the lead to 10-6 on the opening possession of the second half, but the Panthers responded with three scoring drives — a Norberg TD and two more field goals from Losh — to go up 23-6 in the fourth quarter.

“I felt all week we had tremendous practices,” said Siloam Springs coach Brandon Craig. “We had tremendous energy. Our kids worked extremely hard, and I asked them to play for each other and come out here and don’t look at the scoreboard and just play for each other. And by God they did it. They did a great job of it.”

Norberg came up 6 yards shy of tying the single-game rushing record of 257 yards set by Kaiden Thrailkill last season at Van Buren.

In his last four games, Norberg has rushed 129 times for 823 yards, including a 232-yard performance against Russellville to get the Panthers in the playoffs.

“Hey, I’m glad (Norberg) trusted me tonight,” Dominguez said. “I love this guy. A lot of the reason we won tonight is because he never gave up and pounded.”

“They fight for me; I fight for them,” Norberg replied. “I’m getting emotional. They grinded their butts off, so I knew I had to do it for them.”

Losh, meanwhile, kicked field goals of 30, 25 and 19 yards.

“It all went perfect,” Losh said. “Snapper, holder, Gavin (Henson) and Marco (Salcedo) and the rest of the line kept the other team from coming through.”

The Panthers forced four Marion turnovers, including interceptions by Keegan Soucie and Hunter Talley and a fumble recovery by Esguin Bocanegra in the second half.

“We let our kids play free,” Craig said. “We didn’t make them think. We just let them run wild tonight, and they did what they were supposed to do.”

Marion quarterback Daedrick Cail threw for 324 yards, hitting Slade Webb for 14 catches for 202 yards. But in the second half the Patriots all but abandoned their running game and could only mount a pair of scoring drives.

Meanwhile, the Patriots gave up 372 yards of offense to Siloam Springs, 269 on the ground.

“They did a really good job of running the football, and we didn’t do a good enough job of stopping the run tonight, so kudos to them,” said Marion coach Keith Houston. “They came here and played well. Good luck to them.”

FOUR DOWNS

• Norberg went over 1,000 yards rushing with Friday’s performance and now has 1,199 yards on the season.

• The win was Siloam Springs’ first playoff victory since beating Texarkana at Glenn W. Black Stadium in 2014.

• At 340 miles each way, Siloam Springs’ trip was the longest of any of Friday’s matchups.

• Siloam Springs travels to 6A-West No. 2 seed Greenwood (9-1) next Friday in the 6A quarterfinals. Greenwood defeated Siloam Springs 43-13 on Oct. 11, but it was 15-13 at halftime.