Battered in Benton
SSHS held to 32 yards in 63-0 loss
BENTON — Benton’s offense was in high gear Friday night against Siloam Springs, and its defense was just as impressive.
Brandon Hunter had 123 yards rushing and 104 yards receiving and scored four touchdowns — all in the first half — as Benton rolled to a 63-0 mercy-rule victory in a battle of Panthers at the Benton Athletics Complex.
Benton finished with 512 yards of offense and its defense held Siloam Springs to 32 total yards in the 6A-West Conference game.
Benton (3-2, 1-1) had 374 yards of offense in the first half and led 42-0 at halftime. The entire second half was played with a running clock.
“I was real proud of our effort tonight, especially defensively,” said Benton coach Brad Harris. “We came out with a lot of intensity. The last two weeks we haven’t had that intensity. We played real well, and the offense got to clicking.”
Siloam Springs picked up one first down on its opening drive when J.D. Horn hauled in a 12yard pass from Luke Lampton, but SSHS was forced to punt. The first down was one of only three picked up in the game.
Siloam Springs senior Ty Trimble recovered a fumble on Benton’s first offensive play of the game, giving Siloam Springs (1-4, 1-1) the ball inside the red zone early in the first quarter. But Siloam Springs turned the ball over on downs and Benton’s offense went to work.
Nate Beck hit Trey Pepper for a 22-yard pass and Hunter had a pair of seven-yard runs to set up a 39-yard touchdown reception, zig-zagging his way through the Siloam Springs defense for the score.
Hunter scored again on the first play of the second quarter on a 27-yard run, and Benton’s second straight two-point conversion made it 16-0.
Benton went up 22-0 later in the second on a twoyard run by Preston Stone, and Ty Callahan caught a 30-yard touchdown pass from Beck for a 28-0 lead.
Hunter scored two more times, on a TD passes of 37 and 20 yards from Beck, who finished the night 17 of 20 for 226 yards and four touchdowns — all in the first half.
“Offensively we clicked in the second quarter,” Harris said. “Brandon had a big night. We had a big night with Callahan on the edge, and Beck threw the ball pretty well.”
Stone returned the opening kick of the second half 87 yards for a touchdown and Zak Wallace added touchdown runs of 63 and 18 yards in the second half for Benton. Wallace finished with six carries for 117 yards.
Benton rushed for 277 yards and passed for 244.
Beau Brewer had two interceptions for Benton while Junior Hendrix also had an interception.
Lampton, after rushing for 210 yards and three touchdowns last week in a 24-21 win against Sheridan, was held to minus 5 yards on six carries. He completed 4 of 18 passes for 23 yards with three interceptions. Horn caught two passes for 22 yards.
“Real tough night,” said Siloam Springs coach Bryan Ross. “Not much went right. I mean they’re a talented football team. We knew that. We expected to play better than that. Not much to say, we just got whipped. We had a couple of opportunities early that we did nothing with.
Benton travels to Texarkana next week, while Siloam Springs hosts Greenwood.